I received very good news last Tuesday when Bebe, one of my best
friends in Bali, told me that The
Immortals of Meluha (Book One of the Shiva Trilogy) has been translated to
Indonesian by Mizan. Better, the book has been read by her friends who in return became big
fans of the Trilogy, or at least its first book. Intrigued, I searched for the
book at the local Gramedia at Kuta last Wednesday and was happy to find that it
was prominently displayed there. I usually avoid reading the translation
because we tend to miss the nuance in the translation, not to mention cases of
really bad translations that left me with no choice but sourcing the English
versions online.
I’m glad to report that this is not the case with The Immortals of Meluha. I dare say
translator Nur Aini was doing a very good job at this, such that I recommended
the book back to Bebe (who had only seen it without purchasing/reading it). I
also went to the Denpasar Gramedia today just buy two extra copies. Turns out, they have only four
copies left, and I couldn’t find them in the store. The store assistant said
that this book is a bestseller, so it runs out quickly. Well, there you go.
So anyway, I thought I’d better give a review of the
Indonesian translation of Meluha. Because I’d like my fellow Indonesians who
don’t usually read English find this post, from here on I will switch to
Indonesian language. But just to give my impression of the book in an English
nutshell, I think Mizan (the publisher/translator/distributor) did a good job
at translation and re-designing the cover (tho I still think the original cover
is very powerful). I’m surprised that we didn’t detect this version earlier
tho, for it was first published in April this year. Better late than never, I
guess.
Immortals of Meluha:
impresi saya
Jadi ceritanya, selama hampir 1.5 tahun saya dan Bebe telah
jatuh cinta dengan Shiva Trilogy. Bermula dari bulan Juli 2012 saat saya
menemukan buku tersebut online dalam bahasa Inggris, saat sedang keluyuran di
dunia maya mencari komik apa saja tentang Shiva. Sebenarnya yang saya pertama
temukan adalah YouTube-nya, yang saya muat di sini. Sejak saat itu, saya dan
Bebe membaca ketiga buku dalam rentang hampir setahun (paling susah menunggu
keluarnya The Oath of the Vayuputra, buku
ketiga). Susah juga carinya, karena Amish, walo jagoan marketing, ternyata
karena satu dan lain hal tidak menjual bukunya secara luas di luar negeri.
Jadinya saya harus mengontak teman saya di India untuk membelikan buku-buku
tersebut untuk kami. Untungnya harga buku di India murah banget, jadi kami bisa
beli beberapa sekaligus (ada teman kami yang lain yang juga suka).
