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Funny how translations of Dostoyevsky is a contentious topic in English-speaking world. In ru-speaking world, we bicker about Harry Potter and Lord of Rings tra
by untech 2y ago
Funny how translations of Dostoyevsky is a contentious topic in English-speaking world. In ru-speaking world, we bicker about Harry Potter and Lord of Rings translations :) There’s a particularly inflammatory translation of HP which causes people to swear that they won’t let their children read it.
- IliaLitviak 2y agoThere is a black market of illegally printed “proper translations”. I had to buy a full HP anthology for my younger sister off some guy’s Corolla, paying in crypto. Same guy was selling counterfeit LEGOs. It was low-quality paper and flimsy covers, but the translation was “correct” and that’s all that matters.
- paulryanrogers 2y ago> There’s a particularly inflammatory translation of HP which causes people to swear that they won’t let their children read it. What makes it inflammatory?
- untech 2y agoThat it isn’t the same translation they read as children and that was used in movies. It is not a particularly high-brow debate, as HP, unlike Dostoyevsky in en-world, is read by everyone. People usually concentrate on proper names. Rowling uses a lot of “meaningful” names like Snape, Sprout or Ravenclaw, and translator have a choice of adapting them or leaving them be. Either choice leaves somebody unhappy. The same problem was with LotR a generation before. (LotR broke through the iron curtain only in 90s). When I read HP in original, I realised that the “proper” translation is also extremely bad. I don’t know what I should do when/if I have children. Either I’ll start working on my own translation during the pregnancy, or I’ll teach them English from the birth.
- Moru 2y agoWe did the English route without even thinking about it. LOtR is very strange in Swedish...
- inglor_cz 2y agoThe situation in Lord of the Rings has an added twist: many of the names are Old English, Anglo-Saxon or even Goth, and the translator faces a choice between leaving them alone and trying to translate them into Old Czech (Old Slavonic...), Old Finnish or whatever, which will nevertheless change the cultural context.
- 082349872349872 2y ago...and the twist on top of that is that JRRT has already translated the characters' actual names into anglophone cultural equivalents, eg: Maura Labingi Frodo Baggins Banazîr "Ban" Galpsi Samwise "Sam" Gamgee
- triceratops 2y agoWhat an absolute chad.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- pyuser583 2y agoI hear Star Wars is a pain to translate because of the meaningful names. “Darth Vader” was sometimes translated as “Dark Father”, but that his role as Luke’s father too obvious - a role the initial translators didn’t know existed.
- triceratops 2y agoGeorge Lucas wrote that twist for The Empire Strikes Back. The character was already named Darth Vader.
- sandworm101 2y ago>> LotR broke through the iron curtain only in 90s Strange, because my understanding is that The Hobbit was well-accepted by soviet authorities.
- tacone 2y agoProbably because it was simpler and less prone to political interpretation (a dark lord sitting in the east of the continent with a ton of humanoids that work like slaves to wage a war to the rest of the world).
- royal__ 2y agoFor instance, 'Longbottom' is translated quite literally, which can feel a bit silly.
- IncreasePosts 2y agoIt's silly in English too. Perhaps some British readers might be familiar with the name and its history/origins, but for most English readers, I suspect, it just sounds a bit silly, like he has a very tall butt.
- rendall 2y agoWashington, D.C. has the famous Foggy Bottom. Edit: America has a lot of bottoms, apparently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_geographical_bottoms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_geographical_bottoms Nowhere as grand as Aunt Mary's Bottom but South Dakota does have a Big Bottom.
- ecocentrik 2y ago"Talk about mud flaps My gal's got 'em."
- TRiG_Ireland 2y agoIt's silly, but it does feel like a real name. There are many such names in Britain.
- psidebot 2y agoAs someone with an English "bottom" as in bottom-lands surname, I appreciate the deliberate silliness of "Longbottom" while leaning into a very traditional British sounding name.
- d0mine 2y agoDoes it refer to a large valley? (lots of fertile ground) Perhaps, it is a punny reference to him being a pure blood.
- ecshafer 2y agoDostoyevsky is one of the greatest writers who has ever lived. I think getting Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy and Nabokov translated well is far more important than getting Harry Potter translated well.
- d0mine 2y agoDegenerate gambler, graphomaniac, and a pedophile--what a list. btw, there are likely more HP books sold then all books by all these authors combined.
- ecshafer 2y agoThere are more tickets sold to Avengers than there are tickets sold to Persona. But one is a work of art that will likely be viewed 100 years from now, and the other is for mass market consumption that no one will watch 20 years from now. Aesthetics for a work of art are far more important than the numbers sold, or the quirks of the author.
- d0mine 2y agoHarry Potter has been published more than 20 years ago Children stories may have a long life. For example, the brothers Grimm stories are still with us.