found it!

[celticdragonfly]

Croatian Winterfair Gifts...

So as people know, we moved recently. Also, next weekend is ConDFW, which we now live close to, and Lois Bujold is GOH at. :-) Well, her story Winterfair Gifts was postponed when the publishers of the story anthology it's in decided to postpone it a year. The English version, anyway. She'd sold the translations rights, so the Croatian version ended up as the true first edition.

Of COURSE we bought a copy. One of the email list people arranged to order a number of them for us fanatics. And those of us who did so were eligible to get a copy of the fan re-translation that some of the list did (why yes, we DO have people who read Croatian).

So now that the first version of the English anthology has been published and we've gleefully bought it, I wanted to get ALL THREE - Croatian, fan retranslation, and English version - signed by Lois. But we couldn't FIND the Croatian version, and I've spent time recently frantically going through boxes in the remaining areas of the house - our room and closet, the guest room, the study - hoping to find it. Wearing myself out. Karl found it last night. Huzzah!

This will probably be the only time I get a book signed that I cannot actually read.

You know, come to think of it, I've been so darned BUSY with family and illnesses and projects and guests and such in the week since we picked up the Irresistable Forces anthology with the story, that I haven't actually gotten to sit down and read the original English-by-Lois version. Shame on me. Let's see if I can get time over breakfast.

Comments

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping someday get the free time to compare the Original Bujold with the English-to-Croation-back-to-English retranslation and see how we did. (Disclaimer: I use "we" only in the very loosest of ways, seeing as all *I* did was a bit of proofing and editing suggestions quite late in the entire process. All the *hard* work was done by others.)

Re:

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

That's the next piece of the plan - read the original, then get the kid-free time to reread with the original in one hand and the translation in the other, side by side.

So far, in the general feel, and given that I haven't read the translation since before the move, they're close in feel.

Re:

[fairestcat]

I did a little bit of comparing. Open up to a random passage in story, compare to same passage in the translation. Everything I checked, the words were just slighty off but the meaning was right on.

All in all, I'd say an excellent job was done by all.

[neonnurse.livejournal.com]

I have been curious to know how many "hat tricks" there will end up being (all three copies you mention signed). If you think of it, you might ask Lois for a guesstimate as to how many so far.

Yeah, so I like statistics; I'm weird that way. :)

Re:

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

I expect to eventually have four of them, when the SF version of Irresistible Forces comes out in the fall - if I'm understanding correctly what's going to happen. But I'll only have the three for her to sign at this con.