Hi everyone!
I am a newcomer both to the forum and also to Fforde's books (credit for introducing me goes to a dear friend of mine in America who is a fan and lent me a copy for the long flight home).

Incidentally I am just about to write my thesis on the translation of names in fiction, and as I was reading The Eyre Affair, I couldn't help noticing how many of the names would pose problems to translators. I ended up deciding to reference it for my thesis. I wonder if anyone who owns a copy of either the French version or the German version would be so kind as to let me know what the translated names are?

If not, I can certainly order copies of the translations, but I thought I'd try you all first...

Concerning the German translation: The names are, not suprisingly, not translated at all. After all, the book is set in England, so how could the names be anything else? Even if a translator would try to give the readers a glimpse of the puns, what should he do? Choose English puns instead that the German readers might get? Those don't grow on trees, I'd say. Give explanations in footnotes? That would have been a very bad choice in view of the following books.

For the one exception, Helmut Bight/Beicht, there was no way out. He is supposed to be a German, but Bight is not a conceivable German name. Unfortunately the translator missed just that pun...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/2007 01:10PM by PrinzHilde.

you might want to try Anime shows that get translated. I've seen one in particular where the main character is named an English name, (Conan) It stays the same when it was translated to English but some situations don't make as much sense.

such as at one point a whole group of people completely amazed that his name is Conan, in English that didn't make that much sense, but if you had seen it in Japanese it would make sense. Being that those of Japanese descent don't usually have English names...

Gee, I hope that makes sense.

Not exactly the same as translating names, but I believe there is a book by Douglas Hofstadter (author of the very wonderful book Gödel, Escher, Bach) about translating nonsense. Unfortunately I don't know much more than that, and I believe it was published only in French so I've never read it. But based on my experience with Hofstadter's writing and ideas, it sounds like it would be a fascinating book. If you speak French, you might want to check it out!

Hi Arisv2007,

I can't help you with the translation question (that's an interesting one).
However, I can welcome you!
Would you like some coffee, tea, water, or <roots around fridge> orange juice?

Welcome arisv2007.

Help your self to pie. Some are to the left, others to the right.

<Let's see if arisv can figure out which pies are which!>

Huh... am I missing something over the pie? ;-) I haven't got as far as reading any of the sequels yet (yes, I'm a VERY new Fforde convert) so if it's a reference to something, I'm going to plead ignorance. But if not... i'll try a bit of all the pies... I like pie... ;-)

Thanks for the welcome and the advice about translation - MuseSusan, I might just check out that book out of pure interest!

PrinzHilde - these are exactly the type of questions I'm going to be investigating: what is a translator to do when faced with names that contain puns, or names that have connotations relating to the character, or names that are distinctive in a particular way? So even if the names aren't translated, it's still very useful to me - so thank you.

RookeeAlding - thanks for the tip, and it makes perfect sense. I'm writing particularly in reference to German and French (speak barely any Japanese, though it's on the list) as those are my most fluent languages. But there's nothing to stop me mentioning other languages along the way if they particularly illustrate a point. :-)

Don't worry about the pie; have some Battenburg instead!

Why thank you. And I've figured out the pies too - can I have some sweet pie please? Lots of sugar for first thing in the morning... Yay!

You've figured them out?

Woah. You're one up on me...

<best documentary style voice>

The people of the fform, often great newcomers with gifts of pies and Battenburg, sometimes newcomers are given a choice of flavor with the pies, at other times Pies are flung at them as a sign of well being. If you ever meet a member of the fform, be not afraid of this greeting. for it is given with the utmost respect. To respond to this greeting all one must do is accept a pie, or if they are in a more courages mood fling a pie back.

For those who chose Battenburg, further research must be done before this researcher can suggest the proper method of reaction.

<adds hisps to the audio, and a few scratch lines to the film, so it will sound and look more like those films they made us watch in school...>

<Wonders if this means a bunch of men in waxes mousaches and pith helmets will be nicking our countries and buying us off with beads...>

Why they wanted Aus I will never know.... :P

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Arisv - I've been trying to think of any examples where names have been translated from works originally written in other languages (well only German really, because that's the only one I'm fluent in!) and then translated into English.

I think generally they tend not to be - even though this can mean the loss of a deliberate implication that the name has in the original language. For example in "The Fire Raisers" by Max Frisch the main character is still called "Biedermann" in the English version, even though this loses the impact of the original German, where Biedermann can mean a petty bourgeois, which is fitting for the character.

Very obvious names with English equivalents sometimes get translated - Wilhelm Tell becomes William Tell for example.

One other that springs to mind is Little Red Riding Hood, which is a literal (if somewhat longer-winded in English!) translation of Rotkaeppchen.

If I think of any others I'll let you know - but rather than risk turning this into a mini essay and boring the pants off our fellow Fforum users, I'll do it via a private message, I think! :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2007 11:55AM by The Cookster.

Character names in Asterix, which is originally written in French.

Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge are the English translators, and do a magnificent job on keeping funny names; on occasion, they even out-do the original names for the puns contained within (Dogmatix being the one that springs to mind).

BK wrote:
"<Wonders if this means a bunch of men in waxes mousaches and pith helmets will be nicking our countries and buying us off with beads...>"

<I don't think so. It may be too late; they've sent in their anthropologists. However,you could be right: This might be the first step. Hmm.>

This may be of interest to you. (A discussion on alt.books.pratchett about translating the names in Discworld books.)

And if anyone has a copy of the original discworld companion I'm sure there's a bit in there by the man himself about translating names... unfortunately my copy is buried somewhere in double-stacked bookshelves. I'll try and dig it out.

Rob

------
That statement is either so deep it would take a lifetime to fully comprehend every particle of its meaning, or it is a load of absolute tosh. Which is it, I wonder?
Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

<whispers to MartinB - 'there's GOLD in Australia'>