SLASH's Book and My Translation to Portuguese

     

     The autobiography written by Slash, Saul Hudson, born in England in 1965, is a real trip throughout the music world. Slash tells us about his musical preferences since he was a kid and traces an interesting time line since, mainly, the 1970s till present day. This alone, for those who enjoy music (almost everyone, I guess), would turn it into a “must-have” book. In Guns N’ Roses golden days, Slash was (and always will be, of course) an extremely talented guitarist, indeed. But, to me, as a rock fan, at that time he was still someone hidden behind a mountain of hair and a top hat. The curious thing is that this book has been given to another translator who wasn't able to do it because of the deadline, and I ended up having the privilege of translating it. 

     Of course, as most fans, I've never really known Slash, nor Saul Hudson, as a person. I only know the things I've read about him, and I love his irresistible rock music and riffs and those incredible songs (Though I was lucky to meet him in a show, as in the picture below.) But it was only after I translated Slash’s book that I came to admire him as a person as well. As I use to say, to translate a book, you have to enter a bit into the author’s mind, to understand his/her ideas to be able to transmit them in the most precise way, while you read the book hundreds of times in the process. But always, as a translator, you have to transmit all this in a detached way, and so, this translation of the book to Portuguese is impartial as it must be.

     As a reader, though, I think Slash revealed himself a generous, gentle, sensible, determined person. Slash talks about his childhood, his friendships, the mischievousness of the youth, of school times, and his fascination for snakes and exotic animals in general. It’s amazing the candidness Slash uses to give us his account, so perfectly transmitted by Anthony Bozza’s style as he wrote the book. As Slash talks with all his heart, we’ve got the impression, throughout the book, that we're in a kind of chat with our idol as readers. (If you want to know it all, his book is really great to read.)

     Another admirable aspect is Slash’s innate talent for music and to play guitar. Without many resources, he learned to play practically by himself, starting using his grandmother’s famous flamenco guitar and reading dozens and dozens of sheet music and guitar tabs, while playing together with his favorite rock bands’ albums. His efforts ended up enabling him to achieve great success in his musical projects. (I went to his shows in São Paulo in 2011 and in 2012 and was amazed to see the energy the man has to play his guitar. We get breathless just looking at him as fans!)

     Naturally, in his book, Slash tells us about his trajectory in Guns N’ Roses, the way the band started, how he met the other members, about ups and downs, the huge success, what he felt becoming famous, the tours, the opening shows to his own idols, like Aerosmith and Mötley Crüe. Like Rome, there was the inevitable decline of the band, and it was a pity because they were perfect together, with an incredible chemistry, as all gunners would agree. And it’s not a report about choosing sides _ in all stories everybody has his/her own version of the facts, his/her points of view. Anyway, I guess certain aspects are all water under the bridge now, and concerning the parts involved. If I had to use a single word to describe the book itself as a reader I would say it’s about “endurance”.

     And my translation, naturally, was totally impartial as translations must be, transmitting all the contents as they are in the original book, though I’m also giving my own opinions as a reader in this article. The translation itself to Portuguese was long and hard with lots of slangs, technical details about music, playing and recording, references to countless people, places, etc. etc., and it demanded lots of researching. But it was very pleasurable indeed. It’s my favorite among all the translations I’ve done. Because when one translates a book, the result is much better when he/she also enjoys it as a reader first. And I’ve been lucky enough to always translate things I enjoy.

     In the book, there is the somber and dramatic side, the deep darkness to which addiction unfortunately drags human beings sometimes. As a reader, I think this part about addiction/drugs/alcohol/smoke/self-destruction must be faced as a guide about what NOT to do with our lives.

     In his autobiography, Slash tells us how he has gotten his nickname, and also the top hat that would become his trademark when he had to improvise some garments for shows. There we find drama, friendship, nostalgia, a lot about Rock, a bit of something like the “Twilight Zone”, and there’s a lot of sense of humor in the book too, what’s very charming. We can laugh with some of Slash’s mishaps, as he talks about them, including the glam period of the band, or when he had to dress like a woman to go inside a nightclub.

     One of my favorite of those parts is when he jumped straight from the stage during a show and the audience parted like the Red Sea, and he fell hard on the floor _ a kind of miscalculation. Then, as if nothing had happened, he cleaned the dust, went back to the stage and kept on playing. I think that’s a good metaphor for the way he gathered up the pieces of his old life and turned it into a greater success.

Slash With Anthony Bozza

Translation to Portuguese: Tina Jeronymo

Comments in Portuguese about this translation and other ones are at the link:

Comentários em português sobre esta tradução e outras estão no link:

http://tinajeronymotradutora.blogspot.com.br/p/traducoes-recentesrecent-translations.html

Slash com Anthony Bozza  - Autobiografia

Tradução: Tina Jeronymo

Ediouro

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Show in São Paulo, Brazil, Nov. 6h, 2012

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Selfie Fever

Hey, come back! I wanna just your camera to take a selfie.

     We are certainly on the selfie era. Almost everybody takes selfies intending to post them on the social networks. It’s been a long time that self-taken pictures exist, naturally, but the term selfie became more popular in 2012, and now we can say that we’re living in a selfie culture. When people post selfies just for fun, it’s a way of relaxing and sharing good times with friends. The problem is when they just seek approval and worry about how much Likes, or comments they get. The selfie can’t be an obsession, or, as with everything else, too much of them can become tiresome, and may mean a case of low self-esteem, or narcissism. Selfies are here to stay and to be enjoyed with common sense and sense of humor. Have you already posted your selfie today?

The Art of Writing

     As the saying goes, no one is born knowing everything, but we do know at least one thing when we are born. Our gift.  Whichever it will be the point in our lives that we will be able to discover and develop it.

     I believe writing is a gift, a vocation, that we have since we are little, such as painting or singing. What happens with gifts is that we are able to develop them, improve them with time. But if one does not have a specific gift when he/she is born _ and everybody has one or more of them _ it can’t be created, fabricated. When we try to do that, the result sounds false, artificial, or, at most, sufferable.

       There is a difference between having a gift and the capacity to learn countless things. The human being has a huge capacity of learning, even things he doesn’t think he’s capable of. And, in certain areas, when one “learns” a specific thing and succeeds it is because he/she already had the gift for that without realizing it yet.

     Writing is a gift that usually manifests itself still in childhood, through the easiness in writing essays for school, diaries and texts in general. Writing is a gift that walks hand in hand with imagination. Imagination is the main raw material of the writer. We can ask a writer to write about practically everything, even the most trivial things, and the words will flow naturally for him/her when composing his/her text.

     So we can’t learn to be a writer? In this case, who are the “writers’ apprentices”?

    One can’t learn to be a writer because writing is an ability connected to the gift. We can’t teach a person to have imagination and inspiration he doesn’t have to express his thoughts and feelings through words. What we can learn is writing techniques, rules of the language, but, for them to bear fruit, they must be supported by an already existing gift. Which means that a person who has the writing gift can improve it with those techniques. This way, the writer apprentice is the one who is already born with the writing gift and aims to improve it. He/she learns with masters, not to imitate them, but to improve his/her own techniques and feel encouraged by them.

    With the due humbleness, I think I have this writing gift. I’ve always had the ability to create texts. Since childhood, I’ve always loved books, and I wanted to be a journalist. Life took me through other paths, but I ended up studying Letters and becoming a translator, always dealing with literature, languages, books. These have always been recurrent themes in my life. Some say a translator, though always faithful to the original text, is a coauthor of a book. And, in fact, it is what happens; the translator has to transcribe the original text to his own language, faithfully, but in a way that is clear and natural to the reader. However, the inspiration and imagination to create and write belonged exclusively to the author.

    Besides the techniques and rules of his language that a writer learns to improve his gift, he also does a lot of research for his books, and also trips. The more experience in life a writer has, the more emotional baggage he possesses, more material he will have to add to his gift.

    Though I think I have a gift to write, I’ve never written a book, which is an old dream. I think I haven’t tried yet to write a book because I can’t see myself creating plots capable of captivating the reader and conduct him to a surprising ending. I believe that, when writing, we have more ability for certain things rather than others. I think I’m more suitable to write nonfiction, and, the day I write a book, it will probably be a self-help book.

Meanwhile, I’ll continue to be a writer’s apprentice in my blog, writing my texts, reading one book after another and learning with the master writers. tj*¬

Blog's Presentation

Hello! The Writers’ Apprentices is an individual blog, just in English, with only this one page. But it’s also an extension of the bigger blog called Aprendizes de Escritores. As I use to say, Writers’ Apprentices and Aprendizes de Escritores are twins, but not identic ones. I created Aprendizes de Escritores in April/2011 and, since then, I’ve been translating it to English to turn it into a bilingual blog. The whole blog has 15 pages, and there are lots of parts there in Portuguese that are already in English too.

     As I am a translator, I want both blogs to be shared with all people, no matter the language, or the profession. In order to know the whole bilingual blog of 15 pages, if you’d like after you visit here, please click on the link that is in the waterfall below.

     The bilingual blog is eclectic, and I talk about several things there. There are articles and texts in general, and also additional pages with tips, thinkers' quotes, comic cards, landscapes, etc.  Songwriting can also be an art, like in “Stairway to Heaven”. I love rock, hard rock specially, and I included on the blog a page about Queen, who, with their varied style, is my favorite band and, among other things, is an example of excellence in songwriting.

      Due to my romantic nature, I love to decorate the blogs with lots of beautiful internet images, my composites, and collages. Feel free to copy those you want. There's a page full of incredible gifs, the Visitor's Corner, that I dedicate specially to thank followers and visitors who let me know about their visits through comments. You’ll find all these pages and the Main Page of the blog AE/WA there with articles on the list of pages links below.

     I’m experienced in my own profession, but I’m giving my first steps as a writer, though I’ve been writing texts since childhood, and that’s why I gave this bilingual name to my blogs, because here and there I myself am the writers’ apprentice. I’m learning a lot while writing in my blogs, but I also want to encourage and inspire other people to write. And to read. I have a real passion for books, and I think reading a lot is one of the first steps to be able to write. I also believe writing is a gift, but it can be also improved in many ways, through writing techniques, life experiences, reading itself, etc.

     Here, on the Writers’ Apprentices Blog (that has only one page), you’ll find lots of interesting things too, in a pleasant way, such as articles, texts, phrases, comic cards, general comments and tips, etc.  Naturally, the blogs Writers’ Apprentices and Aprendizes de Escritores are destined to all visitors who want to entertain themselves with its contents, not only aspirant writers as me, and I welcome and thank you all. tj*¬

Be Welcomed Also to the

 “Blog Aprendizes de Escritores”,

 and to All Blog’s Additional Pages.

P.S.: I’ve chosen the image above (of internet public domain) to symbolize the blog because, when I see it, I imagine someone arriving in a pleasurable way (because I love to ride my bicycle) in a cozy place like a house, a book store, a café. That’s the way I hope visitors to feel in the Writers’ Apprentices Blog. tj*¬