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Harry Potter "translations"
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From: ALevine at Scholastic.com <ALevine>
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 19:50:53 -0400
Megan,
I hope you'll excuse my adding to my lengthy posting earlier and answer these questions too:
re: Title Change. I liked the title "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" but once I'd read the book I didn't feel it properly captured the spirit of the novel. "Philosopher's Stone" sounded at once more "Indiana Jones-ey" and more esoteric to me than the book actually was. So I asked Jo if she had any other ideas, and she mentioned "Sorcerer's Stone" which I thought sounded just right. Yes, I guess it sounded more exciting -appropriately so, as the book itself is quite exciting.
re: British vs. American English The philosophy (you should pardon the expression) behind how Jo and I edited the book for the U.S. was that American readers should have the exact same experience reading the book as British readers.
Part of that experience, of course, would be the texture of the setting, and so we wanted to be quite careful that this fabric of details not be compromised. But neither of us felt that any particular slang was sacrosanct.
One example of an area where Jo and I carefully translated for American readers was the details of the banquets at Hogwarts. It was the author's intention that her readers experience a place where all their favorite dishes would magically appear on plates that perpetually refilled themselves. If the American reader comes to this section -- let's say the Xmas banquet -- and doesn't recognize a single dish, then they don't properly feel the wonder of the passage. Sure, they can look up "bangers and mash" -- or whatever -- in a reference book, but it won't be the same. So Jo and I came up with dishes that we felt could still, authentically make an appearance on a British table, but that would also make a ten year old New Yorker's mouth water. (And even so we left in some exotic dishes, such as "chipolatas" which I still have never eaten.)
Another type of translation occurred with words that have drastically different meanings in British and American usage, and therefore might be misunderstood. Hence, rather than have Harry Potter taken for a transvestite, we translated "jumper" as "sweater".
At another point in the British text, a student stated that
"Dumbledore is barking." Now, I asked myself, is that a good thing? Or a bad thing? I simply couldn't tell from context. So Jo and I translated the term as something that clearly indicated he was angry. ("Barking" being short for
"barking mad")
It was actually a quite enjoyable process that the author and I spent many hours over, laughing, and coming up with alternatives. She and I are both pleased with the results and I hope most readers are as well.
Received on Thu 03 Jun 1999 06:50:53 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 19:50:53 -0400
Megan,
I hope you'll excuse my adding to my lengthy posting earlier and answer these questions too:
re: Title Change. I liked the title "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" but once I'd read the book I didn't feel it properly captured the spirit of the novel. "Philosopher's Stone" sounded at once more "Indiana Jones-ey" and more esoteric to me than the book actually was. So I asked Jo if she had any other ideas, and she mentioned "Sorcerer's Stone" which I thought sounded just right. Yes, I guess it sounded more exciting -appropriately so, as the book itself is quite exciting.
re: British vs. American English The philosophy (you should pardon the expression) behind how Jo and I edited the book for the U.S. was that American readers should have the exact same experience reading the book as British readers.
Part of that experience, of course, would be the texture of the setting, and so we wanted to be quite careful that this fabric of details not be compromised. But neither of us felt that any particular slang was sacrosanct.
One example of an area where Jo and I carefully translated for American readers was the details of the banquets at Hogwarts. It was the author's intention that her readers experience a place where all their favorite dishes would magically appear on plates that perpetually refilled themselves. If the American reader comes to this section -- let's say the Xmas banquet -- and doesn't recognize a single dish, then they don't properly feel the wonder of the passage. Sure, they can look up "bangers and mash" -- or whatever -- in a reference book, but it won't be the same. So Jo and I came up with dishes that we felt could still, authentically make an appearance on a British table, but that would also make a ten year old New Yorker's mouth water. (And even so we left in some exotic dishes, such as "chipolatas" which I still have never eaten.)
Another type of translation occurred with words that have drastically different meanings in British and American usage, and therefore might be misunderstood. Hence, rather than have Harry Potter taken for a transvestite, we translated "jumper" as "sweater".
At another point in the British text, a student stated that
"Dumbledore is barking." Now, I asked myself, is that a good thing? Or a bad thing? I simply couldn't tell from context. So Jo and I translated the term as something that clearly indicated he was angry. ("Barking" being short for
"barking mad")
It was actually a quite enjoyable process that the author and I spent many hours over, laughing, and coming up with alternatives. She and I are both pleased with the results and I hope most readers are as well.
Received on Thu 03 Jun 1999 06:50:53 PM CDT
