Buku Fixi: On Translating Bestsellers for Malaysia | Publishing ...

Posted: 25 Feb 2014 12:00 AM PST

Young Malaysian publisher Buku Fixi is making waves, most recently with translations of novels by Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.

Fixi Verso

Interview by Linda Tan Lingard

KUALA LUMPUR: From its first days of operation in 2011, the publisher Buku Fixi has made a distinctive mark on the publishing world in Malaysia. It has four imprints or labels, as founder Amir Muhammad prefers to call them: Fixi publishes Malay contemporary urban novels; Fixi Retro publishes out-of-print Malay novels; Fixi Novo publishes English-language books. The latest endeavor, Fixi Verso, publishes bestsellers in translation and launched in January with translations of Joyland by Stephen King and Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.

Amir Muhammad, founder of Fixi (Photo: The Star)

Amir Muhammad, founder of Buku Fixi (Photo: The Star)

Amir Muhammad, founder and publisher of Buku Fixi, took time to answer some questions for Publishing Perspectives:

PP: You recently published the Malay edition of Joyland by Stephen King and The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman and started Fixi Verso. What led to the decision to start Fixi Verso and why the two books?

Muhammad: I wanted to spread happiness! These are two of the writers I enjoy reading, so I assume (or hope) that readers who are more comfortable with Malay would enjoy them too. I will only pick authors I enjoy; hence there will be no Dan Brown or EL James.

How has the experience been? Getting translators etc. And how much more does it add to cost – advance payment, translation cost.

It has been fun. Getting translators is a challenge as not only talent but stamina is required for a whole novel. It would be great if we had a ready pool of not only those who can translate from English but from other languages into Malay. The upfront cost is increased because the original authors are paid 6% royalties as if the first print run has already sold out. I also pay translators 5% royalties but give an advance. But if we succeed in going for at least a second printing, then the costs should eventually work out almost the same as for an original Malay novel.

How has the reception been to Fixi Verso? How many books does Fixi Verso plan to publish this year? And who are the authors Fixi Verso would like to translate?

"The third is most likely Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage."

Well we just started so it's hard to tell. But based on first-week online sales, I am reasonably optimistic that at least one of the titles will go for second print within 3 months of release.

We have no specific target for 2014; I will see which books we can get. We can't take books that are too thick (such as over 400 pages in English) because translating into Malay adds 30% to the length and a translated book of over 500 pages would be priced beyond the range of our target readers (mainly the college-age).

The third Fixi Verso is most likely Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage which came out in Japanese last year but whose English version will be out only in August. His agent has agreed on condition that it is translated straight from the Japanese. Luckily we found someone who is able to do so, and she is working with someone who will make sure the Malay prose is idiomatic and flows well. Our plan is to showcase this translation at the Tokyo Book Fair in July.

What will be the key happenings for Buku Fixi this year that we should look out for?

We are starting a new label (no name yet!) for non-fiction, basically short works (about 150-200 pages) that are contemporary or polemical in nature. Perhaps each book will be printed just once or twice and then live on only as ebooks. The first book in this label is How Malaysia Never Reached the World Cup, a translation of a Malay bestseller by Lucius Maximus from 2012 but slightly updated. The book will have a subtitle but we're not sure what it is yet; perhaps something like 'Harimau Malaya's 40-Year Chronicle of Failure.' This is slated for release in March. We have also sponsored a Malaysian novelist to spend a month in Brazil to experience the World Cup itself; he will then deliver a novel but the content of the novel is entirely up to him as long as it's called Brazil — like that Terry Gilliam movie.

Linda Tan Lingard is director of Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She has been in the publishing industry for more than twenty years and enjoys meeting and writing about the people that shape the industry.

Haji's Book of Malayan Nursery Rhymes | Sausan Reads – Malaysia

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 01:28 PM PST

by Susan Abraham

About my Find

Not too long ago when I stopped in Kuala Lumpur and visited the splendid Kinokuniya Bookstore, this quaint treasure of a children's poetry book, beckoned to me shyly, from a locked glass showcase. There it waited…a handsome Malaysian antiquarian item… regally poised in all of its ancient glory. The beautifully preserved First-hand edition titled Haji's Book of Malayan Nursery Rhymes, stood silently with several other sterner out-of-print hardback editions; all determined to feature tales and essays of an older Malaya, still laden with her sharp aristocratic flavour. Never you mind that in the same fashion which may have just as well befitted a toffee-nosed mannequin marvellously holding every strand in place, neither too would any page or content be held amiss.

With a gasp, I was thrown from adulthood into the enthrallment of a child's simple joys, than apparent in Klang town's famous Caxton Bookshop on Rembau Street. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the groundfloor that made for a row of rambling old shophouses, ran riot with jigsaw puzzles and picture books.

My thoughts fell instantly into a cache of abundant memories, so gracefully matched with the wonder of the moment.

I felt ironically blessed for a birthday that had now stumbled into the late summer of my life. While happily encased in the present New Age digital world, I had once tasted the fading influences of British colonalism in the Far East, also. This, not to be imagined from novels but the real thing. How richly then had the literary influences of England been stirred into a potpourri of multicultural Malay, Chinese, Indian, Sikh and Eurasian communities with nary a complication, at least not that was offered to a child's visible notions. This of course, combined with varied enchanting storytelling elements that each culture so liberally allowed for its leisurely moments.

Without hesitation, I purchased the only edition that appeared to be present.

It set me back RM690 (about 150 euros). Of course, there were vital reasons for this. Book-collecting of somewhat rare and personal gems had turned into a passionate hobby and here was an opportunity too good to miss. Besides, I was seduced by the vault of memories that had so quickly engulfed me…that familar seduction of late, that demanded I write a novel on my childhood.

Caption: A little Malay girl in her sandals, stares anxiously at the heavy pelts of tropical rain being blown about by the wind while being kept dry by a hardy umbrella.

About the Author

Sadly, I know scant about A.W. Hamilton although I did receive a strong impression of his dedication to the Malay Language and I am familiar with his selection of pantuns. The trouble is as children we recite the poems, ballads, tales and songs with whoops of relish and later, mentally store away renditions with an equal fervour, but at such a tender age, spare little thought for the person who wrote them. Among a few of his works, I would discover Hamilton's Malay Pantuns, Malay Proverbs – Bidal Melayu and Malay Made Easy – Covering the Dutch East Indies and Malaya.

About the Book

Mine's a densely speckled and yellowed version of a 1956 reprint, published by the then Donald Moore Ltd, at MacDonald House on Orchard Road, Singapore. Haji's Book of Malayan Nursery Rhymes had been treated to its first publication in 1939, three years before the start of the Japanese Occupation as a result of World War II, in the Malayan Peninsular, Borneo and Singapore. The second reprint would be later published in Australia in 1947. I get the clear impression before feeling subsequently thrilled that the copy now lining my library shelf, had surely passed through several appreciative hands once upon a time, in the forgotten past.

What I found fascinating was Hamilton's Preface. He wrote that some of the Malayan Nursery Rhymes received their original publication as early as 1922 in pamphlet form, at the time of the Malaya-Borneo exhibition. They were then reprinted the following year, by the Methodist Publishing House in Singapore where the local poems were issued with both cardboard covers and illustrations, as an added attraction.

In his Preface, Hamilton also wrote most humbly that he considered the Malayan poems he so ably translated from a numerous collection of popular English rhymes, to be recognised as a product of Malaya and that he would take no credit for his industry. He dedicated the verses and what may even be viewed as limericks… solely for the indulgence of the little folk.

Caption: In a kampung, an old crooked man labelled as 'orang bongkok' takes a slow stroll to his attap home, held deftly by stilts. Next to his hut, lies a coconut tree.

Here are a few examples:

Georgie Porgie

Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie, Kissed the girls and made them cry; When the girls came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away.

Now, the old Malay version would read:

Awang Bawang

Awang Bawang, kachang kobis, Chium anak dara, nangis; Bila kawan keluar chari, Awang Bawang sudah lari.

- Excerpt taken from Haji's Book of Malayan Nursery Rhymes.

and for another example,

Hey, Diddle Diddle

Hey! Diddle, diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed To see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon.

Here, the Malay version would read:

Kuching Dengan Biola

Hai! mula-mula, Kuching dengan biola; Lembu melompat ka-bulan. Anak anjing ketawa, Suka tengok melawak, Dan sendok di-larikan pinggan.

- Excerpt taken from Haji's Book of Malayan Nursery Rhymes

The book still slightly frail in my hands, is made up of about a 100 pages of a commendable compilation of English rhymes. These are followed simulatenously by translations; each rhyme pairing up with a Malay version, featuring the older Malay vocabulary and spelling. Now, I was familiar with these as we still studied the older version for a while in the classroom, before an overhaul of the language took place a little later.

Several of the couplets are rather short, resulting in quite a few poems scattered together on a solitary page. The book ends with an added seven pages, featuring nothing but a heavy glossary of English-Malay definitions, giving me another distinct impression of how thorough a writer A.W. Hamilton was and of how much pride he placed in his work.

Caption: A merry band of children link hands and dance round a banana tree while singing a Malay rendition of 'Round the Mulberry Bush'

About the Illustrations

I was really bowled over by the illustrations and I have placed a few here in this post.

In his Introduction, Hamilton also took time out to thank Mrs Nora Hamerton, who I gather was already a well-known illustrator in Malaya, during the time. She is mentioned a few times on the web and I was delighted to read that Badan Warisan Malaysia, had described Hamerton's early illustrations as a fine piece of work. I wish more accolades had been awarded her and that there would have been an appropriate biographical detail to her artwork, that would have been easily accessible.

Perhaps not even that, but just merely for Nora Hamerton to have been better celebrated for her artistry and talent. I also observed that Hamerton had worked with Hamilton on other childrens' books too. Once more, the poet and translator mentioned in his Preface that Nora Hamerton had resided in Kapar, Selangor. That drew this book really close to home for me. Although the thoughtful artist graced my patch many many years before I was born, my eyes still shone with excitement to read that the illustrator had lived on the fringes of Klang, where I myself had been raised in the Sixties.

I was tickled by some of the illustrations especially that of an old Tamilian lady who wore her saree with no blouse under the wrap. I remembered with a start that as a little girl, I often saw older ladies like these sauntering on the roadside, where they lived in nearby squatters made up of attap houses or trooped down into town, from the neighbouring palm oil estates. The memory was especially distinct as I remember the sarees in rainbow hues as was the fashion during the time ie. an electrifying pink, a lime green or sky blue etc. Without a doubt, some of the toothless wizened women attracted public attention but seemed oblivious of it. The illustrations envelop all the races and I was touched to see also, a Nyonya mother and her child in their costumed regalia.

What a fine journey into the past from a little book festooned with nostalgic literary delights, still young to the mind after the twilight toil of long and winding roads. - susan abraham

Further Reading: i) For further reading, you may like to engage in the following essay, published in a French journal and titled: The Poetics of the Pantun. ii) A collection of definitions affliated to the Pantun in English may also be found HERE.
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Wednesday 26 February 2014