Ekaterina Shatalova

Rosalba Hojer talks to translator Ekaterina Shatalova

“Stories on the move – Making translation in children’s literature visible” is the objective of this year’s Action Lab Project by Outside in World and the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing. As an intern searching for material to benefit the project, I have interviewed ten different translators and publishers whose answers will offer you a peek behind the scenes of translated children’s books. Ekaterina Shatalova takes you on a journey that will make you discover some hidden gems in children's literature - the story of a fragile but humorous cat, a magical fantasy novel and the instance of how fish and chips were magically transformed into schnitzel and fries.

What is your favourite children’s book you ever translated and why?

Like many translators, I formed a special bond with the very first book I got to translate. It was a French picture book titled Chaton Pâle et les Insupportables Petits Messieurs (2016), illustrated by Gaëlle Duhazé. The book was offered to me by the Russian publisher, I’d never heard of the author or the illustrator before. But I fell in love with it immediately. The story is about a little fragile cat whose house is full of tiny annoying creatures who prevent him from doing anything new or exciting, like starting a new hobby or going outside (‘you’ll fail’, ‘you’ll get sick’, etc). Eventually, he learns how to deal with them. I found the protagonist and his fears extremely relatable and really loved the quirky illustrations filled with humorous little details.

Which children’s book was the most difficult to translate and which challenges did it involve specifically?

Although almost all of the books that I worked on had their own challenges, the most difficult were the two ‘steampunk fantasy’ novels by Denys ‘BB’ Watkins-Pitchford – The Forest of Boland Light Railway (1955) and its sequel The Wizard of Boland (1959). Winner of the 1942 Carnegie Medal for ‘the greatest book about gnomes in the English language’, Watkins-Pitchford has a very dense language which nowadays comes across as a bit old-fashioned. It’s a typical English countryside writing with lots of passages devoted to nature descriptions with little dynamic and almost no dialogues. So it took me some time to get into his style and rhythm. Apart from this, the text was full of invented creatures (cowzies), charactonyms (Bumbletummy, Dumdumple, Mrs Weazelbritches), magical plants (Snoreweed), songs and rhyming wizard spells. Before embarking on this project, I’ve reread Russian translations of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for some much-needed inspiration.


Which book you translated has changed the most due to the translation, i. e. design, illustrations, cover, even the content, and how? And what was that process like whilst translating it? (Or why did you not change so much?)

It is, of course, very common for books to change their appearance when crossing the borders, and especially covers due to differences in the markets. Out of 17 books that I translated (including picture books, chapter books and MG novels), only two books by the above-mentioned Watkins-Pitchford went through this design transformation. Keeping the original author’s illustrations inside, the publisher provided new covers drawn by a Russian artist to match other books in the series.

However, most changes are usually related to the content and more specifically to what is known as culture-bound concepts (names, food, etc). For example, in Hubble Bubble: The Great Granny Cake Contest! (2013) by Tracey Corderoy, a little girl has a craving for fish and chips to enjoy with her Granny in the park. Fish and chips is not a typical choice of ‘treat’ food for a Russian child, and some wouldn’t even know what it is. As I’m not a big fan of using footnotes in children’s books, my initial solution was just to replace it with something more familiar, say, an ice cream. But, sadly, it was depicted in an accompanying illustration. Luckily for me, the picture was not too detailed, and the fish looked a bit like breaded meat. And that’s how I got to schnitzel and fries!

                            
Russian book covers of The Forest of Boland Light Railway
and The Wizard of Boland

What was the most unusual book you ever translated, culturally or in terms of the concept?

Perhaps, not entirely unusual, but the French picture book Maryam et Maroussia (2020) by Anne-Marie Desplat-Duc, illustrated by Anna Griot, provides an interesting perspective on the climate issue. Told in the most beautiful poetic language, this fairy tale is about two girls: one lives in the Golden Land, where the sun always shines, while the other lives in the Silver Land, where it always rains. Both girls share a love of gardening, but because of their respective climate conditions, they struggle to keep their gardens happy. As the girls become aware of their troubles, they want to help each other out: Maryam catches a ray of the sun in a bottle and sends it to Maroussia, who in her turn catches a cloud and does the same. This book is a gentle reminder of kindness, solidarity, and consideration of nature.

There are not that many books on the Russian market (either by Russian authors or translated) on this topic, and I hope young readers will like it (it is expected to be printed later this year).

 
  

Has there ever been a book you translated that you thought was quite niche but performed surprisingly well once published?

I had my doubts when I was offered to translate Un petit besoin urgent (2021) by Quentin Gréban. This French picture book deals with the topic of little children always wanting to go to the toilet at the worst possible time. Although Gréban is immensely popular with Russian readers, I thought that this ‘bodily’ topic might be frowned upon by some parents as it is still a bit of a ‘taboo’ topic in Russia. However, I was proved wrong as the book was among the bestselling ones at the recent book fairs.

              


Could you give me an overview of the different steps of your process when translating a picture book?

The very first reading of a book is of crucial importance to me. The rule of thumb is to read the book in its entirety before translating it, but I prefer to start translating right away in what I call ‘a reader’s mode’: this allows me to grasp the first reactions/emotions and reflect them in my translation. As I read a book for the first time, I start creating my first draft which mostly consists of keywords, unfinished sentences, or just some vague ideas.

After that I move on to a bit of researching: I check if other books by the same author/illustrator have already been translated into Russian, what is known about the author in general, etc. After specifying requirements with the publisher (e.g. domestication or foreignization of names and concepts, translating signs/texts in the pictures, etc), I proceed with the translation. During the process, I always produce a little glossary of the text’s universe (it might include names, places, key phrases, spells, etc) – a habit that I’ve inherited from translating children’s TV series where keeping a glossary is an obligatory task for each project. It is also important to read every sentence aloud.

Once my final draft is ready, I ask my mum to read it and flag everything that doesn’t sound natural to her ear. Although she is not a linguist (or an academic for that matter), she can immediately spot if something is off.  After that I send the translated text to the editor, and depending on our relationships /the publisher’s policies, I might expect a round of editing discussions. Sometimes, though, you will only see the edits once the book is already published (🤡).

Depending on whether you translate from French or English into Russian, do you find that you encounter different kinds of challenges due to each individual language? If yes, what kinds of challenges?

Although English is the main language I’ve been working with for many years, I somehow find it easier to translate children’s books from French into Russian, especially in terms of syntax. Both French and Russian are considered quite ‘longish’ languages so I don’t need to worry about fitting the words in the original layout which might be an issue when translating picture books from English. Just like Russian, French distinguishes between the formal and informal second-person pronoun ‘you’ (vous VS tu), which sometimes can be tricky to translate from English.

Why is it so important to have translated literature, but especially translated children’s books in your opinion?

I think my answer will be pretty unoriginal: it is essential to read literature in translation to learn more about the world around us, especially about the places that we would not have been able to visit otherwise. Translations are crucial for child readers as they help them develop tolerance and embrace diversity. If children are only presented with familiar voices, this limits their exposure to different cultures, especially now, in the era of fake news with children being bombarded with the pejorative portrayals of some countries and nations in the media. More translated voices might put a stop to old prejudices and stereotyping.

Do you think it is necessary/important to have the translator’s name on the book cover as well as the author’s and illustrator’s names? Is there a different approach to it, comparing the Russian and UK book market?

I believe it is indeed important to put the translator’s name on the book cover. For decades, we have been persuaded by the ‘translator’s invisibility’ (“translators are like ninjas. If you notice them, they’re no good”) with publishers holding on to the idea of people being less likely to buy a book if they think it’s a translation. Children should not assume that all books they read were initially written in their native language otherwise it presents a false idea of a universal childhood. On top of that, having a name on the cover means more responsibility on the part of a translator which results in a higher quality of translation.

As a rule, Russian publishers would only put the translator’s name on the cover if it’s a well-known author/poet to help with book promotion and sales boost. But the market, at least the children’s ones, is slowly picking up on social media campaigns #TranslatorsOnTheCover and #NameTheTranslator – not without the help of my fellow translators. Whenever we see a new book release or a book blogger’s post on social media, we ask to include the translator’s name and now it’s gradually becoming a routine. There are now several publishers who have made official statements to always put translators’ names on the covers on a regular basis.

September 2022

This interview was conducted via email by Rosalba Hojer, a German Erasmus+ scholar studying French in the UK and intern working for Dr Sophie Heywood from the University of Reading.

Ekaterina Shatalova translates from French and English to Russian. She is an up-and-coming translator who, among many other professional and academic achievements, has a Master's degree in English Literature from the University of Oxford and is an Erasmus Mundus scholar at the University of Glasgow. Ekaterina is also part of the Russian Kid Lit blog which gives a platform to Russian children’s books by reviewing them.