Translators that give us a bit of envy...

[lauracipolla]

Do you know who Francisco Porrúa is? He's the one who translated into Spanish the three volumes of the "Lord of the Rings"...

If you want to read the story (in Spanish), I have just posted an article about it in my blog:
http://blog-de-traducciones.spanisht...009-06-09.html

[Veronica]

Well, I hate that guy!!!
He translated all the names!! How can you turn Baggins into Bolsón, and Samwise into Samsagaz????

[mariabelen]

Jajaja, it's so trueee. Well, sadly we'll have to cope with it. It's already done

Saludiños,

Bel

[analaura]

yeah, but I guess he must have had their approval, right? to translate the names...

well, whatever, done and cashed!

[lauracipolla]

hey, guys! I agree it wasn't probably his best idea... (I confess I haven't read the books... or you're talking about the movie dubbing???) those names must sound awful. but they're not simple names, they have "meaning", and I guess the idea was to express the "bagging" and the "wise"... think of all the people who could only read the story in Spanish, not bilinguals like us! maybe it was not so bad... (just a thought)

[Veronica]

I bought the 3 books when I was like 13 and I read them in Spanish, because after reading a bit I didn't want to spend more money on the English version, but the several other Tolkien books I bought after that were in English!!

I think it doesn't matter if the names enclose a meaning, they shouldn't be translated. He could have included a foot note...

In Tolkien fantasy there are many artificial languages that he created specially for his books, like Quenya and Sindarin, and the translator wouldn't translate those!!

[Veronica]

By the way, great post Laura!!!

[vicente]

Interesting posts. Just a side comment here. I agree that it isn't a good idea to try to translate proper names. They are what they are. Perhaps Baggins has something to do with bags (or bolsas) but perhaps not. It might be a legitmate apellido. And Samwise may or may not have anything to do with Sam having wisdom. Lots of words end in wise...clockwise, otherwise, elsewise, etc. In fact, it is a hyphenated suffix sometimes applied to a word, e.g., health-wise which means "as it pertains to" health or like "beauty-wise" ( "She's a real winner...beauty-wise, but not too smart" or " He's great, work-wise, but not very friendlyl"

If I'm reading a Spanish novel translated into English I don't want Juan del Valle translated to John of the Valley.

[lauracipolla]

hahaha! excellent comment, vicente!
;-)