Names of Characters in Foreign Editions.
- Thread starter Tonyblack
- Start date
*looks titles over* Seems like most of those are more-or-less literal translations. The Color of Magic is still The Color of Magic, or, more literally, Magic's Color. The Light Fantastic gets translated into The Fantastic Light-in Chinese, adjectives always come first. Mort is Death's Apprentice, as seems to be the norm in most of these translations. Equal Rites becomes Equal Rights, losing the pun.
And that's all the Chinese books they have. I'd post the characters, but I'm too lazy to type them. Yes, I live in Taiwan but am too lazy to type Chinese.
And that's all the Chinese books they have. I'd post the characters, but I'm too lazy to type them. Yes, I live in Taiwan but am too lazy to type Chinese.
GrayGriffin said:
*looks titles over* Seems like most of those are more-or-less literal translations. The Color of Magic is still The Color of Magic, or, more literally, Magic's Color. The Light Fantastic gets translated into The Fantastic Light-in Chinese, adjectives always come first. Mort is Death's Apprentice, as seems to be the norm in most of these translations. Equal Rites becomes Equal Rights, losing the pun.
And that's all the Chinese books they have. I'd post the characters, but I'm too lazy to type them. Yes, I live in Taiwan but am too lazy to type Chinese.
And that's all the Chinese books they have. I'd post the characters, but I'm too lazy to type them. Yes, I live in Taiwan but am too lazy to type Chinese.
Only disorienting if you've not seen the other [mainstream?] version? Artistically I'd be insulted if I drew something that was good enough for the cover, but not be asked to do the interior illustrations, which are often far more interesting to do
Added later on reflection - Visuals for some writing are a pain 'cos you're more likely to accept the artwork over your own vision - like Josh with giving Twoflower 4 proper eyes so in some way it's more of a compliment to the reader's own imagination not to have any illustrations at all - or even bother with cover art. 'Branding' is something that we're all used to in a consumer society to the point of actually 'needing' it - all wrong when you think it through but of all the senses vision is king as that is what draws us to most things where a psychological or aesthetic 'in' is needed. I know the other senses play their part (and may have to if you don't have any sight at all) but eyes are very important and from a cerebral aspect is the richest 'in depth' as they are the windows to your - brain
Hard-wired in fact, which is why you should maybe not be judging a book by its cover - but over a distance, how it looks is key in luring you into picking it up... and why, if you need to commission a different style cover then the other illustrations ought to go with it or it would look ever more disorienting.
Added later on reflection - Visuals for some writing are a pain 'cos you're more likely to accept the artwork over your own vision - like Josh with giving Twoflower 4 proper eyes so in some way it's more of a compliment to the reader's own imagination not to have any illustrations at all - or even bother with cover art. 'Branding' is something that we're all used to in a consumer society to the point of actually 'needing' it - all wrong when you think it through but of all the senses vision is king as that is what draws us to most things where a psychological or aesthetic 'in' is needed. I know the other senses play their part (and may have to if you don't have any sight at all) but eyes are very important and from a cerebral aspect is the richest 'in depth' as they are the windows to your - brain
Hard-wired in fact, which is why you should maybe not be judging a book by its cover - but over a distance, how it looks is key in luring you into picking it up... and why, if you need to commission a different style cover then the other illustrations ought to go with it or it would look ever more disorienting. Two - maybe - interesting tidbits about an early german translation:
The 1985 german version of The Colour of Magic was published by the Goldmann Verlag as "Die Farben der Fantasie" (The Colours of Fantasy) - seems the translator got a bit mushed up with The Light Fantastic..
In that edition, during the event taking place on the TWA flight, Dr. Rjinswand a.k.a. Rincewind, 33 bachelor and born in Sweden (though Rijnswand sounds more dutch than swedish to me) meets Jack Zweiblumen a.k.a. Twoflower.. only that in the german version Twoflower already has been translated from the start to Zweiblume (singular) and mutates to Jack Zweiblumen (kinda plural; Two Flowers) for that event.
That was the only german translation of a book from TP I ever read. I got me an english version of TCoM shortly after and had at least 50% more fun reading it.. and so I luckily chose to only get me original versions of all his work. Too much of TP's humour can't be translated, I think. And I'm lucky to know enough about Great Britain to at least understand 75% of his "typical british" (and untranslatable into german) jokes.
The 1985 german version of The Colour of Magic was published by the Goldmann Verlag as "Die Farben der Fantasie" (The Colours of Fantasy) - seems the translator got a bit mushed up with The Light Fantastic..
In that edition, during the event taking place on the TWA flight, Dr. Rjinswand a.k.a. Rincewind, 33 bachelor and born in Sweden (though Rijnswand sounds more dutch than swedish to me) meets Jack Zweiblumen a.k.a. Twoflower.. only that in the german version Twoflower already has been translated from the start to Zweiblume (singular) and mutates to Jack Zweiblumen (kinda plural; Two Flowers) for that event.
That was the only german translation of a book from TP I ever read. I got me an english version of TCoM shortly after and had at least 50% more fun reading it.. and so I luckily chose to only get me original versions of all his work. Too much of TP's humour can't be translated, I think. And I'm lucky to know enough about Great Britain to at least understand 75% of his "typical british" (and untranslatable into german) jokes.
Noone has posted the italian translations.. I'm the only italian here?Well in case anyone is interested :
Pyramids - maledette piramidi! (like 'damn pyramids')
equal rites - l'arte della magia (the art of magic)
Granny- nonnina(more or less exact translation, but the italian doesn't suit her)
Nanny- nonna (nonna is 'Grandmother')
CutMeOwnThroatDibbler - Mi Voglio Rovinare Dibbler (like I wanna ruin myself, more or less, good translation this one)
the wee free men- l'intredipa tiffany e i piccoli uomini liberi
guards!guards!- a me le guardie!
moving pictures- stelle cadenti
mort- morty l'apprendista
Death- Morte (literal translation, but in italian he's a she, and Susan would have a Grandmother...)
rincewind-scuotivento
twoflower-duefiori
luggage-Bagaglio
dollari-talleri (for no explainable reason..)
CrysaniaMajere said:
Noone has posted the italian translations.. I'm the only italian here?Well in case anyone is interested :
Pyramids - maledette piramidi! (like 'damn pyramids')
equal rites - l'arte della magia (the art of magic)
Granny- nonnina(more or less exact translation, but the italian doesn't suit her)
Nanny- nonna (nonna is 'Grandmother')
CutMeOwnThroatDibbler - Mi Voglio Rovinare Dibbler (like I wanna ruin myself, more or less, good translation this one)
the wee free men- l'intredipa tiffany e i piccoli uomini liberi
guards!guards!- a me le guardie!
moving pictures- stelle cadenti
mort- morty l'apprendista
Death- Morte (literal translation, but in italian he's a she, and Susan would have a Grandmother...)
rincewind-scuotivento
twoflower-duefiori
luggage-Bagaglio
dollari-talleri (for no explainable reason..)
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