Today I’ll be talking about the issues of translating the Harry Potters novels, that little-known series.
(Apologies to all non-HP readers, but it’s such an interesting topic)
#translatingHarryPotter

I’ve touched before on extra-lingual factors affecting translation, but this was the ultimate example of this: *unrolls

Firstly, time. Translating well takes time - for re-reading the original text, mulling over choices, hitting on the correct wordplay or pun - it all takes time, but in many cases, HP translators had to produce their translations of increasingly long novels in 4-8 weeks

Secondly, access to the author. JK stipulated that she didn’t want to be contacted by the translators with questions, which is fair enough when your books are being translated into 80 languages.

But it’s not how translators usually work, and meant that many tricky translation questions had to be resolved without clarification from the author.For example...

Sirius Black is mentioned in the first chapter of Philosopher’s Stone, as he lends Hagrid a motorcycle to bring Harry to Privet Drive.

Some translations were already being done before the third book - Prisoner of Azkaban - was published in English, and at that point, translators didn’t realise SB would become a significant character, and his name would be telling (in a Dickensian way)

Sirius - the Dog Star, foreshadowing his Animagus aspect - and Black, an ancient pure-blood name.

But understandably, some translators didn’t realise this was an important detail, so just came up with a random
name, loosening a plot connection in translation that was evident to eagle-eyed readers in English.

Thirdly, the high profile of this series led to a familiarity with this world, which in turn meant the translations were heavily scrutinised for ‘fidelity’

Slovene HP fans were outraged when the translator of the first 5 HP books, Jakob Kenda, was sidelined by the publisher in favour of another translator, whose translation of HP6 was not well-received.

They rallied, contacting HP fan websites everywhere, and ultimately the rights to HP7 were sold to a different publisher, Kenda translated HP7 and revised/retranslated HP6.

I suppose what I’m trying to show with this is the level of scrutiny on these translations - it’s so rare for translations, and also wow betide any translator who makes a mistake - the wrath of HP fans is fierce.

Now this is a big one: NAMES of the Harry Potter novels in translation #translatingHarryPotter

As Darach mentioned on the illuminating Motherfoclóir episode about HP, in any translations begun after Warner Bros held the rights and the films were planned, the translators were not permitted to change the names, as other translators had.

Some translators had always kept the names of main characters in English, while changing those of minor characters, others had changed them all.

The names JK Rowling created have Dickensian undertones, and these can be a source of hellish fun to recreate in translation.

Thus Jean-François Ménard‘s translation in French has names like Neville Londubat and Severus Rogue
Severus ROGUE, y’all. What is lost in alliteration is gained ten-fold in getting Rogue as his surname

Severus in Italian is called Severus Piton, which is close to the word for python, playing on his snaky ways

You can see what later translators weren’t permitted to do - in Máire Nic Mhaoláin’s translation into Irish, the only name she was able to change was that of Seamus Finnegan

Translators obviously had to do some linguistic contortions to get the anagram/spoiler in HP2 to work in their language. In addition to the awesome French translation mentioned by @bridryan Tom Marvolo Riddle became Tom Rowle Denem in Hungarian...

And Trevor Delgome in Icelandic.
I never would have imagined the Dark Lord being a Trevor.

Laura Escorihuela’s translation into Catalan of Professor Sprout is Profesora Coliflor (cauliflower) - in Spanish too, incidentally - and I love this translation. It gives the botanical flavour Sprout does in English

She also changed dreamy Oliver Wood’s name to Marc (more usual in Catalan) Roure (roure = oak), keeping the wood connotation/Harry’s thought that it is a cane for corporal punishment

Changing the names isn’t always a perfect strategy though. The 1st Italian translation of Prof Dumbledore was Prof Silente - obviously coming from the first syllable of his name. But tbf how many of us would have known it was an Old English word for bumblebee?

Although I don’t see the reasoning behind making Madame Pomfrey ‘Madam Poppy Chips.’

Readers in Brazilian Portuguese could play quadribol instead of Quidditch - that is, if you can get away from the ‘trouxas’ (Muggles)

Also,courtesy of translator Lia Wyler, Dudley became ‘Duda’ in the Brazilian Portuguese- he sounds so.much.cooler.

On a related aside, is the command ‘Accio’ pronounced Axsio or Ackio? I’ve never been sure...

Most translations of Harry Potter keep Hogwarts as Hogwarts, but some translators decide it should be changed: would you prefer to go to Poudlard (French, bacon lice) or Zweinstein (Dutch, pig rock)?

More delights from Escorihuela’s translation, in the shape of Harry’s schoolbooks: Bèsties fantàstiques i on trobar-les by Ernest Salamàndric!
I love that Catalan Newt is named Ernest.

And the Potions textbook is by someone called Arsènic!

Forgive my fangirling over Laura Escorihuela, but she did such a brilliant job with HP 1-4. Neville’s toad Trevor is called Pau (pronounced pow) el Gripau! So alliteration is replaced with assonance. Top marks for literary effect.

It must be admitted, though, that Nick-de-poc-sense-cap doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as Nearly Headless Nick. It’s only one extra syllable, but lacking the repetition of the ‘n’ makes it seem so much longer

In case you feel like testing yourself: https://bookriot.com/2018/09/19/quiz-how-well-do-you-know-harry-potter-in-translation/

It might just be me, but it was difficult!