Comments:

1. 

    

   Peggy:

   Interesting post. I totally agree about reading novels in other languages; Having spent 6 years(!) on War and Peace, I am now tackling Anna Karenina BUT nothing beats Harry Potter for light relief, and I have found I am able, with a dictionary, to read it in several languages ( I have French, Italian and Spanish versions, though I am only able to speak French.)The most interesting thing I find, is how often the Russian version has to be adapted, when usually the Romance languages have an almost word for word translation. Often a single three or four word line in English takes three or four lines in Russian.

2. 

    

   James Stewart:

   I can vouch for Language learning skills since 6 years ago I had an ethnic Russian Girlfriend in Turkmenistan who spoke excellent English … not an easy language by my own reckoning. Her 2 daughters (Aziza & Nargiza) also spoke Turkmeni, Russian and were learning English slowly and when I found out that HP movies were being constantly shown on Turkmeni TV and were a firm favourite of the girls I bought boxed sets of HP novels which they read, read & read many times over to enjoy the adventures and also after 2-3 months even 6 year old Nanna was confident to speak English on the telephone when Mamma was late home from work in the far west of the country. Sadly, our relationship did not continue but I learned a valuable lesson there.

3. 

    

   Natalie:

   Peggy: Война и мир is so epic that 6 years actually isn’t so long. 🙂 Good for you for reading it! I’m too intimidated to even start it.

   James: Practicing languages is definitely the only way to learn. May I ask what you were doing in Turkmenistan? That’s quite an exotic place to be!

4. 

    

   Rob McGee:

   “In English, her name is Hermione Granger, but in Russian it becomes «Гермиона Грейнджер»”

   Hmmm… in the original English version of the 4th book, there is a “running joke” that Viktor Krum can’t pronounce Hermione’s name correctly — the others have to explain to him repeatedly that it’s not HER-me-OWN, it’s her-MY-on-KNEE. Rowling has explained that she did this on purpose because so many fans had written to her asking how to pronounce this rather obscure name! (There was a semi-famous British actress named “Hermione Gingold,” but most people had only seen her name written in the movie credits, and had never heard it spoken.)

   So, before the first HP movie came out, a lot of English speakers thought that “Hermione” has three syllables and rhymes with “phone.”

   But at least in Russian spelling, this confusion doesn’t exist!

   P.S. The Trojan princess “Hermione” was a very minor character in the Iliad, and in Russian translations of Homer, she is Гермиона.

5. 

    

   Rob McGee:

   I’ve heard that in the Russian version, “Voldemort” becomes Воландеморт (Volandemort) — “Voland” being the pseudonym used by Satan when he visits 20th-century Moscow in the novel Мастер и Маргарита. So for Russian readers, this adds an extra dimension to the name, which in the original English can be interpreted as pseudo-French that signifies “He who wills death.”

   Of course, Rowling uses a LOT of wordplay that can present a challenge for translators. For example, many of the magic spells are based on “macaronic” blends of English and Latin, such as Wingarium Leviosa, the levitation spell. So the translator to Russian must decide: Should I simply represent the spelling phonetically in Cyrillic, or should I try to invent a “parallel” phrase that sounds more evocative to Russian ears, perhaps using Old Church Slavonic forms?

   And I also have the impression that there was a lot of controversy in Russia about the quality of the “officially authorized” HP translations — or at least, there was controversy among Russians studying English at the university or grad-school level, although perhaps the general public didn’t care as much.

   But from what I read on the Web, “English geeks” in Russia were extremely critical of some of the translations, complaining that the translators had EPIC FAILED to understand Rowling’s puns, or that the teenage British characters talked like 7-year-old Russian children из сказочного мультфильма (from a fairy-tale cartoon), and so forth.

   I imagine that it would have been even more difficult to translate the books into Russian if Harry Potter had come out in the 1980s. I mean, one of the humorous aspects of the “Wizarding World” is that it has exactly the same “banal consumer culture” that we Muggles are accustomed to. And thus, for example, the advertisements for the latest and greatest model of broomstick parody the language of the automobile industry. (In this way, the Harry Potter world reminds me of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books, in which everyone but Arthur Dent considers self-aware robots, teleportation, and faster-than-light spaceships to be thoroughly routine and boring.) But Russians only started to become intimately familiar with “banal consumerism” in the 1990s, with the invasion of the Snickers bar, etc. But on the other hand, the bureaucratic proceduralism at the Ministry of Magic would be instantly recognizable to Soviet readers — and has always been present in the capitalist West, as well.

6. 

    

   Rob McGee:

   According to Wikipedia, “Horcrux” (one of the magical items in which Voldemort hid parts of his soul) became Крестраж in the Russian translation published by the “РОСМЭН” company.

   To English speakers, “Horcrux” could suggest, among other things:

   “Horror-cross”
   “Whore-cross”
   “Cross of the Egyptian god Horus”
   “Hour-cross”

   I’m not sure which meaning J.K. Rowling intended, but I guess the translators at РОСМЭН interpreted “Horcrux” as signifying “horror-cross”, and thus used a word that combined крест and страх?

   • 

      

     Vlad:

     @Rob McGee Well, ‘страж’ means ‘to keep, to guard’, to guard the cross, so to say.

7. 

    

   Natalie:

   Rob: Viktor Krum is definitely one of my favorite characters. I always found him very endearing.

   Voldemort is indeed Волан-де-морт (yes, with those dashes). I thought it was strange, but it makes a little more sense to me now. Thanks for pointing out the Воланд connection.

   I have quite a few opinions on translation, and one of them is that the translator should stay as close to the original as possible. My theory is that horcrux should have stayed хоркрукс in Russian. But that’s just me. 🙂

8. 

    

   Shady_arc:

   премьер-министер Соединённого Королества –> That would be “премьер-министр Соединённого Королевства” or just “премьер-министр Великобритании”

   As for Voldemort’s rendering into Russian, it is an arguable improvement, as it keeps reminding me of “волан”(“воланчик”), which is “shuttlecock”. “Том Нарволо Реддл”, though, is a perfect anargam of “лорд Волан-де-Морт”, which would be problematic, given that the source of the name in English is supposed to be the phrase “I am Lord Voldemort” (an anagram of his name, Tom Marvolo Riddle). You don’t have that “I am” in Russian.
   The same with Snape, who became “Snegg” for reasons I cannot guess. The name could sound somewhat sly, being rendered as it is, but it became dull and “rotten” in it sounding instead.

   «семьИ» [the families] of children with magical ability. –> In plural the stress falls on the first syllable: “сЕмьи”.

   «зУбные врачИ» [dentists]. –> First, it is “зубнЫе”. Second, a more common term for a dentist is “стоматОлог”. Or, maybe, it was “дантист” in the movie, for dubbing purposes (because “стоматолог”, though much more popular, has twice as many syllables as “dentist”).

   «Как вы думаете?» [What do you think?] –> That’s tricky. Not exactly the intended usage of the phrase (it requires a clear definition of the matter in question), but it’s difficult to construct something more appropriate. It may be “А вы что думаете [по этому поводу]?” (And what fo you think [of this]?) or “А вы как считаете?” (“And what do you think?” meaning “what’s your opinion”)

   to Rob McGee: there is also the word “страж”, which means “guardian”. However, it isn’t clear why the translators chose something like “крестраж” other than for its creaky consonant combinations (КР, СТР) and a reference to a cross (=crux). Doesn’t sound scary to me.
   “Хоркрукс” definitely wouldn’t work. It doesn’t bring up any associations, just sounds as some place name in UK. The problems with being close to original become difficult when the words that are formally considered proper names were, in fact, designed to cause some associations, unlike in real life (where there is no such thing as a “meaningful name”). Harry Potter books have mostly evaded the effect of “meaningful translation” simply because there are so many names which don’t have an obvious meaning in English (Longbottom vs. Albus). Some jokes, however, did not (“holey” –> “I feel like a slug, a snail with no helix “, when George misses an ear)

9. 

    

   Charles:

   love the poster, and the comments.

10. 

     

    Edi:

    I greatly enjoy reading Harry Potter in other languages–I’ve read them in German and French, and it’s a great way to practice languages. It’s fun to try to figure out why things are translated the way they are. I love the Master and Margarita tie in to Voldemort’s name in Russian–I would never have figured that out. I’ve wondered why in French muggle becomes “moldu” and Hogwarts becomes “Poudlard”–does anybody know? In German Diagon Alley became “Querstrasse” (diagonal street) which made me stop and think about the English until I realized that it’s a play on the word “diagonally.” It’s a fun way to think differently about both the books and the languages/cultures represented in the translations.

11. 

     

    Galina:

    You’re right! Harry Potter is very famous in Russia. Everybody knows about this book! But I can say many people think it not so clever, because it’s hard to translate english yo Russian and often it looks not very cool. Russian like epithet more then Englander.
    P.S. Sorry, I speek English not very good, I’m from Russia and it ia not light to me to write english words and sentence.