Why Tamil Translation Matters

 

 

 

Why Tamil?

 

For an author, having your work translated into another culture is the ultimate compliment. Your story has travelled into other imaginations.

Fake I.D. was a family history mystery of a teenager finding on the day of her grandmother’s funeral that her Gran had a fake ID for years. Maybe for political reasons?  Zoe finds out.

Coping successfully with being different is a common theme in my mysteries for adults and youth, but each is set in different cultures. Despite having many books published, and several translated, certain titles give me special pleasure. The Cre-A Tamil edition is the most beautiful even if I couldn’t proofread the Tamil. 

In September 2018, my Young Adult novel ‘Fake I.D.’ was launched by Cre-A publisher Ramakrishnan in Chennai, as ‘Poli Adaiyalam’ translated by Dr Meenakshi Hariharan. The Australian Consul attended. It was the first Australian YA (Young Adult) book to be translated into Tamil for adolescent readers Such skilled translators read the language clues and transferred the nuances of a culture. I had no idea I used so many Australian colloquialisms. 

Initially, print was published as Fake I.d. by Lothian, then by Vanwell in Canada.  The cover featured a girl whose red hair was genetically relevant to the mystery plot.  But adolescent boys didn’t want to read a book with a girl on the cover. Those attitudes have changed now, and so has the e-book cover to a collage of clues and characters. The lower case i.d. wasn’t as accurate as the upper case I.D abbreviation for identity. Unexpectedly, as a title, Fake I.D. attracted interest for the wrong reasons: those Googling online for a fake ID. 

 

 

Background? 

 

A very experienced genealogist suggested the plot. Many leave countries during revolutionary times, such as the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and keep their false identities in the new land. My 14-year-old character Zoe becomes an online sleuth.  And she plays hockey like my family. I didn’t have to research that. Then the film option. 

Film-maker Mark Waters scripted, cast and rehearsed Fake ID, including the hockey match, but funding was cut. 

 

 

How did the Tamil translation occur?

 

Deakin University had Indian cultural exchanges due to the personal poetry connections of Professor Judith Rodriguez. 

Many Asian students study in Melbourne, and there was Australian support for sharing stories with those youth for whom Tamil is their reading language. When translator Dr Meenakshi Hariharan visited Melbourne I organised local authors to meet her at my home near hosting Deakin University.

International PEN Chair Zoe Rodriguez represented me at the 2018 Chennai launch. 

Her mother, the late poet, Professor Judith Rodriguez shared her enormous respect for Indian cultures and especially Chennai literary hospitality. Coincidentally Chennai-based educator Eugenie Pinto’s grandson lived in the next Darwin suburb to my son’s family. The Pandemic has skilled many to Zoom internationally and enabled the exchange of literary ideas.

Sadly, Cre-A publisher Ramakrishnan passed away from Covid but he finished revising Cre-A Dictionary of Contemporary Tamil,[ In late 2021 at 1.20 am Melbourne time, I was honoured to pay tribute to a respected Indian publisher who initiated translations into Tamil, including my book.

 

 

Asian Translations 

 

Intrigued by studying Indonesian language and SE Asian history as an undergraduate, later, I was invited to be the first Nanjing-Australian Cultural Exchange Author in 2009   and to visit Balikpapan International School and we swapped student-written, dual language picture books. Often my work has been informally translated by enthusiastic educators like Nanjing Cultural Ambassador Aileen Hall for specific students, and later became officially translated. 

The Children’s Publishing House of Sichuan Province translated my 40-year classic series ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake’. Many internationals study in Australia and eagerly read the youth culture via picture books and novels. 

Audio is an easy way for translators and Asian publishers to taste-test Australian literature. My memoir ‘Not Just a Piece of Cake: Being an Author’ (AUDIBLE) takes readers behind many books and shares the challenges of being a long-term author writing in Australia for an international community.

 

 

 

 

 

Links and Hazel’s relevant books.