The Many Tongues of HP

[charisjulia]

Amy, on the Maurauders' French nicknames:

>Moony=Lunard (obvious)
>Queudver=Wormtail (queue-de-ver, "worm tail")
>Patmol=Padfoot  (? "Patte" means pad, but according to my 
>dictionary, 
>it's used for a rabbit's pad but not for a cat or dog's.  Still, 
>that 
>must be part of it)
>Prongs=Cornedrue (corne is antler--I don't get the rest of the 
>etymology) 
>
>The verb for "give a nickname" is surnommer, and that's the word 
>Lupin 
>uses when he says that Lunard is what his friends called him.

Ooh, interesting! I would like to read HP in French. I haven't seen 
any French translation in the local bookshops around here 
unfortunately, but they do have them in German and I'm saving up at 
the moment in a vain attempt to persuade myself that, yes, I * can* 
pass my German exam this August. 


But, ah, now you've hit on one of my very pet HP--connected peeves. 


One thing I'd like to know – and maybe someone here can help me? -- 
is how the various foreign translators coped with things like the 
verses in the books. You know, like the Sorting Hat's songs or the 
one by the Merpeople. `Cos you see, to be absolutely honest, the 
Greek translation does not. Cope. Not much. In fact I'd say it's 
utterly failed. IMHO, that is to say naturally :--). But, well, take 
the riddle of the Sphinx for example. I don't like the translation. 
The rhyming is dubious, the rhythm wobbly and (most importantly) the 
clues non—existent. They were crammed into the two first verses while 
the rest is merely decorative, (very bad) poetry. After reading that 
passage I was left with the impression that Harry must be, not just 
plain bright, but rather a phenomenal * mind—reader* for solving that 
one. And I wouldn't mind half so much if I hadn't come up with a * 
much* better one myself in a matter of five minutes while * brushing 
my teeth* one night. I mean it's pathetic. IMHO. Always IMHO.


To be perfectly fair of course, I must admit I haven't actually 
bothered to actually * read* the whole of the books in Greek. I never 
thought it worth it. I 've leafed through them checking out my 
favourite bits and also had endless conversations with Greek friends 
who'd read the books translated. 


Once I leant my British copy of PS to a friend. The next day she 
called me up. "Hello," she said. "The Quidditch balls in English, 
they're called Qyaffle, Bludger and Snitch, huh?" "Yeah," I 
said. "Why, how are they translated into Greek?"

Pause.

Then "As the the red, the black and the gold balls."

Huh?

And there's a lot more of that. Moaning Myrtle is "Mirtia (a Greek 
girl's name) who cries" (does that even properly qualify as a name?) 
and the Whomping Willow becomes the "Willow that hits". The final 
blow for me came when I discovered the translation for the Marauder's 
Map: The "Magic Map". Similarly, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes becomes 
the "Magic Tricks of the Weasleys". 

The translation as a whole is supposed to be quite good, thought as I 
said, I wouldn't know, I haven't read it. But this sloppy handling of 
names and rhymes really does get to me. After all, these are the hard 
bits. These are the bits where a good translator would show their 
worth.

Charis Julia, who doesn't even want to get * started* on Tom Riddle, 
who's name, yes, Tom Riddle and * not* Anton Hert and tricky passages 
such as the Uranus joke. How did other translator's manage here?