14th December 2001
Depending on where you are, Harry Potter could be playing Quidditch or baseball, while Dumbledore munches on lemon drops rather than his British favourite, sherbet lemons. Pottermania has not only gripped this country. Since publication of J.K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the Harry Potter books have been translated into over 45 languages, including Chinese, Latin and Ancient Greek. In a recent plenary lecture, Dr Jeremy Munday from Linguistics and International Studies explained the intricacies of translating the magical world of Harry Potter.
Apart from the translations into foreign languages, it also has to be translated into American English: dustbin becomes trashcan and a packet of crisps is turned into bag of chips. Idioms need to change too, with Dumbledore being barking in Britain but off his rocker across the Atlantic. Most importantly, the title of the first book was altered from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, to reflect Harry's magical powers.
It is the names, however, which present the biggest challenge to the translator. Where these have a strong connotation or link to the character's role, the translator needs to convey that sense in the target language. Filch the caretaker, for example, becomes Rusard in French. The Polish translator ran an online competition to find a snappy translation for Ripper, Aunt Marge's vicious hound. The winner was the equivalent of cutlass.
In some instances the translators have been unsure of the connotation of a name. The surname of the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, is interpreted by some translators as relating to fudge the sweet and by others probably more correctly as being linked to fudging the issue. Other names are so culturally bound that the translators often have to accept they can't translate the full connotation. Fawkes the Phoenix may suggest Guy Fawkes to the British audience, but in Slovak and Dutch he becomes Felix (to keep the alliteration) and in Norwegian he is Vulcan, which retains the fire link.
Typical British food items are also an issue. Yorkshire pudding remains the same in German and Italian but is rendered as pudin in Spanish and as sauce avec la viande (sauce with meat) in French. Cornflakes earned a footnote in the Chinese translation, indicating that these are consumed immersed in milk for breakfast.
The real test, however, is when sound and sense combine. The alliteration and crying of Moaning Myrtle the ghost, is rendered in various ways and often involves a change of name, thus Gemma Gemec in Catalan, Hulkende Hulda in Danish and Jammerende Jennie in Dutch. The play on the place name Diagon Alley (diagonally) is impossible to retain in most languages, so some translators have opted to keep the sense (Winkelgasse is crooked way in German) or create a new play on words (Abszol út in Hungarian, where út means street).
While the translating the Potter series is a fascinating challenge for translators, it also lays them open to all sorts of criticism from fans who are sometimes poorly informed. The Polish translator, for instance, was criticised by a Potter fan for changing the name of Moaning Myrtle to Jeczaca Marta. The fan was adamant that Myrtle was a boy's name! The Israeli translator, Gili Bar-Hillel has been taken to task for changing Dumbledore's diet, having him eat a krembo (a marshmallow and chocolate sweet found in Israel) rather than the English sherbet lemon (or an American lemon drop).
The hype and secrecy preceding the appearance of each new volume in English means that the translators are not permitted an advance copy. However, their own publishers are understandably eager to get a translation in the shops as quickly as possible. If they take too long, pirate translations appear in some countries. In China, up to four counterfeit versions appeared on the streets, and the official publishers even resorted to using specially tinted paper to distinguish their edition. Jean-François Ménard, the French translator, worked long into the night for an exhausting 63 consecutive days to produce the translation of the 700-page Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire.
For more information, please contact: Dr Jeremy Munday at Linguistic and International Studies, Tel: 01483 686229.
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