The Place of a Lifetime

This autobiographic novella is part of longer novel, not yet written. The novel, &quotLe temps d'une vie", has three parts, corresponding to three periods in the life of the character. This novella is the first part of the novel. The story takes place in a small village south of France, between the Mediterranean Sea and the vineyards. A child, then a teenager, comes to his grand parents' house for holidays: Christmas, Easter and the long summer break. He meets grand parents, aunts, and an uncle. For him and his friends, the whole village and the countryside around are their playground. He experiences a life there quite different from his regular one in the city of Bordeaux with his parents. The novella was first written in French, then translated into English by Dr Siobhan Brownlie. The translator and I discussed various problems that arose, the main issue being dealing with culturally specific terms in the French text. The novella was judged by Dr Donna Lee Brien not as a translation but as an original piece of writing, and she made suggestions for changes to the English text. I implemented some of these changes in order to produce a further version of the English text and finding some of the suggestions useful for the French text too, I implemented corresponding changes in the French text. Dr Siobhan Brownlie wrote a paper about the translation process of this thesis, &quotOriginal as Translation; Translation as Original". The paper has been published in &quotUQ Vanguard", 2003, mini-series #3. Contact: UQ Vanguard, c/o Clubs and Societies, UQ Union, University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072. uqvanguard@uq.edu.au; www.emsah.uq.edu.au/uqvanguar