About «The Colour of the Black Mountains»
Epilogue
It was in the Library of the Alpine Club in London when the idea
of writing in English crossed my mind. I discovered in a collection
of climbing stories one of my first texts translated into English.
Reading «Cengalo, a Dream of Granit» I thought: My God, it sounds
much better in English than in German. Why shouldn’t I try to
write English myself? Back in Switzerland our English teacher
Jackie Baumberger, of Honolulu origin, encouraged my writing in
English.
After having written about twenty novels and children’s books
in German as well as quite a few articles, short stories and radio
plays, using a new language was like discovering unknown mountains.
The few words I know from the almost unlimited English vocabulary
were the small track along the valleys, through the rock faces
and over the summits of this new land which perhaps is the promised.
Writing English was like beginning a new life and developing a
new view of the world. A great enjoy was also to translate old
stories or rewrite them with fresh words, expressions and ideas
like «A Cold Night on the Rocks». Because my English vocabulary
is small, working on these texts was similar to Haiku writing,
telling as much as you can with a few words.
Many years ago I used English as an engineer and computer specialist
which I nearly forgot when I dedicated my life to literature and
journalism. During a climbing trip to the United States and half
a year’s stay in London I rediscovered the language which I had
perhaps spoken in a previous life. Maybe I was one of the English
pioneers who climbed the Swiss Alps in the middle of the last
century guided by the famous Christian Klucker. Maybe I was vicar
Staehelin who in the eighteen’s century was forced to emigrate
to London from the Swiss village Obstalden where I am now living.
Mountains are one of my great themes because I live in the mountains
and I have been an addicted climber since I was fifteen. In the
mountains, brightness and shadows of life are sharper than in
the cities, they are a stage to tell stories where life and death
are close. Another of my subjects is the computer, the metaphor
of modern life and technology, the machine that transforms the
world into a global village. I am almost as long concerned with
computers as I am climbing and in both areas the change and the
challenge have grown dramatically. To understand the reasons and
the roots I sometimes look back, research the past and write historic
novels and stories trying to explain the whys and wherefores of
the present.
In this small collection I present texts from my different areas
of literature activity, translated from German, rewritten or in
the original. The intention is to show the English reader a representative
selection of my work.
Deep thanks to Jackie Baumberger who encouraged my writing, revised
the drafts and corrected countless mistakes. I am also grateful
to Elizabeth Goodrich and Martin Latter for reading and correcting
the manuscript. The graphics design is the work of my beloved
daughter Susanna.
I was lucky to find Peter Baltensperger, a Swiss writer and publisher
who has been living in Canada since 1961 and has given me the
opportunity to publish this collection in his Moonstone Press.
Spring 1998, Emil Zopfi