The following are a selection of the papers delivered on the Cowrie novels and/or Pacific Literature by Drs. Karin Meissenburg and Cathie Dunsford, as commissioned by Dr. Liz Millward at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg and Dr. Katherine McKittrick at Queen’s University, Kingston during the Canadian Book Tour.

From Pele to Laukiamanuikahiki: Juggling with Fire and Water in Translating the Aotearoan – Pacific Novels of Cathie Dunsford
Karin Meissenburg

My research into Asian American literature, specifically the Chinese component, but also readings in Chicana and African American writing and dialogues with the writers, has taught me as a Pakeha/white German to be very cautious with regard to judging what a text from different cultural traditions means, what its literary merits are. Outstanding texts have disappeared in the bulk of trash published or never got printed at all. Networking between women in the various fields of the publishing industry, be it as authors, editors, translators, promoters, designers, even (tongue in cheek) publishers and with different cultural backgrounds may redeem, at least in our own field, the prevailing trend of the market.

In bringing decolonizing and post-colonial authors into print or having them translated publishers are confronted with a huge responsibility. Time constraints and/or cultural one dimensionality often bars them from taking up this challenge. We have seen the ground-breaking novel by Maxine Hong Kingston The Woman Warrior fail to reach a German readership because its liberating message was submerged in exoticising and belittling language. It may not have been the translator at work: the time constraints set by the press are often forbidding, thus an adequate familiarization with the text cannot take place. The editors — mostly not conversant in post-colonial literatures — usually work under pressure and therefore are not able to engage themselves with their heart. And more often than not, white mainstream publishers, as far as I can observe, do not care whether the authenticity of a text is preserved or not.

A translation is always an interpretation and through this a narrowing down of the original’s message and interplay of words. On the other hand it may open up new visions of the text which the text allows for without interfering with its authenticity. Given the time constraints and with a complex text like the Cowrie novels this cannot be accomplished singlehandedly. So in the first discussion about the translational work the publishers and I agreed that it would be a team-work endeavour. How this would be put into practice none of us had envisioned at that time. As the publishers allowed the author’s voice to be heard and took it seriously a very unusual cooperation ensued and a lot of extra hard work from all sides was invested as is documented in the author’s acknowledgements for the German translation. The team-work envisioned in the beginning gained a whole new momentum. Through all our interactions new ideas evolved (ranging from the map according to Cowrie, to finding words for difficult passages everybody in the end felt happy with) which would not have come into existence had all of us individually given the very best.

Since this is a conference based around the Cowrie novels, I will refer here to the process of translating and interpreting these novels in relation to the themes of personal, cultural and global identities. In the translation work of the Cowrie novels the interaction of author and translator had its effect on the whole publishing process. It was not in our minds at all during the first months of our emailing over textual questions. At the end of four months, however, the publishers came in with an enormous opening up to the dialogue happening when we had an editorial meeting. As the first editor was not tuned in with post-colonial literature nor with activist issues, large portions of extensive editing had to be re-edited. This necessitated even closer communication between author and translator as we were working towards a tight deadline. Feeding all the information and the author’s view on critical passages back to the publishers brought about an amazing exchange of ideas all around. Finally the publisher herself worked as editor on the final proofs together with the translator.

There are various schools and approaches to translating a literary work. Mine has always come from what I call a contextual logic. This means I need to have an understanding of the cultural background from which authors present their books. It is this interweaving (con-text – text as in a web) of the personal with the cultural, political, social, environmental threads which for me hold the most fascinating adventures when diving into a new book.

When asked by the publisher, Rogner and Bernhard, to translate the Cowrie novels by Cathie Dunsford I had a twofold reaction: I felt so akin to the ideas presented that it meant almost translating my own book from English into German; on the other hand I realized how much I had to catch up with since last studying Commonwealth literatures in the seventies. The latter point threw me into a major conflict: I longed to immerse myself into the books via translation and I saw the dire need to come to terms with my lack of contextual knowledge with regard to the books. While part of that deficiency could be redeemed by reading as many books on Aotearoa and Aotearoan authors as I could lay my hands on, the remaining gaps with regard to the immediate textual needs were indeed large. The following letter shows how these gaps were filled and how a deeper understanding of the novels’ ramifications emerged in this cross-cultural communication and translation processes.

Dear Cath:
I would love to share with you what I feel you have brought with this text to your readers, not only in your country but to that remote European continent where your work will now appear in German. It cheers me tremendously that it is in the hands of a German publishing house which has a record of presenting to the public not only very readable books, but books of a high quality both from European and North American ‘mainstream’ and those which are considered ‘minority’ writing by that mainstream. As I do believe we are at a turning point in our world view of what literature is about and how it presents itself, I use these quotation marks. We have talked about, how African American author Marimba Ani with her book Yurugu: An African-centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior (Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1995) has changed this terminology according to factual evidence. Your work, indeed, feels to be a crucial, maybe decisive contribution to letting this turning happen and to help the real majority literatures to be appreciated and read by the European minority.Out of the broken vessel of Western literary genres you have carved a strong waka of a unique literary form. You have carved that waka out of the healing energies which flow from ancient and modern talkstory: an unbroken tradition living on in its diversity in the hearts and minds of all people from all tribes. And you have endowed it with a poetical energy which is rare these days in the traditional mainstream market. What you have done in your work transcends the present boundaries of cultures, arts, genres and establishes a mode of writing rooted in your own specific literary world yet creating interconnections to others: It is setting the stage for a new genre in literature. An intricate symbolism which shines up beyond the easy surface reading, starts guiding one to ever new levels of understanding, insight, and literary delight.

In a special and unique way you combine politics with enjoyment, social commitment and self-finding processes with exuberant feasting, captivating sensual delight with spirituality. Kia Kaha Cowrie (the German title), starting pensively, works slowly towards a climax with many textual inlets and excursions: a typical mode in talkstory. The talkstories of many peoples have found entrance into the narrative and really speak to the heart. They form the basis and ask the readers to be open and leave their ‘old haunts’ without ever being didactic – much rather with a twinkle in the eye I came to love.
Talkstories characteristically build on coherent images and symbols – like the Cowrie novels which create sign posts of recognition: the stories with turtles and Laukiamanuikahiki, i.e. The Turtle Woman, sea eggs, purple as colour, dreams, the surging of ocean, volcano and love, the kai moana, the plants of three countries (i.e. the kauri, a large powerful tree – linked to the large powerful people who are celebrated), furthermore myths – and again and again Maori words which nest themselves in one’s consciousness as musical motives and cadences.

The two primeval forces, fire and water, reflected in the volcanoes and the oceans are in Cowrie the two mythical beings Pele and Laukiamanuikahiki. Towards the end of the first part, Cowrie identifies herself for the first time with Turtle Woman. In The Journey Home Cowrie and Peta, who become lovers, stand for these primeval forces. The forces and their respective forms complement each other. Fire does not fight against water, nor does the ocean try to quench the flames of the volcano, much rather they play lovingly with each other, enhance each other.

Central to the Cowrie novels is: Survival — living life to the fullest whatever the outer circumstances. You write with your exuberant sense for living against destruction be it large or small: The Euro/US norms destroy everything not standardized according to their parameter, holocaust enacted against Jews, genocide against Native Americans, African-Americans, annihilation of lesbians and gays and abrogation of human rights up to present day, nuclear testing, US-colonialism, the eurocentric colonisation of all realms of life including literature. It is remarkable how this soul-less and negative destructivity finds its counterpart in the well-targeted and healing/wholesome/healthy destruction Pele enacts. Sometimes a theme is only briefly touched upon in Cowrie and treated in depth in The Journey Home.

The books abound with life, vitality and love on so many levels. To be aflame spiritually, as you the author are, means to sizzle on the waves of the ocean and these two powers do not obliterate each other. Erotic energy is linked with spirituality and is not limited to human beings but extends itself to nature, the land. Spirituality, in your own words, sets whole universes of feelings and emotions free and this realm of feelings, emotions, and indeed inner knowledge forms the undercurrent of the novels.

The power of contrasting forces, the tension between creativity and destruction Cowrie experiences at first alone has to come to a resolution. Mere, her adoptive mother, plays in this process a quiet but central role in these novels.

The plot is embedded in vibrant sensual enjoyment to the fullest which is concerned with everything: flowers, trees, water, natural forces, eating, gatherings of families, friends, love scenes. Everything is infectious. Abundance is everywhere, also in the large bodies of women and men. With this you most graciously break with another discriminatory stereotype: you celebrate luscious beauty, give it space. Western culture fixed to the cult of slimness appears as pale, bloodless, deceitful and poor (in spite of outer riches) just like Cowrie’s counterpart at university, Rita. But rather than discarding the one for the other you heal the situation by introducing the couple DK and Suzanne: DK by embracing the fullness of life and form develops from a brusque, intellectual to a sensitive and intelligently warm person.

It is liberating to see you as a literary activist describe in this work men who are helpful to Cowrie in the first part in her quest for identity (Keo, Vile), and who play constructive roles in her activities on the marae (Piripi) and in the Bay Area (especially Native Americans). All this in view of male brutality which women on both sides of the Pacific have to come to terms with. An enormous power filters through the work into the reader and if attuned to it an enormous empowerment on many levels takes place. Thank you for being so absolutely undogmatic and conciliatory in all your approaches to life as they manifest themselves in the novels.

You really paint with words and your drawings speak (e.g. chapter titles are drawings), and in their interaction music emerges. The realm of sound is the third artistic field which has its bearings on the affective power of the novels: humming, pounding, purring, splashing, crooning, surging, sizzling ... This amalgamation and integration of the various forms of artistic expression pulls the reader into the text and require his/her immersion into it. The stylistic means are decidedly different from the mainstream – and an intellectual expectancy conditioned (if not brainwashed) by Western literary ruts will flounder with self-created ruptures; a superficial reading will not be granted the full enjoyment of this absolutely delicious text.

What I found stunning is that it is also a book on healing (Soul-aroha, lomilomi, herbal medicine), about living according to intuition, about true listening, dreaming. It is a sensual book, addressing itself to all senses also the sixth (inspiration for daily living) and the seventh (a feeling for the unio mystica) and is fed by them all. The broad range of topics addressed and the way solutions are indicated or enacted is matched on the stylistic/linguistic levels by amazing variations (quite a treat for a translator!). Just to indicate the most prominent to me: the moving between four cultures and their respective language use including code switching so prominent in bi-/multi-cultural groups (Aotearoan Maori; US- and NZ-English; Hawai’ian); various strata of feminist language from university realms to communal activists to women bonding in rural areas; various lingos of lesbian groups and subgroups; workers’ ideolect juxtaposed with academic talk and writing; the various styles in letter writing; the poetic language in describing nature and love making; the longer sentences and slower pace in the story telling settings in the Maori and Native American context; the inner monologues; the various forms of dialogues in the four linguistic contexts.

During the translation of the book (and I enjoyed every minute working on it these past six months with 12-15 hours a day without a single break) you have been a tremendous help: such a generous sharing of information, time, insight, elucidation, thinking the text through for what it might do from another cultural perspective. This tireless answering of questions and patience with my ignorance of so many aspects of your cultural heritages is unusual in my twelve years of work as a translator.

Having worked both in and out of the academic literary field, I have met few authors who have this scope of poetic and stylistic means, cross-cultural understanding, and multiplicity of thematic ranges. A huge tapestry, reminiscent of Chagall in the realm of visual art, or Judy Chicago. You open up new territories and make them accessible to others. Boundaries are transcended in all directions, on all levels. This crossing of boundaries is possible only because the inherent unity and interdependency (tapestry-weaving) of all, and everything is seen, felt, and lived.

It seems to me that the key to your political activism and literary creativity is your spirituality (never explicitly named or explained in the text, but a constant presence). From the reading material available, it is so obviously linked with all your other work and unthinkable without it: initiating and caring for networks both on the individual and group level; your commitment for recognition of the equality of all cultures of the world, your activism with regard to nuclear testing in the Pacific and against exploitation of the Antarctic. Your work resonates a statement by Shelley – the poets are the true legislators of the world: and you are a poet in the most comprehensive sense of the word.

For me you have been a veritable literary ambassador for Aotearoa and the Pacific at large. Your perspectives are so much needed here.

Kia kaha! Karin Meissenburg

The translation of the Cowrie novels has been a blueprint for better ways of dealing with indigenous and cross-cultural translations for the publishing industry in the future. The translation of the Cowrie novels has been an exciting journey exploring personal, cultural and global identities through translation and this has resulted in us touring and performing from the novels and learning about many other cultures in the process. Mahalo and thanks to Liz Millward for inviting us to share with you here at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg.

In Maori culture, korero is always supported with waiata, and here I’d like to share my waiata through playing the ocarina …...

© Dr. Karin Meissenburg is a translator, editor, researcher and author, based in Germany, Orkney/UK and Aotearoa New Zealand. She is co-director of Global Dialogues, an international editing and translation company. Karin participated on the Translation Panel at the first Asia-Pacific Writers Conference in Melbourne, 2005, where the politics of translation was debated with spirit between professional translators and writers. She is author of several articles and books including The Writing on the Wall: Socio-historical aspects of Chinese American Literature, and The Dynamic Web: Tuning into Contextual Logic.