Harry Potter Translations Sought

[Denise]

No: HPFGUIDX 1224

Saturday September 9 1:12 AM ET
Harry Potter Translations Sought 

By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer 

BERLIN (AP) - It doesn't take any magic to conjure up the latest book about Harry Potter in a store just about anywhere these days. Fans of the young wizard are clamoring to get their hands on it in countries around the world - even before it's translated. 

Potter-mania has struck from Denmark to Thailand, sending ``Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' flying off the shelves. The English version even made it to No. 1 on German online bookstore buecher.de. 

Some German fans got a bit overeager waiting for the translation that hits the market here next month. One fan Web site proposed a translation contest from English of the fourth book in the series, drawing threats of legal action by the Potter books' German publishers, Hamburg-based Carlsen. 

But even the English versions are hot items. In the Dussmann bookstore in central Berlin, the English-language version of ``Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' is the only foreign-language book to be showcased in the children's section. 

``I've read the first three books in German already and I'm thinking about reading the new one if my English is good enough,'' said one Potter fan, Susanne Volkmuth, 39, of Mainz, who was perusing the aisles at Dussmann. 

In Denmark, where a Danish translation will be released in the fall, the English version of the book is also moving fast. 

``We have been selling thousands of copies of the English version both to young and old people,'' said Kjeld Bonderup, head of Gad, Denmark's largest chain of booksellers. 

``It's the greatest children's book success in recent years,'' he said, but refused to give an exact sales figure because of company policy. 

At Finland's largest bookstore, Academic Bookstore in Helsinki, managers ordered several hundred copies of the English version but only 100 arrived - all of which sold out immediately. 

The English versions of the fourth ``Harry Potter'' book also sold well in Thailand, helping the translated copy of the first book to make it to No. 1 on the best-seller list within two weeks of its release last month. 

Bloomsbury Publishing in London, publisher of the U.K. editions, did not respond to repeated queries about sales figures for the English-language version in non-English-speaking countries. 

But the German publisher Carlsen said it's sold more than 2 million copies of the German-language Harry Potter books since the first one went on sale in fall 1998 - with a boost coming most recently when the fourth book came out in English. 

Spokeswoman Cornelia Berger said that while on tour with author J.K. Rowling through Germany in March, at least 10 to 20 percent of books Potter fans asked the author to sign were English versions. 

Educators in the western German state of Saarland have even said they would stock the English version in school libraries to help students learn the language. But they won't be able to take the book home: Because of the novel's popularity, readers will only be allowed to read it during library hours. 



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