ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on sound: on the aural and read-aloud qualities of translated prose; on animal cries as a common feature of books for younger children; on translating wordplay that is often dependent on sound and, on the translation of childrens poetry and nonsense rhymes. A common strategy when translating for children is that of reading newly drafted passages aloud to find an appropriate rhythm or syntactic structure in the target language. How conventions for the human representation of animal cries in different languages were first established can only be the subject of speculation, but an articulated cry such as that of a cockerel maintains its characteristic rhythmic pattern across a number of languages: Cock-a-doodle-doo in English; coquerico in French, qui-qui-ri-qui in Spanish and kikeriki in German. The only sure test of any kind of childrens poetry or prose originally written to be read aloud is the response of children to a trial reading or performance.
