# Traces

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2022/12/29/traces/
- Published: 2022-12-29T03:20:05+00:00
- Author: shuktara

4.6/5 - (16 votes)

**Author:** André Nayer⌊A sample cover of the book: midnight blue coloured handloom
sari with gold embossed nameplate and lettering for the title and author's name.
The border of the sari lines the right hand margin of the cover.⌉
 **Translator (
English):** Harry Aveling **Translator (Vietnamese):** Châu Diên Pham Toàn **Pages:**
118 **Year of Publication:** 2022 **Price:** Rs 500 / €10 **ISBN:** 978-81-958199-
7-3 (9788195819973)

_**About the Author**_
 André Nayer was born in Jadotville/Likasi, Congo RDC, the
son of a Belgian mother, Blanche Janssens, and an Indian father, Santokh Singh Nayer(
born in Mombasa, Kenya), grandson of Gurdit Singh Nayer (born in Lahore, Punjab).

His work has covered diverse roles, from years spent at Law School to jurist, researcher,
Director of the Centre de Recherche et Prospective en droit social (CeRP), Professor
at Free University of Brussels (ULB), and Vice-Rector and General Commissioner at
ULB. He has authored several works and his book _Les inspections sociales en Belgique
_received the Maurice Van der Rest Prize (Fédération des Enterprises en Belgique)
and the Alice Seghers Prize (Law Faculty ULB).

He was awarded the medal for “Significant Contributions to Education” by the National
Economics University (NEU), Hanoi. He has taught and been a keynote speaker in Africa,
Asia (particularly in Vietnam), Canada and Europe.

He is also a poet, his poems are where his Indian, European, and African origins
come together.

_**About the Translators**_

**Harry Aveling** has taught in Australia (Monash and Murdoch Universities), Malaysia(
University of Science of Malaysia, Penang), Indonesia (University of Indonesia, 
Jakarta), Vietnam (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, HCMC) and the United
States of America (Ohio University, Athens and the University of Maryland, College
Park). A benefit of his wandering scholar status is that he has established an international
reputation as a gifted and wide-ranging translator and literary critic. He has translated
extensively from Indonesian, Malay and Francophone Vietnamese literatures; he has
also co-translated from Hindi and Vietnamese. His most recent publications include_**
[Hikayat Seri Rama: The Malay Ramayana](https://writersworkshopindia.com/books/hikayat-seri-rama-the-malay-ramayana/)**_,
published by **Writers Workshop**, India, in 2020, and _Perspectives: Essays on 
Translation and Literature __of the Malay World_, published by National University
of Malaysia Press, 2020.

**Châu Diên **(**birth name: Phạm Toàn**) was born in 1932 and passed away in 2019.
His works of fiction include _Golden Spider_ (short stories, Thanh Nien, 1962), 
_Someone from Dreamy River_ (novel, Vietnam Writers Association, 2004) and _Seventy-
three Stone Mortars_ (short stories, Vietnam Writers Association, 2006). He translated
Victor Hugo’s _Ninety-three _(Van Hoc, 1981, 1987), Carlos Goldoni’s _The Mistress
of The Inn _(Van Hoc, 1983) and Saint-Exupéry’s _Night Flight_ (Van Hoc, 1986, 2008)
and _The Little __Prince_ (Dong Tay and Lao Dong, 2008). He was best known for his
innovative Vietnamese Language books, a collection of 36 volumes for six grades 
of the Vietnam primary education system.

_**About the Book[⌊Poem in French on the left-hand page with its English translation on the right-hand page.⌉](https://writersworkshopindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Sample-poem-from-Traces-scaled-1.jpeg)**_

In her foreword to the book, Nguyễn Bảo Chân writes:

“Some years ago, André told me that he would love to have a poetry collection published.
I suggested that it should be a bilingual book, in French and English, because the
English translations would make his poetry better known worldwide. André absolutely
agreed with me. He said he needed a good translator, but he did not know anyone 
well enough to work with. At that very moment, I thought of Harry Aveling, an Australian
professor of linguistics, who is a well-known translator of quite a few literary
books into English from French, Hindi, Indonesian and Malay. Harry Aveling was also
the editor of my bilingual poetry books, _Thorns in Dreams_ and _Shadows of My Mind_.
He revised my English versions in those books… Last year, I was happy to introduce
the author to the translator. André Nayer and Harry Aveling haven’t ever met each
other in person. They have communicated through phone calls, messages, emails, to
discuss the poems, to make them smooth and clear in English. After almost one year
of hard working, the translations of _Traces_ have been done, finally.

I am enchanted by the beautiful English translations. Amazingly, these “traces” 
lead me to step into the higher and the deeper layers of André’s heaven and earth.
As André wrote: “Impalpables/ le ciel/ la terre/ et aussi l’ensemble,/ entre” – “
So fine/ heaven/ and earth/ everything between,/ enter in”, I myself now come together
with him, together with both of them, the author and the translator.”

_**Contents**_
 31 poems in French on the verso side with their English translations
on the recto pages, and 13 poems translated into Vietnamese.