Harry Potter in translation

The books carried a number of words that are considered loaded names by linguists and translators, meaning that they carry a semantic load, and that their morphology (structure) and phonology (sound) need to be adapted when translating them to a foreign language, for example the house names (Ravenclaw = raven + claw), or Voldemort's name ("flight of death" or "theft of death" in French).[225] These words were translated in different countries using several translation strategies, such as copying the names with no attempt to transmit the original English meaning, transliterating even if the name lost its original meaning, replacing the name with another given name from the target language, or translating the name using native words that conveyed the same meaning.[225][226] For example, in the Russian first book the transliterating strategy was used for some names because the "th" sound does not exist in Russian, so "Slytherin" was transliterated as "Slizerin". The translator of the second book chose the translating strategy instead, and she renamed the houses, "Hufflepuff" becoming "Puffendui" and "Ravenclaw" becoming "Kogtevran" (from the Russian word for claw, "kogot'"). In the Italian editions, the house names were changed to animal-colour pairings: Gryffindor is "Grifondoro" ("grifon d'oro" means "golden griffin"), Slytherin is "Serpeverde" ("serpe verde" means "green snake"), Ravenclaw was, in the first edition of the first book, "Pecoranera" ("pecora nera", "black sheep"), but was then changed to "Corvonero" ("corvo nero", "black raven") and Hufflepuff is "Tassorosso" ("tasso rosso", "red badger") in the first translation and the films and "Tassofrasso" in the revisited translation.[227] In the French translation, the name "Hogwarts" is changed to "Poudlard", which means "bacon lice."[228]

Marketers of Harry Potter-themed toys pressured translators not to change the names of people and things so that they could call the toys by the same name in different countries.[229]

Many of the nuances of British culture and language will be unfamiliar to international readers. Such things require careful and creative translating. For the Hebrew translation, some of the Christian references were changed, because Israelis have less familiarity with cultural Christianity than readers elsewhere: a scene in which Sirius Black sings a parody of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" replaced the song with a parody of "Mi Y'malel," a Chanukah song;[230] on the other hand, in the Yiddish translation, translator Arun Viswanath retained all the Christian references, feeling that his readership would be familiar enough with them.[7] In the French translation, explanations of certain features of British schools unfamiliar to French students were inserted in the dialogues (e.g., "Prefect" and "Head Boy"), but they were not distinguished from explanations in the original text of differences between ordinary British schools and wizarding schools. This could mislead readers into thinking that these features of the house and boarding systems didn't exist in real-world British schools.[231] The Ukrainian translation set the story in an orphanage rather than try to convey the environment of a British boarding school.

Nonstandard English present in the book also had to be given careful consideration. The character Rubeus Hagrid's West Country dialect, for example, needed to be rendered in other languages to reflect the fact that he speaks with an accent and uses particular types of slang.[232] In the Japanese translation, he speaks in the Tōhoku dialect, which to a Japanese reader conveys a similar provincial feel.[233][234] The same was done in Ukrainian translation where Hagrid speaks Western Ukrainian dialect.[235] In the Yiddish translation, translator Arun Viswanath attempted to mirror Rowling's use of regional British dialects using Yiddish dialects.

"I tried to transpose the wizarding world onto a map of the Yiddish-speaking world" — pre World War II — "without making the characters Jewish. Filch speaks in a thick Lithuanian Yiddish accent and doesn’t pronounce the 'sh' sound, so he says sabes instead of shabes, and Hagrid, who despises him and speaks a very distinct rural English, speaks in a thick, almost exaggerated Polish Yiddish. I thought this was a good approach because it helps show the tension between them. As for Snape and McGonagall, well, they’re Litvaks. They just are."[7]

Some translations changed foods that appeared in the book into foods more common in the culture of their target audience in order to be more recognizable and relatable. The Hebrew translation of the scene where Dumbledore offers Professor McGonagall a lemon sherbet had him offer her a Krembo, a popular Israeli treat, instead. According to the Hebrew translator, "the point of the lemon sherbets is to tell us something about Dumbledore’s character in that this wise old wizard with a long white beard carries around a children’s treat in his pocket. The equivalent children’s dessert in Israel is the krembo. If I’d translated it as a lemon sucking candy, it wouldn’t have imparted the same image of Dumbledore."[236] The Arabic translation, which was written with a predominantly Muslim audience in mind, omitted references to food and drink forbidden by Islam. All references to pork and bacon were replaced with eggs and all references to alcoholic beverages were replaced with water, except in the case of the Death Eaters, presumably because the translator was comfortable enough with villains consuming alcohol and the resultant negative connotation it would create to leave it in.[237] However, the Hebrew translation left in place references to bacon despite reader complaints that such products violated the laws of Kashrut, with the translator justifying it on the basis that the characters were not Jewish.[92] The Chinese translation keeps the word "cornflakes" and has a footnote explaining what cornflakes are.[229]

As the Arabic translators were seeking to cater to religiously conservative readers, they also removed every reference to characters kissing, even on the cheek, and had them wave instead.[237]

In another example of making reference to cultural touchstones in translation, the "golden snitch" from Quidditch is rendered as "goldene flaterl" (golden butterfly) in the Yiddish translation, butterflies being a common symbol in Yiddish folktales.[228]

The title of the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, proved particularly difficult to translate into different languages. Rowling solved the problem by providing translators with an alternate title: Harry Potter and the Relics of Death. This became the basis for most translations of the title.[238]

The series involves many songs, poems, and rhymes, some of which proved difficult to translators.[239] One rhyme, a riddle told by a sphinx in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, posed a particular problem.[note 7] The riddle involves taking words from a poem and using them to form a longer word, "spider," in answer to the riddle. In the Taiwanese translation, the English words are simply put in parentheses.[240] In other translations, the riddle is changed to provide different words that can be put together to make up the translated version of "spider".

Some acronyms also proved difficult; the abbreviations "O.W.L.s" (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) and "N.E.W.T.s" (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests) needed to be translated to reflect the fact that their abbreviations spelled out the names of animals associated with the wizarding world, which did not always work in other languages. "N.E.W.T.s" was translated into Swedish as "F.U.T.T." (Fruktansvärt Utmattande Trollkarls-Test, Terribly Exhausting Wizard's Test). "Futt" means "measly" in Swedish.[232]

Another issue was the translation of "The Mirror of Erised", since "Erised" is created by reading English "desire" backwards. In German the word desire is spelled "Begehren", so the mirror was called "Der Spiegel Nerhegeb". The Finnish translation also follows this formula of reversing a word; the mirror is called "Iseeviot-peili" "iseeviot" being "toiveesi" ("your wish") written backwards. In Polish the mirror is called "Zwierciadło Ain Eingarp" ("zwierciadło" = "mirror"; "pragnienia" = "desire" (in genitive case)). In Indonesian, The Mirror of Erised is called "Cermin Tarsah" (cermin" = "mirror"; "hasrat" = "desire"). In Spanish it is called "El Espejo de Oesed" ("Espejo" = "Mirror"; "Deseo" = "desire"). In the early Italian editions and in the movie, the mirror is called "Specchio delle Brame" ("Mirror of Desires"; Italian name for the Magic Mirror from Snow White), later, it was renamed "Specchio delle Emarb" ("Emarb" is "Brame" read backwards), a name based on the English one.

Areas in which anagrams are present do not make the transition easily into other languages. The name "Tom Marvolo Riddle", first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, is rearranged to spell "I am Lord Voldemort". This has required translators to alter Riddle's name to make the anagram work. Sometimes translators manage to alter only one part of the name. For example, Tom Riddle's middle name of Marvolo was changed to Marvolodemus in the Serbian second edition; the first edition had lacked the anagram and the original name Tom Marvolo Riddle had simply been copied. In the Bulgarian translation his middle name becomes "Mersvoluko" so the whole name forms an anagram for "And here I am, Lord Voldemort" (instead of "I am Lord Voldemort" as in the original English). Analogous alterations of the middle name Marvolo have been made in several other languages; for example; it became Servoleo in Brazilian Portuguese, Vandrolo in Hebrew, Marvoldo in Turkish, Vorlost in German, Narvolo in Russian, Sorvolo in Spanish, Rojvol in Czech, Marvoloso in Slovak, and Orvoloson in Italian (Note: the original Italian version kept the English name, having Riddle translate the anagram in his speech that immediately follows. The change to Orvoloson was made in later editions, although the revisited translation returned to "Marvolo" and kept the phrase in English, assuming the reader could understand it themselves.). In the Latin version his name is Tom Musvox Ruddle, which is an anagram of "Sum Dux Voldemort", or "I am the leader Voldemort".

In other languages, translators replaced the entire name to preserve the anagram. In French, Riddle's full name becomes Tom Elvis Jedusor (i.e. phonetically "game of fate" for the French "Jeu du sort", wordplay with a phonetically identical "Jet du sort", which means "Casting spell") which forms an anagram for "Je suis Voldemort" ("I am Voldemort"). In Norwegian, his name is Tom Dredolo Venster, an anagram of "Voldemort den store", which means "Voldemort the Great". In Greek, his name is "Anton Marvolo Hurt" (Άντον Μαρβόλο Χέρτ), anagram of "Άρχον Βόλντεμορτ" which means "Lord Voldemort". In Icelandic, his name is Trevor Delgome, which becomes "(Ég)Eg er Voldemort" ("I am Voldemort"), but his middle name is not used for the anagram and stays as Marvolo. In Finnish his name is "Tom Lomen Valedro"; the corresponding anagram is "Ma(ä) olen Voldemort", "I am Voldemort". In Dutch, his name is "Marten Asmodom Vilijn", an anagram of "Mijn naam is Voldemort", or "My name is Voldemort", "Vilijn" being a pseudohomophone of vilein, "evil". In Swedish, his name is "Tom Gus Mervolo Dolder", an anagram of "Ego sum Lord Voldemort", where "ego sum" is Latin, not Swedish, for "I am". In Chinese, the mainland translator translated the two phrases without regard for the anagram, and inserted a footnote explaining the wordplay. The Taiwanese Chinese and Japanese versions displayed the main text of the anagram in English and added in the meaning in brackets beside it while the Vietnamese version displayed the original anagram in English and added a footnote.[241]

In Slovenian, both names are completely changed. Tom Marvolo Riddle is Mark Neelstin and Lord Voldemort is translated as Lord Mrlakenstein. When the name Mark Neelstin is rearranged in the scene, it spells Mrlakenstein. Because the books in Slovenia were released with a three-year delay, the translation of Voldemort is consistent throughout the series. The film series corresponds with the book translation. The Danish translation uses abbreviation and suffix to make the name work. The translation is Romeo G. Detlev Jr an anagram of "Jeg er Voldemort" ("I am Voldemort").

In Hungarian, Voldemort's name becomes "Tom Rowle Denem", which is an anagram of "Nevem Voldemort" ("My name is Voldemort"), with the "w" in the name becoming two "v"s. This caused a name collision with the character Thorfinn Rowle, who first appears in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but who is not related to Voldemort. Because of this collision, in the Hungarian translation his family name was altered to Rovel. The Arabic version avoids the issue entirely by having Riddle directly write out, "I am Lord Voldemort" (أنا لورد فولدمورت). These changes to the name created problems in later books however; in the English edition, a line of dialogue mentions that Tom Riddle shares his given name with the bartender of the Leaky Cauldron, and this becomes a plot point. However, this is not the case in all translations.

Rowling invented a great number of words and phrases for the books such as spells, incantations, magical words, items, and place names. Many of these words involve wordplay, rhyming, and historical references that are difficult to translate. A large number of spells are drawn from or inspired by Latin, and have a certain resonance with English speakers due to its relatively large proportion of Latinate-derived vocabulary. For example, priori incantatem (a spell which causes the last spells performed by a wand to be reproduced in reverse order) would be familiar to many English-speaking readers as the words prior (previous) and incantation (spell, charm). To create a similar effect in the Hindi version, the Sanskrit, typical in mantras, has been used for the spells. Some translators have created new words themselves; others have resorted to transliteration.

Names that involve wordplay, such as Knockturn Alley and Pensieve are also difficult to translate. The former, an unsavoury area in London's magical market, is semi-homophonous with "nocturnally," suggesting darkness and evil. The latter is a magical bowl into which memories and thoughts can be placed and examined, and is a portmanteau of two words: pensive, meaning "musingly or dreamily thoughtful," and sieve, a type of bowl with perforations through which fine particles of a substance (such as flour) may be passed to separate them from coarser ones. Translators must creatively render such names. If the words are simply transliterated, the shades of meaning are lost; but, when new word-games are invented, they can end up sounding quite different from the original, and often reflect the translator's personal interpretation and preferences. For instance, the Turkish version of Pensieve is Düşünseli, which is a portmanteau of the words Düşünmek (to think, to imagine) and sel (a flood of water). The German version of Pensieve is Denkarium, from denken, meaning to think, and the suffix -arium. The Swedish version of Pensieve is Minnessåll which means memory's sieve. The Norwegian translation of Pensieve is tanketank which translates to Thought-tank. The Hebrew version achieves a similar effect to the English in its translation of Pensieve; Pensieve is הגיגית (Hagigit), which is a combination of the word הגיג (hagig) meaning thought, and the word גיגית (gigit) meaning tub. In the Czech translation, Pensieve is "Myslánka" (from "myslet" – think) and Knockturn Alley is Obrtlá ulice, a rather complex neologism with many meanings and associations, but based on the word "obrtlík" (swivel) and the phrase "otočit se na obrtlíku" (run away suddenly). The "Nocturnal" wordplay is not used in the Czech translation. The Vietnamese version of "Pensieve" is "Tưởng Ký", which is a combination word of "tư tưởng" ("thought" or "mind") and "ký" (literally means something to keep thoughts, like a diary.)

Similarly, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, when Professor McGonagall is about to introduce Harry to Oliver Wood, she asks another professor if she can "borrow Wood for a moment", momentarily confusing Harry; in order to retain this wordplay, the Yiddish translation renames Wood as "Oliver Holtz", "holtz" being the Yiddish for wood,[228] unlike the Italian one, which changed the surname to "Baston", from "bastone", "stick", but returned to the original "Wood" with the second translation.

Often, names in Harry Potter have historical or linguistic significance in English, which may create problems if the translator does not recognise or misjudges it. Rowling commented on this phenomenon in Conversations with J.K. Rowling, in which she complained that the Italian translation of Professor Dumbledore's last name was "Silente"; rather than recognizing that "Dumbledore" was an old Devon word for "bumblebee," the translator took the word "dumb" and translated it as "silent".[242] In contrast, the Czech translator used the Old Czech word for bumblebee – Brumbál (in modern Czech čmelák). The French translation renamed Severus Snape as 'Rogue'; in Italian he was renamed "Piton" (from the Italian "pitone", "python").[228] Instead, the same Italian translation changed the name of Professor Sybill Trelawney into "Sibilla Cooman", which resembles the Italian "Sibilla Cumana", the Cumaean Sibyl, although, like many other names, it was brought back to the original in the revised translation.

In some cases, English-speaking fans have sought clues to the story's mysteries by examining the way certain parts of the books have been translated in foreign editions. A case in point is the identity of a character mentioned by initials only in the book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The English initials R.A.B. could have belonged to several minor characters from the books, but variations on the initials in other languages gave evidence to the true identity of the mystery character: in the Dutch edition of the book R.A.B. was translated into R.A.Z., 'zwart' being Dutch for 'black'; in the Norwegian edition, R.A.B. translates to 'R.A.S.', svart being Norwegian for 'black'; and in the Finnish edition the initials were R.A.M., 'musta' being Finnish for 'black'. Fans took this to mean that the character was Regulus Black, the brother of Sirius Black; when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published, this was revealed to be the case.

Similarly, the title for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix did not make it obvious whether the word "Order" referred to a group of people or to a directive. The information that it was a group of people was then determined by viewing the title in other languages. The Vietnamese translation, which was originally published in instalments, originally interpreted "Order" as a directive and translated it as "Harry Potter và Mệnh lệnh Phượng hoàng"; when it became clear that "Order" referred to a group of people, the title was changed to "Harry Potter và Hội Phượng hoàng".

Rowling released an alternative title for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for use by translators finding difficulty translating its meaning. The alternative title (in English) is Harry Potter and the Relics of Death.[243] In Italy the title has been translated as Harry Potter e i doni della morte replacing "hallows" with "presents" because the word "relic" is often used in reference to the remains or personal effects of a saint. This variation was proposed and then approved by J.K. Rowling.[244]

A few characters in the series are identified with a title and last name, or with a gender-neutral name. In some languages—for example, those where adjectives are gendered—it was necessary for the translator to guess the character's gender. The Hebrew translation initially made Blaise Zabini a girl, though the character was revealed to be a boy in later books.[230] To avoid this problem, Isabel Nunes, the Portuguese translator, asked Rowling about the gender of some of the characters—Zabini, Professor Sinistra, and "R.A.B."—while working on her translations.[245]