Translating this tiny poem involved much thought and discussion. We struggled for some time with the title: in the original French, it’s ‘Prints’ not ‘Fingerprints’ (though that word crops up in the third line). But ‘prints’ in English has far wider connotations than in French. So we stuck with ‘Fingerprints’.
Most of our efforts centred on trying to make our final version sound as ‘light’ and colloquial as the original – as close to ordinary speech in English. Do let us know how you think we got on!
Sarah Maguire, Workshop Facilitator