Michal Hlán (book)

Michal Hlán is a book written by Jonas Hladovka Sr. published in 1966 and translated in 1970 by Jonas Hladovka Jr. It is the first book of four about the life of Michal Hlán, a young worker in the Oceana colemines.

The Oceana version of the book is often cited for having the most inconsistent spelling of the Oceana language of all older literature. For example, the word "power" has been spelt on eleven ways, practically different every time it is used: motsh, mots, moch, motch, matsh, mach, match, mytsch, motsch, modtch and modsh.

Differences among the two versions
As is typical for the translations by Jonas Hladovka Jr., the English version is more temperate, though still tells a very sad story. For example «That queydt weyr uznane na rech i that-hey lád.» (literal translation: The stupid surveyor recognizes no reason in this boy.) is translated to «The director makes a decision for the boy.» Hladovka Jr. did this in order to make the English version sellable.

According to the original book, Michal Hlán is an immigrant who was born while his parents were on the boat from Europe to Lovia. The English version says that Michal Hlán was born in Lovia and that his mother was of mixed Slovak and American roots. His father of course was Slovak.

Another difference is that Hladovka Sr. lets Michal Hlán die at the end of the book in a collapsing mine. He was originally not planning to write more books about him, but because the book was being sold very well, he made more versions. Therefore Michal Hlán is said to have survived the collapse in the second book. Hladovka Jr. translated the first book to English when the second one had already been published, so he did not let Michal die.