15 January 2009
Entry 14
Book 2 of the novel
Hello –
And Happy New Year. Sorry to be a few days later than planned resuming this blog. It has taken rather longer than expected to make the progress I wanted to make over the New Year break (hardly a surprise). But I’m getting there.
I still haven’t worked out what to do with my definite articles in the section heads. I have doubts about the register of some sort-of-taboo language. And there are bits that are much less pleasing to read than other bits, as yet. But yes, definitely getting there.
So – this is where we are now:
I’ve been going through that very rough sprinted version of the whole book, gradually filling in gaps – where there were awkward/unknown words I had left in the Portuguese, problems I didn’t deal with as I rushed through, etc. There was lots of looking stuff up in The Big Dictionary, quite a lot of wikipedia trawling too.
And alongside the filling-in-gaps, there’s also the process of watching the original chaos become less start-stop, more a coherent piece of prose with a rhythm and tone of its own. That’s exciting. So the more the gaps get filled in, the more I can just do a proper edit – read through like a reader would, querying things that don’t quite work, inverting phrases where the rhythm is wrong, and so forth. Ironing it out a little better with each pass. That bit’s fun...
It’s far from finished, of course, but I’m attaching a piece of where-it-is-now to give you an idea. This particular little section required – apart from lots of dictionary work – also learning to distinguish between flea species; and debating specific vocabulary for bird-trapping; identifying lots of trees and plants (and btw, is it ‘surinam cherry’ as in my dictionary, or ‘Surinam cherry’ as in wikipedia?); attempting to develop for myself some basic understanding of the layout of the different bits of the city of Luanda; and working out precisely what kind of dance a ‘maxixe’ is and why on earth being Brazilian it might be sung in Spanish. And I’ve still not managed to resolve some very nice wordplay in a poem, but there’s time yet. (Well, a bit...)
If you’ve been reading this blog from the start you’ll notice there are footnotes (hmm...); and you’ll notice too that one part of this passage (Chapter 2) is something you’ve seen in an earlier, messier, more hesitant incarnation some time back.
OK. What this is, then, is Book Two of the novel (it’s made up of eight ‘Books’). Book One ended with the young Lídia being brought into town to live with her grandfather, Jacinto do Carmo Ferreira, and Book Two picks right up from that.
The passage is still full of queries – things I don’t understand or don’t know what to do with or where I’ve done something I don’t think I like – but apart from these countless little trip-ups I hope it’s still readable, and I hope you enjoy it.
This weekend (perhaps, perhaps...) a slightly better version will go to JEA for him to look over for accuracy and to help resolve some queries. Friday of next week I’m spending the day with him in Amsterdam (not Lisbon this time, but Amsterdam’s pretty nice too...) to go through it and finalise some answers/choices.
Then I have about a week to tinker with it all, with how it sounds especially, to iron out things that I don’t like, and on the 31st to the publisher it goes, right on schedule.
(Meanwhile, in the real world...)
Read Daniel's translation of Book 2 (Adobe Acrobat .doc 238Kb)
Read Daniel's translation of Book 2 (Microsoft Word .doc 97Kb)
PS For anyone reading this who has some Portuguese, I hope to be able to post the original of this passage for you to look at them side by side if you want to. It's not as simple as you might think, though, so please be patient and I'll try and get that up for you as soon as I can...
If you would like to comment on this blog, email translationblog@booktrust.org.uk
Estação das Chuvas © José Eduardo Agualusa
English translation © Daniel Hahn
