HP in translation (wordplay in Chinese characters, etc.)

[constancevigilance]

> 
> bboyminn:
> 
> I'm under the impression that the Russian translator did
> just translate, they essentially took it upon themselves
> to rewrite the book adding many scenes, dialog, and 
> narrative that simply don't exist in the original.
> Apparently they thought they could improve the books.
> 


CV: a funny note about Russian translations in general. The last time
I was in Russia (1995) They ran lots of movies and tv programs from
the west that were filmed in English. They dubbed the Russian but did
not remove the English, so you heard both soundtracks simultaneously
throughout. It was a bit confusing at first, but you quickly learn to
filter out the language you don't know and I, who speak only English,
could enjoy the same programs as my friends who spoke only Russian.

One of my friends could speak both languages, but English is his
second language. He grew up with these double-track videos and never
thought a thing about it. As his English improved and he began to
understand the English track, he was surprised to learn that the
Russian "translation" was often quite different from the original in
that they routinely ADDED lots of profanity.

Common Russian speach is peppered with profanity and vulgarities as a
matter of course - it is just the way people speak and it is part of
the native color. Hearing only cleaned up speach in the films would
sound odd to them, so they usually spiced up the dialog.

I wonder what Hagrid is saying in the Russian versions of the films?

CV