22 TheLinguistAPRIL/MAYwww.iol.org.ukFEATURESMelanie Florencewas awarded a contract to translatePascal Garnier's L'A26 after winning a summer schoolcompetition in July.The newcomer explains her methodsFor his short roman noirabout the traumatisedrecluse Yolande and her brother Bertrand, aterminal cancer sufferer turned murderer,Pascal Garnier relates the 'now' of the narrativein the present tense. The past of L'A26 isconstructed using the passé composé andimperfect. There is extensive use of internalmonologue and free indirect discourse.Largely static passages of thought andmemory alternate with others of dramaticaction, which include direct speech of afamiliar nature. In language and style, thenovel is deceptively straightforward. Itstranslation challenges lie not in understandingvocabulary or untangling syntax, but in doingjustice to the nuances and mood of Garnier'sspare prose, in which every word counts.When starting my translation from theFrench, the most fundamental decision I hadto make was whether to keep the presenttense for the narrative. It did not seem strangeto me to read, or indeed to translate, it in thepresent, and the tense seems to contributeto the novel's atmosphere of claustrophobia.Since having her head shaved for fraternisingwith the enemy during the Second World War,Yolande has been trapped both in the pastand in her home, with only a peephole to theworld outside. It is arguably less appropriatefor the more narrative passages, however. I was introduced to L'A26at the 'Use yourLanguage, Use your English' summer schoolin July. Course participants were evenlydivided in their choice of tense; my decisionto use the past tense for a competition extractwas dictated by the fact that the publisherhad never published a book in the presenttense. It proved to be a good one. My versionwon, leading to a contract with Gallic Books;my translation is due out later this year. The present tense and narrative perspectivebrings the reader so close to the characters itis as if we are 'inside' them. This led me touse a more familiar style than mightotherwise have been appropriate.Son chef,ses collègues, il sait qu'il ne les reverra jamaisbecame 'As for his boss and his colleagues,he knew he wouldn't be seeing them again',which also conveys Bernard's down-to-earthapproach. Equally, on ne pouvait jamaissavoirin Yolande's thoughts became 'you [not"one"] could never tell'.Getting in characterThis nearness to the characters makestranslating their direct speech easy and oneof the most enjoyable aspects of my work onthis novel. I would describe it as speakingtheir part in English, with the guidance of theoriginal French, although naturally I aim for thenearest equivalent. The speech is often simpleand laconic. It has to sound absolutely naturalin English and of particular concern here arethe 'fillers' (ie, features of informal speech), andthe swear words. I translated 'OK! Mais c'estparce que je souffre' as 'True, but it's becauseI'm suffering', and tried to convey the familiarsyntax of 'Où ils habitent tes parents?' with'Where d'your parents live?' To give sufficientemphasis to Bernard's rejoinder to Roland'sassertion that he knows death, I rendered 'Pasencore' as 'Not yet, I don't.' Bearing in mind the age of the charactersand the 1980s setting, I am keeping thetranslated expletives mild, and have made theodd change where it seems appropriate. Dansla merdesounded fine as 'in deep shit', but Iextended 'Oh, merde, merde'to the moreEnglish rhythm of 'Shit, shit, shit!' and altered'Merde, t'es dur!' to 'Bloody hell, you're cruel!'.A novel approachWhere the switch to the past could lead to astiff or hyper-correct impression, I am makinga conscious effort to lighten the translation,and English has the flexibility to allow this.The verb in 'Elle était en train de copier unecarte.' might have been rendered as 'hadbeen busy', for example, but I used 'was busy'. Another characteristic of which I havebecome increasingly aware is the degree towhich the novel is told from the perspectiveof one or other of the characters. I am careful,therefore, to ensure that my translation reflectsthe appropriate person in terms of age, socialclass and setting. In the passage whereYolande remembers childhood holidays at theseaside, I initially translated robe légèreas 'thindress' but revised this to 'thin frock' to reflectYolande's modest background; and I chose'bathing suit' over 'swimsuit' for costume debainsince the scene is set in the 1930s. 'Use your language, Use your English' isa training project for native Englishspeakers who wish to develop theirtranslation and editing skills. Both theworkshops and free online courses aredelivered by leading professionals. The five-day Summer School 2012 willbe held at Birkbeck University, London,on 9-13 July. There will be courses onediting and translation from Arabic,Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish,Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, as wellas a competition, meet-the-publishersand guest lectures. For details seewww.bbk.ac.uk/european/about-us/use-your-language-use-your-english.SUMMER SCHOOL

Vol/51 No/2 2012APRIL/MAYTheLinguist23FEATURESone of the most fascinating parts of theproject. At the summer school, Ros Schwartz.recommended internet searches in the firstinstance, and investigating how certain termsare used via Google, both of which haveproved invaluable.The aspect that has been most challenging,however, is Garnier's use of wordplay. There isoften more to a phrase than meets the eyeand this is a particular concern for me as anon-native speaker. Two instances, both from apassage describing Yolande's paranoia aboutstrangers calling, were particularly testing.Yolande decides the two women areGermans disguised as French, unless they are'des Fifis grimées en Boches'. This is a play on'members of the French Interior Forces' and'girls', even 'prostitutes'. My initial translationsincluded 'French tarts' and the over-ingenious'Toms dressed as Jerries', neither of whichtakes account of the FIF element. I finallysettled on 'the girls from the Resistance doneup to look like Boches', choosing the lessspecific 'Resistance' over 'FIF' as I thoughtthe latter insufficiently familiar. Yolande then accuses both the 'Fifis' andthe 'Boches' of needing guilty people 'pourfaire fonctionner leur grosse machine à broyerdu noir'. Finding broyer du noirin the sense of'to feel depressed, worry obsessively', I initiallyfavoured 'to fuel their misery machine', as thiscould apply equally to the authorities and the'guilty people'. Internet research suggested possible racist,colonial connotations - 'to crush the blacks' -and this might fit the context: both Germansand FIF are concerned to keep the French'natives' under control, at least in thedelusions of Yolande, to whom France is stillunder occupation. I decided that was too far-fetched, however, and happily remembered'black' in the sense of illicit. My finaltranslation 'to fuel their morbid obsessionwith stamping out clandestine goings-on'suggests both the psychological aspect -depression, negativity, worry - and thepotential overtones of crushing noiractivity:collaboration, the clandestine, etc.In both these cases, my approach was to research all the possible meanings thatcould be involved and mull them over,judging which to keep in play by whatseemed appropriate to the situation andcharacter. Overall, my translation aims tocapture the immediacy of Garnier's writingand my working methods reflect this: I readthe text repeatedly until I feel I have gotinside it, noting any words or phrases thatsuggest themselves as particularly 'right'translations. Next I produce a draft,incorporating these 'nuggets'; at this stage Ialso keep several alternative translations formany sentences. Later versions entail choicesand polishing, with or without reference tothe French. As a translator I am first a reader,and I try to capture my reading in order torecreate it in English.I read the textrepeatedly until I feel Ihave got inside it.Later versions entailchoices and polishingMEMORIES OF WARFrench resistance fighters in La Trésorerie, 1944 (left); andPascal Garnier (above) The treatment of French terms andquotations also raised some interestingquestions. At one stage Yolande is makingcrêpesand I initially kept the French termsince it is so well known in English. However,the sentence La seule façon de conjurer cemauvais sort était de faire des crêpes, descrêpes et des crêpes' made me change mymind: only '.pancakes, pancakes and morepancakes' sounded suitably conclusive. When Bertrand shoots Roland's dog - at hisrequest after it is run over - Garnier quotes aline from Rimbaud's war poem Le Dormeur duVal. I was guided by the publisher's style sheetto leave the line untranslated, despite itsimportant ironic effect. A footnote currentlyidentifies the quotation and notes the irony,but in another part of the novel Yolande recallsthe poem more explicitly and I may welldecide to dispense with this note.Authenticity and comprehensionWhen the radio announces Depuis le débutde la semaine, le CAC 40 n'a pas cessé.' itseemed vital to keep the same term forauthenticity, but I was concerned that Englishreaders might not understand it. A fellowsummer school student led me to the solution.She had explained a reference to Bernard'sSNCF uniform by slipping in the phrase 'heworked for the French railways' and I adoptedthe same approach, prefacing the sentencewith 'Stock market news': 'Stock market news.Since the beginning of the week, the CAC 40,has been on a continuous.'For just ten pages of the novel, I foundmyself learning about guns, the Swiss textileindustry, the Resistance, homing pigeons,Brittany, estate agents' jargon and 1930sholidays, and such research is proving to be© DONALDI GRANT/NATIONALARCHIVESOFCANADA