The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2022 - 24

to act like a screenwriter
and read the dialogue out
loud, making sure it sounds
authentic and appropriate.
Names and Places with
is to leave parts of it in
the original. For example,
characters can address one
another by their full titles
in the source language (e.g.,
Sergeant Rob Harrings or
Monsieur Hercule Poirot).
Another strategy is to leave
certain conversational
interjections in the source
language (e.g., " Ach ja, "
" Yeah, " " Comme ci, comme
ca " ). You could also preserve
the foreign syntax or
sentence structure.
According to David Bellos,
author of Is that a Fish in
Your Ear? Translation and the
Meaning of Everything2
, those
" selective " or " decorative "
foreignisms only work if
the two languages and
cultures have an established
relationship, such as English
and German, where the
readers are able to recognize
conversational interjections
and are familiar with
expressions of the source
language. A way to validate
that you have made the
right choice for translating
the character's voice is
24 The ATA Chronicle | March/April 2022
Intentional Meaning
Sometimes authors give
their characters names that
have intentional meaning
or symbolism. In these
instances, you have to get
creative and find a way to
provide the reader of the
translated text with the
same reading experience.
J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter
series is a great example.3
Besides invented words and
cultural references, many
of the names she gives to
characters and places in
her novels have meanings
that are central to the plot.
For example, the name
of the suspicious Severus
Snape is derived from
severity + snake. To preserve
this intention, the Italian
translator for the series
modified the character's
name to Severus Piton
(from pitone, " python " ) to
express his snaky nature.
The French translator
renamed him Severus Rogue
to capture his arrogance. If
these interpretations had
not been made, important
connotations and meaning
would have been lost for
non-English-speaking
readers. Here are other
translations from around
the globe4
:
y Afrikaans: Severus Snerp
y Bayukken: Severo Snapy
y Bulgarian: Сивиръс Снейп
y Dutch: Severus Sneep (Sneep
pronounced " snape " )
y Finnish: Severus Kalkaros
(Kalkaro is an old-style
term for " rattlesnake " )
y Hungarian: Perselus Piton
(Piton = " python " )
y Norwegian: Severus Slur
y Portuguese (Brazil):
Severo Snape
y Romanian: Severus Plesneală
y Serbian: Северус Снејп
(Severus Snejp)
y Slovenian: Robaus Raws
y Ukrainian: Северус Снейп
(Severus Sneyp)
y Welsh: Sefran Sneip
Many of the
choices we face
are as unique
and nuanced
as the authors
we translate.
Accepting or
Compensating for Losses
But what's the right choice
when something doesn't
even exist in the culture
of the target language?
Literature is filled with
houses, trees, and culinary
dishes that can only be
found in a specific region of
a particular country. Italian
literary critic, novelist,
and semiotician Umberto
Eco5
highlights the options
translators have in these
situations by using the
example of a chaumière-
a peasant's small, humble
cottage, usually made of
stone with a thatched roof.
Though typical in France,
a chaumière doesn't exist
in Italy, Germany, or
elsewhere. Rather than lose
the rhythm of the text or risk
a dictionary-like description,
www.atanet.org
http://www.atanet.org
The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2022

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