Is to be published in Mandarin (traditional Chinese characters) in Taiwan, Hong Kong & Territories.

   My good news for the week came in the form of an email telling me that The Gene Thieves is to be published in Taiwan, Hong Kong and territories, so will be printed in traditional Chinese characters. How cool is that!?   

   It does prompt some funny questions though like, how do you say (or write) ‘Frankly, it seems to me like you’re barking up a gum tree’ in Chinese?  The question of translation is often a vexed one for authors, particularly where idiom, such as the example above used in my book, is concerned.

   Australian English is rich in colourful colloquial expressions and these can add marvellous texture to novels and the characters inhabiting them. The crossover between Aussie idiom and cockney slang usually makes for relatively easy understanding between us and the English, but Americans often look askance at expressions we use, innocent of their ‘other meanings’ in that diverse country.

   When I used to write advertising copy, including coco-cola themes, I was once enjoying a recording session in Nashville which included some of the best session musicians on earth. During a short break, the fantastic guitarist sat head down, looking glum. I opened the mike from the control room and told him he looked  ‘like a shag on a rock’. It took me a minute to reconcile the hilarity with the American meaning of ‘shag’.

   So I wonder how something like the passage opposite would translate to a non-Aussie speaker.  I promise you, it's not an extract from The Gene Thieves, but an over-the-top example of the kind of problems translators face!

   She had a good gander at the bloke driving the ute, as it pulled up behind the dunny.    She was mad as a cut snake because it was her dunny.

   Just because this was the back of beyond didn’t mean any galah could drop his daks there, when he felt like it. She was jack of every banana bender heading for the iron- ore further west using the place as a pit stop because word was out it was owned by a sheila, out here on her Pat Malone.

   ‘Hey, mate, put a knot in it. This is private property.'        

   ‘Wrong end love. Don’t go crook at me. I don’t need a blue, just a sh…’

   He grinned a daggy, gap-toothed attempt at a smile. ‘I’m no bludger, I’ll leave ya a tip.’

   He pulled the wooden door so hard the little corrugated outhouse shook. ‘You do that.’ She turned back to the rickety veranda, a happy little vegemite…I’m sure the red backs will appreciate it.

  As I said before, this is not an extract from The Gene Thieves; but where dyed-in-the-wool readers would get it, many a translator used to more traditional English might, in fact, be barking up a gum tree trying to transpose it into Swedish, Hindi, Arabic, Japanese or  Russian.

   As a writer all one can hope for is that the meaning remains true, no matter what language expresses it.

   Actually I plan to send my first copy of the Mandarin text of The Gene Thieves to our Prime Minister, fluent in the language, both written and spoken.

   He’ll be able to tell me if the Australian accent can still be heard.  But I’m sorry Kevin, we’ll both have to wait a year or so to see it.