HBP in russian translation./ Translations in general/ "Severus, please"

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 144641

> Alla wrote:
> > HBP officially translated in Russian hit New 
> > York book stores last week. :-)
> <snip>
> > "Severus, please" is translated " Severus, I am asking you", 
> 
> Bookworm:
> How intriging!  IMO, this supports those who think that they were 
> continuing a previous discussion - like the one Hagrid overheard.  
How 
> is this line translated in other languages?
> 
> But the Big Question is: was Dumbledore asking Snape to *do* 
> something, or *not do* something??  


Alla:

Well, yes, this translation may support them continuing the previous 
conversation OR it may simply be less awkward translation of 
the "Severus, please". I am not sure. In any event, of course I am 
keeping an eye for how the interesting bits and pieces are 
translated ( especially those which we debate so often), but the 
real question for me is whether the translator gets at least tiny 
bits of additional information which we are not privy to. If they 
do, then I would pay even more attention, if they don't  and I know 
that most likely they don't , well then it is just interesting of 
how far some translators are willing to go, you know how much 
liberties do they take with the text.

You know, when I studied English in college back in Ukraine, our 
teacher tried to make the course more intersting and gave us some 
basics of professional translation ( not that we were ready to do 
profesional translation of course -she was just trying to make the 
course more interesting), so she was teaching us that often 
translating the names when you translate a book is NOT a very good 
thing to do, because you may end up with some very awkward names and 
very wierd meanings, so if you could leave the name as it pronounces 
in the native language and it is not confusing, it is  the best way 
to go.


I don't remember if I ranted about it when OOP came out, but oh 
well, it will only be second time around. :-)

I suppose the reason why they decided to translate some names in 
Harry Potter initially, because JKR has so many talking names, but 
boy, oh boy, some of them hurt my ears  and eyes SO much. They just 
sound awkward. Like they translated the names of two houses - 
Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but they could not come up with anything 
for Gryffindor and Slytherin and left them as they sound initially , 
only wrote them with Russian alphabet. So, Ravenclaw is translated 
directly as  the "claw of Raven", but the problem is that it sounds 
beatifully in English, but SO awkward in Russian. Grrrr. And I don't 
even know the translation of the word they came up with for the 
Hufflepuff.

Oh, another thing - they translated Neville's last name into Russian 
directly, sort of and every time when I read it, I start giggling, I 
cannot help myself. It sounds in russian as "dolgopooops". I don't 
know if JKR intended us to giggle every time we hear Neville's last 
name. Gah. :-)

> 
> > Alla, 
> > who thought that she is taking a break from posting about Snape 
with 
> > this post. Yeah, right. :-)
> 
> Bookworm:
> A post from Alla that doesn't discuss Snape?  Is is even possible? 
> Unless, maybe, it's about Dumbledore.  ;-D


Alla:

Snort, yes, indeedy. Or Harry and Snape or Harry and Dumbledore. I 
promise to work on taking breaks sometimes though. :-)


a_svirn:
> Personally, I always assumed that it meant something along the 
> lines "Please, not Harry, take me instead". Snape must have 
guessed 
> that Harry is under the cloak somewhere nearby. (Now, that's the 
> thought: what if Harry will live with Aberforth in the Hogshead?)

Alla:

I think this is a brilliant interpretation, actually, if one does 
not support DD!M Snape of course :-)

I used to think simply " please do not betray me" or something like 
that, but yours is so much more elegant IMO because it plays on 
Lily's begging.

Bravo.

Alla.