RAB is RAZ

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 143288

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Miles" <xmilesx at g...> wrote:
<snip>

> Miles:
> The translators had big problems in books 1 to 6 too, so this argument is a
> bit weak. E.g., to make the anagram "I am Lord Voldemort" work in German,
> the translator hat to change Tom Riddles second name into "Vorlost", which
> sounds awful not only for me ;). German readers can be glad about their
> translator, who corrected his early translation "Sirius Schwarz" to "Sirius
> Black" when it was obvious, that this person is important for the story.
> 
> If Rowling really decided to inform the translators about this specific
> clue, this would be kind of a shift in her information strategy. She surely
> had been aware (or she should have been), that especially the Dutch
> translation "R.A.Z." would spoil the secret of Regulus.
> 
> Miles, who is glad not to be a translator in globalized literature...
>

Antosha:

We know that translators contact Rowling for confirmation that their assumptions are 
correct, and that she does in fact give them straight answers--the Portuguese translator of 
the books queried Blaise Zabini's gender, since s/he needed to use the proper article, and 
was told authoritatively (accurately, as it turns out) that Blaise was a boy. I don't think it 
was about the author changing her tactics, I think it was about the translators doing their 
jobs and querying the author's plans, since she's shown a propensity for playing games 
with this sort of clue in the past.