Found in Translation

Translating Lord Volde mort
There have been authorized translations of the Harry Potter books into at least seventy languages,
and the number of unauthorized ones probably rivals that. One interesting challenge for every Potter
translator is how to render the name of “Tom Marvolo Riddle.” As an anagram for “I am Lord
Voldemort,” the name conveys an essential clue to the identity of the story’s main villain. While the
translators of the nonalphabetic East Asian languages had to revert to explanatory notes, translators
of other languages tried to outdo each other in their creative solutions. Some languages simply
modified the middle name to arrive at a comparable anagram. For instance, the Bulgarian

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(Tom Mersvoluko Riddal) is an anagram of
(“Here I am—Lord Voldemort”). Other translators made more
complex manipulations to the name. One extremely clever solution is the French version, Tom Elvis
Jedusor. Not only is this an anagram of “Je suis Voldemort” (“I am Voldemort”), but “Jedusor” is
pronounced similarly to the French Jeu du sort (meaning “fate riddle”).
Translation on the Orient Express
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (née Miller), better known as Agatha
Christie, is one of the most famous writers of all time. Her mystery novels,
famous for their slow and deliberate prose and heavy doses of psychological
suspense, are often listed as suggested reading in schools around the world,
even in places far-removed from the scenes of British society that featured so
prominently in her books.
Because her novels are so popular, publishers love to release them in other
languages, and translators have historically been eager to translate them too. In
Thailand alone, more than twenty translators have converted Christie’s
whodunits into Thai. Unfortunately, in one instance, the confusion over who
had the right to publish a translation led not to a mystery exactly, but to an
intellectual property lawsuit that took nearly a full decade to resolve.
According to Janine Yasovant, who reported on the court case from
Thailand, Christie’s British publisher held the copyrights for her works and
sued the local Thai publisher for selling and reprinting the translated novel of
Agatha Christie, claiming that they had violated international copyright laws.
Book distribution was suspended and nearly five thousand books were seized
through a court order.
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However, when the case was finally concluded, the court found that the
defendant did not in fact violate the law. Why not? After nearly ten years of
legal proceedings, the court ruled that the translators had the right to translate
the book without obtaining permission from the plaintiff. The local Thai
publisher was not aware that publishing the translated works would violate the
copyrights. According to the courts, the defendant did not have any intention to
violate the law, but many were surprised by the outcome. The original
publisher would have easily won such a lawsuit in many countries. However,
each country has different laws around translation and intellectual property.
Copyright issues related to translation can be so complex that they seem to
warrant the skills of Hercule Poirot. In general, a translator holds the copyright
to his or her work. However, translations are generally considered to be

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derivative works. If the translation is not authorized or licensed by the holder
of the original works, it is usually deemed as an infringement. In other words,
the translator ’s copyright is usually not independent.
But the plot thickens. If a translation is published in a country that follows
the Berne Convention, copyright protection extends to fifty years after the
author ’s death.
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Many countries have adopted even longer terms. For example,
Japan sets the term at the life of the author plus seventy-five years. That might
sound relatively straightforward, but things can get trickier when a book is
published in multiple countries simultaneously. A translator must look at where
the book was published and determine which international agreements are
followed by each country—including any bilateral agreements—before
translating a single word.
In other words, being fluent in two languages is often insufficient to
translate literary works. There’s often a third language in which fluency is
required: Legalese.