US Insanity and Translations

[bboy_mn]

No: HPFGUIDX 43207

-- In HPforGrownups at y..., "selkie1964" <Vera.Nazarov at s...> wrote:
> bboy_mn wrote
> 
> > A while back, I start a thread about how stupid I thought it 
> > was to translate people surnames when translating the book into
> > other languages. The worst example was Professor DUMBledore being
> > changed to Professor Silencio in Italian. My name is my name 
> > regardless of where I am in the world. But some people debate 
> > that opinion.
> 
> selkie1964 said:
> Actually, since JKR has gone to such a great deal of trouble to 
> use names that have a level of meaning beyond being someone's 
> "handle," I think it makes a great deal of sense to translate them
> for the benefit of non-speakers of English -- to not do so would be
> ethnocentric.  
>
> These books were primarily written for children, not linguistic 
> scholars, so I would think that everything possible would be done to 
> make the experience of reading them as similar as possible for 
> everyone concerned -- including all the richness of connotation
> we've all come to know and love (and endlessly debate ;-).
> 
> While it is true that *your* name is your name wherever you are,
> bear in mind that you are a real person whereas the characters in
> the HP books are literary constructs (i.e., not real people) in a
> work of literature.  Since Albus Dumbledore et al. are literary
> constructs, it really doesn't "affect" them to have their names 
> changed (as it would, in a very real sense, affect you and me to
> have our names changed) for the sake of clarifying aspects of 
> character for readers in another country.  Also, as a literary 
> construct, a character's name affects how he is perceived by 
> members of another culture/speakers of another language.  It's 
> also possible that the actual word "dumbledore" (and other names,
> natch) has connotations in other languages that are inappropriate 
> to the character (for instance, in French, although I  don't know 
> what dumble might connote, the sound "dore" -- or "d'or" --  
> translates as "of gold" -- I'm not saying that's inappropriate, 
> just using it as an instance in which a sound could have a different 
> meaning/connotation in another language).
> 
> ....EDITED.....
> 
> In the final analysis, I sincerely doubt that the publishers changed 
> important things like names in JKR's books without her input (or at 
> the very least, her permission).  For one thing, since she owns the 
> copyright, that could open them up to some very damaging lawsuits.
> 
> selkie1964

bboy_mn responds:
I'm sure I also said that to some degree and under some circumstances
translation was reasonable. Even given that, I do not yield on my
stand that, in general, your name is your name.

You used the example of Dumbledore, while you can deconstruct the name
Dumbledore into a variety of meanings, in this case, it is simply a
cool nice sounding old English name that means 'Bumblebee', BUT
'bumblebee' has no significance in the story, and the Italian
translation of DUMBledore to Silencio in no way preserves the
significance of the name. Rowling personally pointed this out as an
example of bad translation. Beside, the books have been translated
into hundreds of languages; Rowling can't possible review them all.

So, while Dumbledore does have an interesting but trivial historical
meaning, that particular meaning has no significance in the story. So
why is it translated? Why translate a name that has no significants
relative to the story? Dumbledore doesn't give the average English
speaking person any significant insight into his character's role in
the story. Changing it serves no purpose. Although, Chinese and
difficult languages like that might be an exception. 

I will admit that names are chosen to reflect their character; between
Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, or Dumbledore and Voldemort, most
people can guess who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. So, in a
culture where a phrase sounding very close to Dumbledore had a very
negative meaning, it would be reasonable to assign a lighter name. But
that is a rare and limited case.

Now, Remus Lupin had tremendous significant, but only to the very
astute, only to the very knowledgeable and educated. Remus and Romulus
are the mythical twin sons of Mars, and we raised by wolves. See
HP-Remus is a werewolf and Mythical-Remus was raised by wolves. Lupin
is part of the root of a word for the medical condition that refers to
people who are or believe they are werewolves. So that name is loaded
with tons of significant, but it is very subtle. Very few English
speaking people are going to pick up those obscure references to
mythology and medicine. So if a translator, into French for example,
uses the French name for that particular mythical character, and uses
the same French reference to that medical condition, then the name and
it's significants has been preserved. But to what end? So that
obsessed French insomniacs like ourselves can stay up late an night
discovering subtle hidden interesting but otherwise insignificant
meanings in characters names?

Sirius Black is also full of significants, but the significants is
only recognizable if you are knowledgeable in astronomy. Sirius is the
Dog Star, and of course, Sirius Black is an animagus dog; a dog who
happens to be black. So if a translator used the word in a native
language that refers to the Dog star then the obscure significant is
preserved. However, I'm guessing that there are thousands, if not
millions of English readers who don't pick up on this obscure
significants. 

The main point is that even a lot of the names that do have
significant, only have secondary significants. They are interesting
little asides that a very educated and knowledgable Rowling has thrown
in for people who want to dig a little deeper than the surface of the
story. 

So, I go back to my original stand; a name is a name. With the
exception of situations where there is an obvious cultural conflict,
or in the case of Chinese, Japanese, and other complex symbolic
languages, or where the name itself has direct significants to the
story, there is no need to translate peoples names. The DEFAULT should
be, only translate when significant and necessary.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

bboy_mn