Interviewer: Sangita Swechcha
[After spending over thirty five years in South London, Régine, originally from France, now lives in West Sussex, England. She writes under the pen name of Andrée Roby, a name she chose as a tribute to her father (André) and her uncle (Roby). Régine is fluent in French, Spanish and English. She has been teaching languages privately for 25 years and taught languages for nine years in a secondary school. As a language teacher, she has a passion for the written word. Her novella “Double Vision” – a creative crime drama, was published in January 2019. Her second book published in April 2020 is a collection of original poems, flash fiction and short stories. Her latest book “Failed Vision”, launched in October 2020, is the prequel to her first novella. She is currently working on an Anthology of Short stories ‘A Glimpse into my Country’ as the editor. Sangita Swechcha had held a short conversation with Roby. Its edited excerpt is published herewith.]
Which books you are reading these days? Any favourite ones?
I have just read “find them dead” by Peter James. Crime fiction is my favorite genre and James is my favorite author. I also recently read a book of short stories written by a friend of mine called “My country and other short stories” by Norma Hall. She describes life in Zimbabwe and the short stories are all on a different theme. I am fascinated by Africa so that book was educative and interesting for me. Months ago I read ‘Silver Cascades’, an anthology of short stories from Nepal.
Interesting! You told me you read ‘Silver Cascades’. How do you find the stories?
The stories are informative, lyrical and imaginative. They are totally different than stories I am used to as the style is unlike most of the writings I have read from western authors. Some stories reflect the folklore and customs of Nepal, and others have a moral to them but I have to be honest, I did not understand them all. Some stories seem to flow better than others.
Any of the stories you liked the most and the reason for that?
One story “Engineer’s Head” by Vijaya Malla caught my attention. It was sort of funny and had an unusual story line. The story “A sweater for brother in law” by Poshan Pandey was a clever tale of the damage jealousy can cause in any relationship. There were many more which brought their own individual flavor of Nepali culture and they were all educational in one form or another.
You also have read some other Nepali literature in translation. How do you find reading translated books from Nepal?
It is a challenge for a translator to convey the meaning an author expressed in his/her story. The translation needs to reflect accurately the author’s feelings and intention whilst making sense in a different language. From what I have read so far, Nepali literature is beautiful, unique, and full of traditions and wisdom. However, in my personal opinion, translations of the texts do not do justice to the work of the authors.
I am finding that many times the vocabulary used in the translations is old-fashioned, convoluted, archaic and worse, at times, words used are inaccurate too (i.e. the sleeves of a trousers) or inappropriate in the context in which they are used. It stops the story from flowing and makes it difficult to understand. These elements have made reading translated literature an experience less enjoyable than it could be if my critical mind did not dwell on the errors of translation.
How could Nepali translated literature improve?
Keep it simple and avoid old-fashioned turn of phrases, words etc. Get a native English speaker to double-check the translated text before publishing. Decide if the audience is American or English as that influences the spelling of many words.
What suggestion do you give to bring Nepali literature to international standard?
Nepali authors write evocative and charming tales about their tradition and their country, so they need to be heard in the best possible way. Therefore it is important to ensure that their words are well translated and in a language accessible to the majority of English speakers, not just a few who could decipher the meaning of many words used in translation which are not commonly used on a daily basis. So as I mentioned above, my suggestion is: keep it simple, get the translation double checked by native English speakers and decide who the target readers are.
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[Interviewer Sangita Swechcha is a communications professional, researcher and a fiction writer based in England. She can be reached at Twitter: @sangyshrestha, or Email: sangyshrestha@hotmail.com.]