Translation Team

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Friday, July 12, 2002

Dear Team:

How exciting! I have compliled all the photographs that I have recieved from all of you so that you may all see how you all look after more than a year of just words and e-mail.

To be sure this is an incomplete gallery....

The Polish editor and Swedes never sent me photos. Forget about the Dutch....the Japanese editor too. I don't have a picture of the Italien editor. Nor of the German editor.

But I have photos of everybody else and I will be sending them in triplets all this week!

So download them fast so your e-mail accounts don't clog!

Rejoice! Real human beings with real personal stories are behind these photos. Courage, humor, hardship, faith, and joy in the unknown are well documented in this brilliant story that is still dramatically unfolding....

Here is Alex, our Russian editor, Cecile our French translator, and Dov our Israeli editor and translator... [see next letter]

Enjoy! More photos are coming!

Michael


Sunday, July 14, 2002

Dear Team:

I should have given more background on Alex, Cecile, and Dov.

Alex is our Russian editor. He has worked very closely with Evgueni, our Russian translator who is in Russia right now re-newing his passport. Evgueni hopes to return to Poland as soon as possible. More about that later. Alex lives in Minsk, Belarus and was once a soldier in the Soviet army when it was advising the Communists in Ethiopia in their struggle against non-communist insurgents. Alex has the biggest collection of Russian, English, and Polish slang books in Minsk proper and is quite well versed in American literature.

Cecile is our French translator. She is a free-lance worker and has recently bought a house in Bristol, England. Cecile also commutes a lot to southern France where she has business often. cecile has traveled extensively to America and North Africa. Cecile is French-born but has ties to Germany from her mother's side.

Dov is our Israeli editor and is of Italien extraction. He is also the oldest member of the team. Dov lives in Zichron Ya'acov close to Haifa and Netanya the site of numerous suicide bombings. Dov is also a free-lance translator and goes to Milan, Italy often where he still has relatives. Dov is one of the conceptual thinkers of the team as you all well know. It is he who proposed last year the idea of a Harvest of Gems confernce which illicited quite a bit of e-mail from all of you.

In this letter I will show photos of Sibylle, Dongwei, and Marilena. Our German, Chinese, and Italien translators...

Sibylle lives in New Zealand and is extremely well-read in English and American literature. She especially has a good knowledge of James Joyce which she has read both in the original English and in German translation. Sibylle has been an excellent and consistent correspondent which is not the case with the other members of our Germanic language group.

Dongwei lives in Guanzhou, China and hails originally from the Northern part of the Middle Kingdom. Dongwei teaches English at the prestigious Institute of Foreign Studies which also has branches in Shanghai, and Beijing as well as Guanzhou. Dongwei has been a superb friend and his background in modern American literature has been enormously helpful. Since I have traveled to China twice, Dongwei and I have had much to talk about in our correspondence. Dongwei now has a baby boy and you can see him in this picture with his gorgeous wife out on a day stroll with a Chinese landscape in the background.

Marilena is our Italien translator and our renassaince woman. She has translated into Italien many English literary books including the works of the American science fiction writer Ray Bradbery. Marilena lives near Genoa, Italy and I must say she is quite a woman. Her knowledge of Italien history is quite broad and her interests in Photography and poetry can be seen on her magnificent web-sites:

www.tiscali.it/marileva and www.utenti.tripod.it/marie12000 [both offline]

So by all means have a look!


Michael


Tuesday, July 16, 2002

Dear team:

Well, here are some more pictures of our team.

The first picture is of Evgueni, one of our youngest members. It's our Spanish translator, Anablanca holding a copy of Harvest of Gems. You know, Anablanca is a law graduate in Alicante, Spain who is engaged to be married someday and loves translating literary works. Her translation is magnificent and I can attest to this because I am fluent in Spanish. Anablanca is a dear one and I know she's something of a secret yogini. I'm just joking....

The next photo is Evgueni, our Russian translator. Evgueni is one of the intellectual powerhouses of the team. His background in modern Russian and American literature is quite awesome and it has been an absolute privilege corresponding with him at great length. Our e-mail alone is enough to fill an entire book. Evgueni has been living in Poland for the last ten years and his struggle to prevent being deported back to Russia has been a roller-coaster ride indeed. Evgueni is back in Russia re-newing his passport. His wife and two kids I assume are either with him or still in Poland. It is Evgueni's dream to come to the USA someday. Perhaps, this dream will one day be reality.

Finally, here is Deolinda. Our Portuguese-Spanish editor. The only editor working with two translators and the only member of the team who has met me face to face. Deo was one of the original academic evaluators and ALL you editors can either thank or curse her that you have a job with me. Deo believes no translator can work alone without an editor. Deo's editing skills and knowledge of Latin, American, and European literature are impressive. Deo is working towards a PH.d in Spanish literature and specializes in Latin American woman writers. Deo also is keen on linguistics and translation theory. Deo's in Cuba right now. Needless to say Deo and I are very close not just geographically, but intellectually. And Deo's also a good friend.

Ah, it's an overcast day in San Francisco today. The sun was out early in the morning though and The British Pound is surging and I'm surfing it.

Michael

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