Welcome to Talking Translation, where we go behind the scenes and between the lines to learn more about the process of translating Australian children’s books. Today we meet Anouk Abels-van den Boogaart, the Dutch translator of many popular Australian children’s books, as well as the editor of translated editions of Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man series. 

Why talk about translation?

Children’s and YA books make up over 54% of the international rights sales of Australian literature. They are vibrant agents of cross-cultural exchange and exciting contributors to the arts economy. And Aussies love an international success story! So, by all means, praise the authors! Praise the illustrators! But do remember that none of this success happens without exceptional translators, who deftly manipulate words to ensure new audiences can enjoy the same reading experience as the book’s first readers. In the age of AI it’s never been more important to celebrate these gifted creators who do SO much more than swap one word for another. Let’s make our translators visible!  

Talking Translation with Dutch translator Anouk Abels-van den Boogaart

Anouk Abels-van den Boogaart is an experienced translator, as well as the acquiring editor for children’s book publisher Condor. In her role she both translates and edits the translation work of other creators for the Dutch market, giving her a unique perspective on the best ways to make humour, rhyme and curious creatures cross cultures. 

Q: How many Australian picture books have you translated in your career?

A: I’ve translated several titles by Zanni Louise and Philip Bunting. I’ve got two favourites: The Wonderful Wisdom of ants and Another Book About Bears. They are so much fun!

Q: Do you notice similarities across the Australian books you’ve worked on that pose challenges to translation?

A: In Philip’s books, there are quite a lot of references to strange animals that I suspect will be more known in Australia than in the Netherlands. When you’re translating a book for the age group 4-6, you don’t want to make it too complicated. And some of these animal names are so peculiar and difficult!

Q: For your work on the popular Philip & Laura Bunting, and Zanni Louise, books, specifically, can you identify some of the challenges you faced? Are there particular pages or lines of text that were hard to render into Dutch?

A: It’s always difficult to translate jokes that have something to do with phonetics. At one point in Another Book About Bears, the following joke was part of the text:

‘Neighing’ in Dutch is ‘hinniken’, and the word ‘no/nay’ is ‘nee’. So, you have to find a joke that is different, but still has a similar feel. And it has to work in the context! As a solution, I thought of the sound Dutch kids would make if they imitate a horse. That would be ‘Hie-hie-hie’. So I decided to stay close to that and go for: ‘Nee-hee-hee’ (No-ho-ho).

Q: What are some of the challenges involved in translating picture books, in general? For example, how do the illustrations impact the way you translate the words? How do you adjust rhyming texts?

A: Rhyming is difficult, and something that you have to approach with a certain amount of free reign. I always think the vibe and the sense of humour of an author need to be intact. That is the most important thing and trumps being 100% faithful to the original wording. But with illustrations, you cannot change anything. And that’s always a hard thing to encounter as both an editor and a translator!

I’d like to give you an example of something we encountered in the Dog Man books. There was a joke about paying for something in a store. The character had to pay a certain amount ‘plus tax’. In the next panel, you saw him pay with actual tacks. In the Netherlands, we don’t have the whole ‘plus tax’ thing. In addition, the word for tax (‘belasting’) does not sound like tacks (‘punaises’) at all! So, what do you do? In these cases, the translator [Tjibbe Veldkamp] and I brainstorm together to find a solution. He eventually came up with a brilliant reference to ‘een prikkie’. This is old school Dutch slang for something being a bargain. But ‘een prikkie’ also means a small sting. That way, we changed the joke, but it still was funny and fit the situation perfectly. Unfortunately, sometimes you just got to let go of the original joke and talk (or write) around it. But it is so satisfying to find a proper solution that’s fun and feels organic as well!

Q: Finally, please tell us a bit about your career as a translator (background, education, experience, languages).

A: I studied Dutch and Literature at the University of Utrecht and did a minor in English languages and literature. As I mentioned before, I work as an acquiring editor for a children’s book publisher. I get to translate some of our picture books. I really love taking on that challenge! I’ve mainly translated books from English. Right now I am learning Spanish and I can read German pretty well, so I would love to translate books from those languages one day.

Quality translation is a skilled blend of art and science. I hope this interview series helps elevate our respect for the creative efforts of translators, as well as the sophisticated (misunderstood!) work of children’s writers and illustrators.