Within the next few days, The Housemaid's Daughter leaps into publication in the Netherlands as De Kleur van Haar Hart! Yes, the first translation of my book is out!
I will have to get a copy and try to understand the story in Dutch, via my schoolgirl Afrikaans. I have often wondered what it would be like to read the same book in various translations. Will it have the same nuances? Will it capture something different in translation from the English version?
I know that Housemaid will eventually appear in a range of languages such as French, German, Polish, Turkish, Italian, Icelandic, even Chinese... But the best chance I will have to compare the English version with a translation will probably be in either Dutch or French (which I read better than I can speak). So I will get a book and make my way through it. And maybe there is a reader out there who will also read both versions and let me know his/her opinion?
I am hoping that the Dutch edition will strike a chord with readers in the Netherlands, many of whom know South Africa, or have family connections that stretch back to the early Dutch settlers who established the first settlement of Europeans at the Cape from 1652 onwards. Their language eventually became the Afrikaans that is spoken in South Africa today, and their heritage lives on through the glorious Cape Dutch architecture and the surnames that recall a earlier time and place - and the Dutch apple cake that I like to bake.
So... Proost! Veel geluk!
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