Ciezain caziin
                                   

2002 Winner of the
Sami Council Best Children's Book Award

by Lars Nordström and Harald Gaski
Arjeplog: DAT, 2002, 67 sidor.

The idea behind this book surfaced in 1995 when Harald Gaski and I had received a fellowship to the Bellagio Center in northern Italy to translate a book of poems by the Sami poet, artist and yoiker Nils-Aslak Valkeapää. When we had finished this translation, and still had a few extra days left over, we took a look at a handful of old Sami yoik texts that Harald had brought along. Here we ran across a recurring line that mentioned “seven kinds of water.” What did this refer to, I wondered? Harald didn’t really know, but it seemed pretty intriguing and full of possibilities. Also present at the Bellagio Center at this time was a well-known American book publisher who talked very enthusiastically about children’s books, and somehow the two ideas fused: Why not write a children’s book exploring that phrase, “seven kinds of water”? So we told the American publisher that we were working on a children’s book and he was most encouraging about it.

A few years later we were able to send him a manuscript, in English, but at this point the reception was not so encouraging. “Well,” he wrote, he had “retired from the business now and didn’t think they really released that much in the way of children’s books anyway. But thank you for showing me the manuscript. Good luck with it!” So there we were with a manuscript in English and no experience of the world of children’s literature. Neither of us knew what to do next. Months turned to years before a Sami editor read the English manuscript and told us that this could turn into something interesting, but that some parts needed rewriting. We agreed; the suggestions were useful. Eventually we were able to submit a revised manuscript which was then accepted for publication by the Sami publisher DAT.

Of course, more work still had to be done before the book could be published. An illustrator had to be found. We were lucky: Lena Kappfjell’s beautiful illustrations manage to give many elements of the story a more tangible form, and brings it down to earth. Then the text had to be translated from the English. It was decided that—following the content of the story—the first edition was to be in the Sami language.

Finally Cizain caziin was released in September 2002. Later that fall it was nominated to the Sami Council’s “Best Children’s Book Award 2002.” And in December Harald and I learned that we had won! A great inspiration to both of us. A Norwegian and a Swedish edition of the book is now in progress, even though no specific release dates have been set for those editions. And who knows, maybe even the original English edition may one day be resurrected! Stay tuned!

Lars Nordström

P.S. For those of you who read Swedish, and would like to find out more about this book, see Regine Nordström’s wonderful article “Myt, jojk, berättelse …” in Provins: litterärt magasin, nr. 1/03.

            And don’t forget to visit the Sami publisher DAT on the internet at www.dat.net