[HPforGrownups] Re: OOP in russian translation

Elihu Falk elihufalk at yahoo.com
Thu Feb 26 11:22:19 UTC 2004


No: HPFGUIDX 91703

Inge wrote:
><snip>I first read OOTP when it came out (English >version) and then again when the Danish version came a >few months later. (The Danish translator is doing a >fantastic job by the way!)
>Some names have been changed in the books during >translation though - and also some other things. Fx. The >much discussed Blowing Gum. The Danish translator gave >the Blowing Gum a danish name - of which the letters can >not in any way be re-arranged or mixed into something 
>that would resemble the well-thought out anagram in >English "Gold Bribe Below St. Mungo's".

>So, I wrote the Danish translator and asked her if she >had been aware of that possible anagram as she >translated OOTP. She wrote me back and said that >translators do NOT get any information from Rowling (or >the publisher) so if there are hidden clues (in English) >in the books the translators will have to figure that >out on their own.


Elihu's answer:

I've read parts of the Hebrew translation to the series, and there are varius mistakes in the translation. For example, the name Sprout was left as is, as opposed to using some version of the Hebrew word for sprout. The same thing exists with Slytherin (slither, like how a snake moves etc.) 

There are also things that can't realy be translated properly. For example, in the Shrieking Shack, Hermione accuses Lupin of having been Black's friend. Lupin says (I don't have the quote in fromt of me) "I haven't been his friend, but I am now." In English you have many more tenses than in Hebrew. Translate that sentence into Hebrew, and it will be the same as "I wasn't his friend, but I am now" - not true; Lupin was Black's friend at school (as Hermione had somehow figured out). The translater ended up writing "I haven't been his friend for 13 years, but I am now", but what if it took time for the idea of Black being guilty took a while to sink in? 12 years before that statement, would Lupin still have thought of himself as Black's friend?

                                       Elihu



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