Finished!

I have been working on a translation of a book about the history of La Cite--I can't really say that it's about Carcassonne, because aside from mentions of its existence and its effect on the Cite, the lower city doesn't get much ink.  The book is about the fortress and its many incarnations: a shelter from brigands,   a relatively unimportant Roman outpost, a possession of the Count of Barcelona,  a military fortress, a church stronghold and target of the Inquisitors, a neighborhood of textile workers, a nearly deserted ruin and now a historical monument/tourist trap. I have had to work harder, academically, than I have done in many decades and that in itself has been eye-opening and humbling experience.  Ms Smartypants isn't so smart these days, it seems.

I frequently wanted to give up , but I was equally determined to see this through.  As I got deeper into the book, my love of the learning process was rekindled.  I had lost it, for lack of time and attention, since leaving formal academic studies.  But this project was somehow different--I didn't have to do this for a grade, nor was I under any time constraints.   I could give my curiosity free reign to take me down Internet rabbit holes which led to essays about felting, articles about ecclesiastical vestments, writings about the construction of stained glass windows. I learned about Tectosages, Charlemagne's children and the definition of xylography.  While I was furious with the authors for using arcane terms and technical jargon, some of which are in no dictionaries I can lay hands on, the book's lack of a glossary forced me to look deeper if I really wanted to understand what the writers were talking about.  So, I kept at it.

My tools--blank notebooks and dictionaries

Hours of scribbling and countless ink cartridges

The process has humbled me and also made me realize how much my attitude about academia has changed.  Once upon a time I could show off my complex sentence structure with the best of them.  It's not so easy for me now; I can't seem to hold onto the subject/verb thread  of thought, which  embellished by subordinate clauses, results in a structure that incorporates everything I want to say about a topic into one single sentence.  More importantly, I don't find it a very effective way to communicate. 

Work for an insomniac

Thus, I have finished the handwritten, rough draft of the translation.  The next step is to type it, smoothing out the enormously complex French sentence structure into fluid Americanized English.  After all, that's the readership I would like to serve;  the deliberate, philosophical French reader can read the original..

There are also some thoughts rumbling around in my brain about contacting the publisher to see if I can get permission to have my translation printed.  But that's a far piece down the road yet.  My friend Martin, whose French is more fluent than mine is coming over next week to help me smooth out the rough spots--sentences in which there are too many idioms, too many pronouns to which I cannot find the antecedents.   I am also torn about whether or not to "fix" the writing--eliminate the repetition, better organize the paragraphs,  work on a better flow from one subject to another.  Then it's not just a translation, is it?  

I have the additional issue, should the publishers give me permission to somehow market this, of not legally being able to work in France.  First and foremost, I want to stay completely within the boundaries of what keeps me legally able to live here and will do nothing to jeopardize that.  If that means nobody is ever allowed to read it, except for the visitors who come to my home, then so be it. 

I want to think that the hard part is done, and the rest of this project will be a piece of cake.  However, I have been involved in too many projects to know that the "next step" usually brings its own set of problems.  I want to take and incorporate into the  text my own photos of the interesting points the authors mention.  It seems that what started out as a simple translation exercise has turned into something quite a bit more involved.  

The final page

And that, I am forced to admit, has been the basic theme of my entire life.  Changing countries didn't change that!  Oh, and xylography is the art of making prints using wood blocks.