The Soul of Malaya that masterful piece of work by the French author, planter and adventurer, Henri Fauconnier was recently translated for the first time into Bahasa Malaysia by Mohammad Haji Salleh and published by Institut Terjemahan dan Buku Malaysia. This colonial masterpiece does more than just take us into the planter’s world of British Malaya but instead conveys an incredibly picturesque impression of the land and its inhabitants.

This week, on Invisible Cities, Uma speaks to Debbie Chow about Fauconnier's place in the literature of colonial Malaya as well as the ins and outs of translating Malaisie into Nurani Tanah Melayu.