Foreign versions of the prophecy (was: Portugese...)

[kizor0]

No: HPFGUIDX 111176

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Susana da Cunha"
<susanadacunha at g...> wrote:

> Anyone cares to list all possible miss interpretations?

No, but I'll pour some more fuel to the fire and add a Finnish
translation.

Let's see. 

English:
'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches . born to
those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies . and
the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the
Dark Lord knows not . and either must die at the hand of the other for
neither can live while the other survives . the one with the power to
vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies .'

Portugese:
'The one *who holds* the power to *defeat* the Dark Lord approaches .
born *of* those who have thrice defied him, born *when* the seventh
month *ends* . and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he
will have *a* power the Dark Lord knows not . and *one* must die at
the *hands* of the other for neither can live while the other survives
. the one *who holds* the power to *defeat* the Dark Lord will be born
*when* the seventh month *ends* .'

Lessee. What with being a considerably different language, this is
kind of tricky.

Finnish:
'The one *who has* the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.
born to those who have thrice defied him, born *when* the seventh
month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he *has*
*powers* the the Dark Lord knows not. And *one-or-the-other* [cool
word, no?] must die *by* the hand of the other for neither can live
*if* the other one *is alive*. The one *who has* the power to vanquish
the Dark Lord approaches. born to those who have thrice defied him,
born *when* the seventh month dies.'

This does raise some interesting points, and unless translators have
been collaborating with JKR to confirm the accuracy of their versions
there's going to be trouble for non-English-speaking readers. The
Finnish translation's quality is considered top-notch, though.

Then again, we should avoid from overanalyzing the foreign versions
(this being HPFGU, I was almost able to type that with a straight
face). As different languages are, er, different, finding an exact
equivalent for everything in the prophecy isn't very feasible, and
differences are far more likely to mean translation trouble than hints
of what is to come. Had I translated the Finnish one literally, it'd
have begun with "It, who has power" and gone downhill from there. But
this isn't going to stop you from theorizing, so ifthat's what you
like doing, go ahead.

- Kizor