It is a great pleasure to be invited into the dance of translation for this project, to bring the German translation of Lubina Hadjuk’s stories through into English . Nowadays a computer app can equate words between languages , so my job is to iron out all the mistakes or clunky bits that don’t sound right . Partly I use my knowledge of language structure , for example the different word order in these 2 languages ; and partly I use my intuition and the familiarity of my mother tongue . How would I really say this bit ? Sometimes I cant find the settling place until I have worked through the story several times . A little change here , a tweak there , and suddenly it is in English … I hope. And some bio – Words have always been important to me , I grew up in a big house with loads of books . My mother taught me to read when I was very young , and both my parents read to me too . The words of the songs which were part of my mother’s music making introduced me to other languages too . In my adult life I have also explored the languages of visual art and of movement . This latter led me to training as a sacred clown , where I met Lubina , and it is a delight that her magical stories have led me back to childrens books again . My own work as a poet , artist and clown can be seen on my website: http://www.heartclown.com