Other translations of Colony followed. The Dutch publishers decided that they could make do with just two translators, one for the prose and one for the “poetry.” But they also decided that it was necessary that these translators be sent to St. John’s, where they discovered, to their surprise, that I had not lived for almost a decade. Consultations with the author were “cancelled” and a three-week, all-expenses-paid tour of the novel’s setting was judged a suitable substitute. Soon, my phone and fax were ringing at intervals throughout the night, the heavily accented phone voices of two Dutch women now surreally residing in St. John’s, full of remote morning cheer, asking me questions about the weather in idiosyncratic English. “I know for certain that it’s dark,” I said. “It always is in Toronto at this time.” I was informed that, in Newfoundland, where I had lived for a quarter of a century, “the weather is of paramount importance.” Otherwise, I asked them, how was their “research” progressing?
“We have found Sheilagh Fielding,” one of the women said. I assumed that she meant that, from staying in St. John’s, they had “found” the essence of the main, non-historical character in Colony.
“That’s wonderful,” I said.
“We found her in a bar called The Ship Inn,” the poet-translator said. “She was sitting by herself just as we expected. She is just as you describe her in your book.”
I began to explain that Fielding was entirely fictional and that, even if she were real, it was unlikely that she would be frequenting bars, as she would recently have celebrated her one hundred and first birthday. Also, trying to imagine whom they had “discovered,” I expressed my hope that they had not introduced themselves to her.
“Oh no, we would never speak to Fielding,” the woman said. “She has such a sharp tongue.”
“In the book, yes,” I said, “but she doesn’t actually-”
“We both agree that you didn’t entirely do justice to her face.”
“But you will not change my description of her, will you?” I said.
In the end, they agreed, reluctantly, that their Fielding would conform, “as much as language will allow,” to mine.
