I’m proud to announce the French translation of Prince Puggly of Spud and the Kingdom of Spiff is now available from Editions Seuil in Paris. In French, Prince Puggly is Prince Cradoc (trust me, it rhymes better this way).
This translation is interesting for two reasons. First, because so many translators balk at two or three hundred pages of rhyming poetry, this is the only translation of Prince Puggly in existence.
(Please note: an extremely excellent German translation of Zorgamazoo is available!)
Thanks to the brave and diligent translator Rosalind Elland-Goldsmith, however, French is currently the only language with translations of both my verse novels.
But wait, there’s more…
Printing errors! I hate them. They suck. (This will make sense about three sentences from now.)
Prince Puggly contains one of the worst printing errors I can imagine. At the bottom of page 130, a whole line of verse was sadly dropped.
It pains me to this very day. In fact, I often get questions from readers who ask about the mysterious unrhymed line at the bottom of page 130.
Allow me to conclusively reveal that it ought to read:
But before she could tip into total despair,
a sound tumbled down, from out of the air.
Luckily, I was in contact with Rosalind during her translation and armed with this crucial final piece of the Puggly puzzle, she was able to produce not merely the only translation of the titular prince’s tale, but also its most complete telling!
Merci, Rosalind. I am in your debt.
Finally, in case you aren’t sure how much work goes into translating all those pages of verse, Rosalind sent me a picture:
Hm. Looks eerily similar to my own writing desk!