English to French translation

Translating Harry Potter

August 3, 2005

The BBC website reports that unofficial translations of the latest Harry Potter book have started reaching certain markets and being sold. According to the story, "the unofficial translation omitted several paragraph of actions and contained some mistranslations, such as swapping the original word "immortal" for "mortal"." Oops. This is unavoidable, really, as I doubt these rogue translations go through the editing and proofreading stages that the official versions undoubtedly do.

However, I understand that there is so much demand for the books to be translated quickly, that the translators engaged in the task are not given very much time to produce the texts. I remember reading somewhere that the French translator of the fifth Harry Potter delivered on time, but almost lost his marriage and mental health in the process. I would never dream of criticising his work, especially as I would never be able to produce such a difficult translation in so little time, but I must admit I'm not sure of some of his choices, particularly his translations of names, like "Hogwarts", which becomes "Poudlard".

For this type of translation, which has to be extremely creative and deals with a whole new world of wizards and witches, I'm wondering whether a wikipedia-style collaboration would be the ideal way to achieve the best possible translation. There must surely be lots of Harry Potter enthusiasts out there who can also write; they could all chip in, add their finds, debate others' choice and collectively produce the ultimate translation. As with Wikipedia, the unfit contributions would quickly be eliminated through self-regulation and trusted administrators. It would be the product of lots of different people with a passion for the book and its universe. It would also be a way for the thousands of fans out there who know the Harry Potter universe inside out to really appropriate for themselves the books, ensuring that they reach their potential in lots of different languages.

My colleagues operating in the literary world will probably hate this idea, but these books touch people so closely that giving them a chance to translate them into their own language would turn the translation into a real labour of love, which, I think, would probably lead to exceptional results.

Wikipedia gives loads of resources on the Harry Potter translations.

Comments

Salut Céline -

I agree with you about "Poudlard" (does that even mean anything?) but I was delighted with his translation of Sorting Hat as "Choixpeau."

Yes, I love "choixpeau" too! I hope I didn't sound too critical of Jean-François Ménard, he has been doing an incredible job, I was just trying to say that on this type of translation, the more input from lots of different people, the better.

No, no, I didn't think you were being too critical. I agree - I think your suggestion is an excellent one. The Harry Potter pages in English on Wikipedia are amazingly detailed, so I'm sure that a collaborative effort in French, Spanish, etc. could yield some excellent results.

I am still curious about Poudlard, though. Someone suggested that it was a cross of "poudre" and "poularde" but that doesn't make any sense to me. He must have had some logic in mind, but what could it have been?

I read that he tried to follow the English name: "lard" as in pig's lard echoes "hog", whereas "pou" (louse, just as unpleasant as a wart) echoes "wart". Hence pou de lard (pig's louse) for hog's wart. Hmmm...

I think he might have been better off just sticking with 'ogwarts. :-)

I defend the translator. One can be too literal. When you are dealing with jokes, you need a dash of wicked humour. The beautiful English translatiuon of Asterix in Britain often bears only glancing relationship with the French text which although brilliant, may not even be as good as the English version! I know all about Nabokov's insistence on fidelity but please, can we avoid being too literal? I have not read the translations of Philip Pullman* into French but I think they did a beautiful job turning the series from the His Dark Materials to À la croisée des mondes. Anyway, one vote for the poor sod who had to read Harry Potter from start to finish. I hope he got a good fee.

*a writer with more to say than Rowling. IMHO.

I apologise that my previous post is signed Harry Potter. I had him in my mind when I was filling out the posting and did not mean to hide behind a pseudonym. My profound apologies for creating a capharnaum of this web site.

Harry/Jonathan, but that's exactly what I don't like about "poudlard", it's too literal. Instead of trying to keep some of the meaning of "hogwarts", I think it would have been best to concentrate on the sound/feel aspect of the word. The English versions of Asterix are a fantastic example of creativity and humour in translation.

I am glad we agree about Asterix! Now I shall retire for "une tasse d'eau chaude avec un nuage de lait."

I'd just like to point out an incredibly extensive page via answers.com called the "Harry Potter in translation series" (http://www.answers.com/Harry%20Potter%20in%20translation%20series)
which lists every chapter title and every term, etc, in most if not all languages the Harry Potter books have been published in. Fascinating stuff, even if you don't give a whit about Harry Potter.

To go back to Céline's idea of wiki-type translations, although the idea of a wide collaboration sounds great, I am afraid it might prove difficult to maintain the coherance of the text as a whole- for example, it would be awkward to see "Hogwarts" translated as "Poudlard" in a sentence, translated by another term in another, left as such in a third sentence...
Having several people participate to the translation would certainly enhance the creativity of the translation, but in the end decisions have to be made once and for all.
Does anyone know of an on-going wiki translation project? I would be curious to know how such difficulties can be overcome.

As someone who is intimately familiar with the translation of "Harry Potter" (I am the official Hebrew language translator), with more than passing experience with wiki (an admistrator on the English Wikipedia), I don't think a wiki-translation of this particular book is a feasible idea. That is, I do not think it would lead to a stable document that would be pleasant to read. There would be incessant bickering about the best translation of certain key phrases, and it would be impossible to reach consensus.

A printable translation requires taking a stance and making decisions, sometimes compromising; it requires an authoritative approach, someone to ultimately dictate decisions. It cannot grow out of a democratic process, let alone something like a wiki in which particularly eager minorities have disproportionate weight in the decision process.

I have yet to translate a single phrase that was not contested by readers, even when the majority opinion I encountered was extremely favorable. The readers of the Harry Potter books sometimes behave like religious fanatics: they niggle about the slightest details, and everything is crucially important to them; there are many disagreements between Harry Potter fans, and the arguments can get very passionate, almost like warring factions. A wikipedia translation of this document would be like a wikipedia article about a heated current event debate: ever-changing, constantly attracting radical opinions and strife, occasionally exploding and losing control. Not something I would enjoy reading for pleasure. (Imagine a wiki-translation of the Bible, and how much turmoil that would put into motion). The only advantage I could see to such a translation would be the possibility of adding hyperlink annotations.

Not to mention that such a translation of Harry Potter books would be a legal impossibility, and must remain hypothetical. If anyone wanted to start a real project, as an experiment, they would have to choose a text that is clearly in public domain.

I do in fact know of one such project that started about a year ago in Israel. It was the translation from English into Hebrew of a short story by Mark Twain. For lack of time I never joined, but as far as I know the whole project fizzled out quite quickly. Professional translators prefer investing their time in a project that will either pay well, or somehow advance their career or prestige. Amateur translators don't stay amateurs for very long, if they're any good...

The URL Jamie provided for "Answers.com" is in fact merely an outdated mirror of a much improved Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_in_translation

Awww, I actually don't mind the translation "Poudlard". That, however, is my humble opinion. M. Ménard explains in an article how he translated "Hogwarts". I am truly astounded by the work he has done in these translations. I would love to try to translate such works, but I would have to translate from French into English since I am an anglophone (dommage, j'adore la langue française. Mais je doute que les francophones veuillent lire mon français !)

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