Some exciting news this week: my translation of the book Paradise Denied by Zekarias Kebraeb is being released tomorrow (10 November 2014). You can purchase/read a sample here.
The book tells the true story of Zekarias Kebraeb's harrowing time as a refugee, fleeing from Eritrea and trying to make his way to "paradise" in Europe. He faces terrible ordeals as he crosses the Sahara and the Mediterranean*, but his troubles are far from over once he reaches "Fortress Europe".
I've blogged about this book in some detail previously. It was originally published in German as Hoffnung im Herzen, Freiheit im Sinn (Hope in My Heart, Freedom on My Mind) but the publishers have chosen the title Paradise Denied, which is a very apt choice: the idea of Europe as a "paradise" is a major theme in the book. The dream of "paradise" is what motivates Zekarias throughout his dangerous journey - only for it to be cruelly crushed once he is confronted with the reality of life as a refugee in Europe.
The book tells the true story of Zekarias Kebraeb's harrowing time as a refugee, fleeing from Eritrea and trying to make his way to "paradise" in Europe. He faces terrible ordeals as he crosses the Sahara and the Mediterranean*, but his troubles are far from over once he reaches "Fortress Europe".
I've blogged about this book in some detail previously. It was originally published in German as Hoffnung im Herzen, Freiheit im Sinn (Hope in My Heart, Freedom on My Mind) but the publishers have chosen the title Paradise Denied, which is a very apt choice: the idea of Europe as a "paradise" is a major theme in the book. The dream of "paradise" is what motivates Zekarias throughout his dangerous journey - only for it to be cruelly crushed once he is confronted with the reality of life as a refugee in Europe.
This English translation is being published at a timely moment. The UK government recently announced its unspeakably callous decision to withdraw funding from migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean. This year alone, 3,000 refugees have died making the crossing, and last year over 360 died in a single incident off the coast of Lampedusa. Eritreans are the largest group among those making this perilous crossing (alongside Syrians), and this book tells the story of one such refugee - one of the people that our government would simply leave to die (or else consign to inhuman conditions in Libyan refugee camps). It also comes 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall: the book often draws comparisons between the situation of refugees from East Germany and refugees from African countries (a comparison that has also been drawn recently by refugee activists).
As a translator, I am both delighted that more people will now have a chance to read Zekarias' story and nervous
about whether I have done justice to a book that affected me deeply as I read it. I haven't read the final version in full since submitting the translation in May (since when it has been passed between a dizzying number of intermediaries, partially rendered into American English and subjected to various proofreading changes, good and bad). I know there are countless tweaks I would have made if I had had the luxury of checking the translation again once I'd got some distance from it: by the end of the translation process, it was hard to remain entirely objective about sentences I had almost memorised after working on them for three months. I know that at one point towards the end I developed an irrational aversion to the word "courtyard". I've already spotted an "ill" that should have been "sick", a "still water" that should have been "still waters", and so on.
But I hope that these imperfections are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, and that they don't impede the telling of a story that is so urgent and timely.
One final note: eagle-eyed readers may notice that the translation was carried out "with the support" of Frontex. I was deeply surprised when I became aware of this months after submitting my translation - Frontex is an organisation that comes in for extremely harsh criticism in the book. This "support" is limited to providing funding for a separate version of this translation for internal use. None of the proceeds of sales go to Frontex.
--
* Though not in a rowboat, as the blurb for some reason says.
As a translator, I am both delighted that more people will now have a chance to read Zekarias' story and nervous
about whether I have done justice to a book that affected me deeply as I read it. I haven't read the final version in full since submitting the translation in May (since when it has been passed between a dizzying number of intermediaries, partially rendered into American English and subjected to various proofreading changes, good and bad). I know there are countless tweaks I would have made if I had had the luxury of checking the translation again once I'd got some distance from it: by the end of the translation process, it was hard to remain entirely objective about sentences I had almost memorised after working on them for three months. I know that at one point towards the end I developed an irrational aversion to the word "courtyard". I've already spotted an "ill" that should have been "sick", a "still water" that should have been "still waters", and so on.
But I hope that these imperfections are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, and that they don't impede the telling of a story that is so urgent and timely.
One final note: eagle-eyed readers may notice that the translation was carried out "with the support" of Frontex. I was deeply surprised when I became aware of this months after submitting my translation - Frontex is an organisation that comes in for extremely harsh criticism in the book. This "support" is limited to providing funding for a separate version of this translation for internal use. None of the proceeds of sales go to Frontex.
--
* Though not in a rowboat, as the blurb for some reason says.
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