Surprise, surprise: I really didn’t think straight. As everybody else I
am trapped in my own little world – and though I sometimes dream in English
(don’t ask the Grammar Godddess!) and read very much in that beautiful language
and (if Husband would come with me, which he doesn’t) would pack my things to
live in London, Hythe or Edinburgh (see: I’m versatile), I told you that you
have to wait for the beautiful cookbook I translated, because the German publisher DuMont puts it in
April 2012 on the market.
What I hadn’t thought of is THAT MOST OF YOU read my articles in
ENGLISH!
So you will not need a translation. And so you don’t have to wait. The
book is in your bookstore since autumn.
Claire Ptak and Henry Dimbleby: Leon. Baking and Puddings.
www.octopsbooks.co.uk
12 comments:
I really am so envious of you that you are skilled in more than one language.
Old joke. You may have heard it:
What do you call a person who can speak three languages? Tri-lingual.
What do you call a person who can speak two languages? Bi-lingual.
What do you call a person who can speak only one language? An American.
Me? I still try to use my four years of Spanish from high school. Sometimes I even mange to order lunch without being punched in the mouth or having cheese put in my shoes.
Sometimes, when the obvious jumps up and hits me I know it's time to sit down with a glass of wine and take stock. In this instance, though, I don't think that the cause for confusion was all that obvious, as you move back and forth so easily between languages. Lateral thinking, it is!
Britta, it is a gift, both to the world and the self, to be fluent in more than one language.
I'm definitely with Al Penwasser on the issue of languages! Isn't it interesting, your observation? I remember seeing a movie, The Woman with Five Elephants, about someone who translates Dostoyevsky into German. She was such an interesting person, I immediately wanted to buy one of her translations, only then to realize I wouldn't be able to read them!
Congratulations on finishing your translation!
I'm ashamed of myself for not keeping up with German over the years. When we lived there, of course I was required to take it in school, and then in the States I took three years of instruction in high school. And my mother was born in Germany for goodness sake! So why am I so lazy? I don't know. I told my husband the other day that I want to learn Spanish too. We'll see how far I go with that one.
Hallo and thanks to you all!
@ Al Penwasser: I think you are lucky that all the world loves your language and you can communicate almost everywhere - to be able to speak Spanish is something I admire.
@Pondside: Though a glass of wine might help :-) Not seeing the obvious: it took me over a year till I had the idea to put 'Gardening on High Heels' on this blog roll here - a bit late and at a point when I'm not quite sure what to do with it.
@Suze: I do hope that it is a worthy substitute for other methods of brain-jogging - and yes, you are right: for the self it is very important: I would say that I am another person in GB, because my thoughts/moral values in English are not dictated/formed by the language of parents/teachers and so on.
@Sue: That is great! I think I know whom you are talking of, Swetlana Geier, she lives in Freiburg, and she is really, really good, not only translating but feeling what the poet meant.
Yes, that's her name, which I had forgotten (though I've got it on a notepad somewhere, needless to say). The movie showed beautifully just what you state. I loved learning about her.
I see. So it's not simply language but all ties endemic to a particular place. Very interesting, though reflecting on it just a bit makes perfect sense.
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