[Sca-cooks] Editorial Assistance Needed

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

As you all know, i made my first translation of Stephane Yerasimos's book, "A la table du Grand Turc", from French into English in 2006. Unfortunately Yerasimos died in 2005, before i even bought the book, so i was never able to correspond with him. The book was written in two sections: first, a series of linked essays; second, a selection of recipes from Shirvani's cookbook manuscript in modern form with comments and the original in translation. Some are Shirvani's versions of recipes from al-Baghdadi, nearly all of which differ from the originals, and the others are actual 15th century Ottoman recipes used in Constantinople added by Shirvani.

I'm now working on translating into English the parts in the Turkish edition - "Sultan Sofralari" where he is called Stefanos Yerasimos - that are not in the French edition. Fortunately, these are, for the most part, very short passages. My goal is to end up with one "complete" edition, so i will incorporate them into my translation.

Already there has been some interest in publishing it, but it definitely needs a bit of "smoothing". To improve it, i need readers to make constructive comments. Additionally, if anyone can read French and is willing to compare my translation with the French edition, let me know of glaring inaccuracies, and discuss alternate or better translations, i'd appreciate it immensely. Note that some passages quoted actually date to the 15th and 16th centuries, and, as i've expressed before on this list, i prefer to keep their archaic flavor, but i don't want them to be too arcane or obscure.

I cannot share my translation publicly, since rights to the original work belong to the author's estate or his publisher. And, of course, copyright to my translation belongs to me, so i expect my work to be respected and not used on websites, passed around to friends, paraphrased, or in any other way distributed to anyone without my express permission.

Please write to me *off-list* if you are willing to help.
lilinah (at) earthlink (dot) net
I can't pay money, but i can thank you in my foreword, so you'll eventually see your name in print :-)

Thanks!
--
Ellen Perlman sometimes called
Urtatim (that's urr-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita