Thursday, January 15, 2009

La Musica Delle Farfalle.


Piemme will be releasing The Sound of Butterflies in Italian very soon. It translates as The Music of Butterflies, which is quite lovely, I think. It is now also available in Greek as Ο ψίθυρος της πεταλούδας.


But enough about me. I'm sad to say that I have not seen Matilda the chicken at the bus stop since that fateful day. I'm hoping she has just found a new home rather than met an untimely end.


I am packing and moving house over the next week, so blogging may be sparse. Have a lovely weekend!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh, it's gorgeous!

Kebabette said...

Yes, that sounds beautiful. I love the cover image too, it's from Horst P. Horst's iconic photo of a model in a Mainbocher corset? Gorgeous

Unknown said...

Lovely cover on the Italian version. Does that mean 'sound' = 'music' in Italian? How can that be right?

Probably Matilda's problem: an Italian yelled 'it musics like a bus' to her, instead of 'sounds', and Matilda, momentarily perplexed, got squashed.

I've been feeding a completely bald black bird for about six months now. I put a bird bath outside my office window to watch the birds - relaxing, yeah, I'm that desperate - and 'she' arrived and I've been feeding her (and othe rest of the birds, and now one mouse) twice a day. I try to chase the seagulls away, because they're bullies. All the other birds run away when I go outside, but she comes to me and seems to like the sound (or music) of my voice, for she cocks her head over like a budgie when I speak, and hops around the garden a couple of feet away from me.

Mind you, I'm on the lemon detox diet, by force - the lovely wife - of course. This is my fifth day without solid food, coffee, tea, or alcohol, so Mrs Black Bird is starting to look good for all the wrong reasons. Just hope she lasts out to the detox ends Monday.

Life remains, alas, shitty.

Good luck on the move: are you back off up north?

Rachael King said...

Harriet - thanks!

Kebabette - I did not make the connection. Yes, it seems to be a re-pose of that photo.

Mark - detox diet? Rather you than me. I once did one and I swore i'd never do it again. I felt like crap for 7 days and cried all the time, and the only difference at teh end was my skin looked a bit better. (Maybe my diet was unhealthy enough to start with) Interestingly i read somewhere about someone who did the 'raw food' diet who said she felt physically healthy but emotionally bereft.

Also, i don't think you read my post properly! They changed the title. Perhaps 'sound' just didn't resonate in Italian.

Rachael King said...

I meant to say above "maybe my diet WASN'T unhealthy enough to begin with".

Unknown said...

Well I had got to two or three bottles of beer a night (considerably more on Friday), half a bottle of wine, and a whisky nightcap.

I've been forced on the detox before too, and swore I'd never do it again: but I'm the only Libertarian who lives in an autocracy, not mine, 'if I know what's good for me' :)

But I love food, and life becomes pointless without it, the days losing their structure, and comfort, utterly.

Roll on Monday.

Re 'sound' yes, I may not have read the post correctly, without food, I may be hallucinating this post.

Gotta go, time for another glass of glup.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful. That Horst cover is also used on the cover of AS Byatt's Angels and Insects, so you are in good company. Bravo!

Vanda Symon said...

It's beautiful, Rachael, and the title sounds gorgeous too.

You must have a very pretty bookcase with all these international covers.

I've been wondering what happened to Matilda. We shall imagine good things for her.

Sandra said...

I've just found your lovely page while following some Sunday Salon posts. I enjoyed The Sound of Butterflies very much. So glad to see it getting into translation too. I wish you every success in your writing.

Rachael King said...

Thanks Vanda, and GG - I had a look on Amazon. Spooky.

Sandra - thanks for stopping by!

Laini Taylor said...

Beautiful, Rachael! The word "farfalla" is so musical in and of itself :-) I hope some day my books are translated into Italian. So far just German (which I can't wait to see and hold) -- they changed the title entirely, which was a good choice; the direct German translation didn't sound so lovely.

Funny, I remember that image from Angels & Insects too. I wonder if it was totally coincidental, or if they were trying to conjure that book because of the butterfly connection!

Mary McCallum said...

Rachael, I found your book in the large bookstore called Chapters in Ottawa, Canada! Lovely cover. I shifted a few books so it was facing out on the shelf, took a photo and will send it soon.... Felt proud of you.

Rachael King said...

Thanks Laini - only a matter of time...

Mary! Cool that you're in canada! And thanks for looking out for me. :-)

Creative A said...

Wow, that is lovely. I like how it translates to "music" instead of "sound."

I want to let you know that I tagged you for the "six things that make me happy" meme. You can read the meme rules here, at http://headdeskforwriters.blogspot.com/2009/01/ralfast-over-at-neither-here-nor-there.html

Smile,
-CA

Tomatohead said...

"music" is beautiful, indeed.
Good luck with the move! With Chinese New Year upon us, hope it's a good one for you.

Anonymous said...

yesterday I took my chicldren to the Tropical Rainforest butterfly exhibit at the Otago Museum. In the heat and humidity and with butterflies everywhere (even in my hair) I thought of your book.

Damon Young said...

This talk of word counts has reminded me of something: I often don't notice the quantitative measures.

I know I've a book of such-and-such a size to write, but it's the qualitative shifts that I notice most: the sluggish ascents to an insight, the changes in mood, the rhythms of argument and description.

And these, of course, are chiefly changes in me - not in the work, but in my perception, emotion, thought.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this. But I'd forgotten it until now.

Rachael King said...

Im not sure if you meant to post this comment under this post or the most recent one, Damon.

I imagine non-fiction is quite different, but I think we all go through those shifts you are talking about - it's just that word counts are blunt instruments we can bang ourselves over the head with when we're too tired to think anymore!