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Post by colette on Oct 7, 2012 2:05:05 GMT -5
So he's actually quite a prestigious choice for Snicket's books? Actually, now that I come to think of it, there haven't been that many countries where the entire series was published, so Russia really did quite well in that regard, where I think Spain and Germany didn't get all the books. Nope, Germany has translated and published all 13 of the ASoUE books, except for TBL and TUA, which Russia didn't translate either. That's true that TBL and TUA weren't translated in Russia.
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Post by ryantrimble457 on Oct 9, 2012 7:18:24 GMT -5
I didn't realise Germany had translated them all. Must be a while since I looked into the subject. Good on Germany, then. I would imagine that TBL would mostly be too much trouble, though. Yeah, Germany had two false starts before they FINALLY finished the whole series. The Netherlands seems to have stopped at TGG. Spanish-speakers only have the whole series thanks to this blog: unaseriedecatastroficasdesdichasls.blogspot.fr/. France got the whole series pretty much on target. Sweden, Italy, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Russia all also got the whole series (mostly on target, too, ending in the 2006-2007 range).
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Post by Liam R. Findlay on Jun 19, 2015 2:59:32 GMT -5
I was speaking to my Russian friend, who I encouraged to read A Series of Unfortunate Events; I recently mentioned V.F.D. and she didn't know what it was because it's different in Russian to suit their words (G.P.V.). I thought it interesting that other readers in the world may identify V.F.D. under a completely different title- I'd never considered this. Consequently, I thought how the Russian translator(s) would have to find a variety of words to match V.F.D. meanings with the letters G.P.V.- for example, imagine the difficulty of having to translate Verticle Flame Diversion but only being allowed to use words beginning with G, P and V in that order. I find this very impressive. I asked my friend how accurate some of the translations are and minor changes are made with some, understandably; Volunteers Fighting Disease, for example, is Group of Singing Volunteers (Gruppa Pouschih Volonterov). Is anybody else familiar with other international V.F.D. translations? EDIT: I made this post to start a new thread but didn't know that this one existed, so it was moved here
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Post by A comet crashing into Earth on Jun 19, 2015 5:44:01 GMT -5
That's an interesting subject, I'm glad you thought to make a thread for it. =)
The Danish translations use F.B.K. In Denmark, the books stopped with TVV, as they'd sort of painted themselves into a corner by then - for instance, Dr. O. Lucafont is still Dr. O. Lucafont, even though 'count' in Danish is 'Greve', so the anagram doesn't work. And Al Funcoot, the playwright of the first book, is translated as 'John Fjotrup', which is just a slightly silly-sounding name, like Al Funcoot. I presume the translator didn't pick up on the anagrams, and had to stop at THH for this reason, as well as the increasingly difficult V.F.D.s.
F.B.K., however, is a well-chosen acronym, since it works for "Frivilligt BrandKorps", more or less meaning "Volunteer Fire Department". The only other F.B.K. I can mention off the top of my head is the Village of Fowl Devotees: "FugleBeundrernes Købstad" (Literally, the Borough of Bird Admirers). I don't remember the exact translation of "Very Fancy Doilies", but I imagine it was something along the lines of "Fint Broderede Klude" (Literally, Nicely Embroidered Cloths). I believe they've used the same letters in some other Nordic countries, since our languages are quite alike.
Oh, and I once, a few years back, attempted to translate the first chapter of THH. I don't remember whether I got all the way through, but I did think of a translation for the Volunteers Fighting Disease: Frivillige Bekæmpere af Kvaler (Literally, Voluntary Fighters of Woes).
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Post by Dante on Jun 19, 2015 11:28:28 GMT -5
There's actually already a long thread on the subject, long enough that it's well worth keeping and bumping to the top again, and folding your posts into it. Please consult the linked thread for much information on how V.F.D. works in other translations of the books, information to which your posts are worthy and interesting additions. I always wondered if the translators were tipped off as to what V.F.D. was ultimately going to stand for, similar to the infamous R.A.B. of the sixth Harry Potter book; it doesn't seem too unlikely. But I should really raise that idea in the linked thread, so excuse me for moving your posts to over there. Locked.
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Post by Liam R. Findlay on Jun 19, 2015 14:06:20 GMT -5
Thank you for mentioning the Danish translations- how interesting! I hadn't considered The Hostile Hospital and the challenge regarding those anagrams. Well done for translating the first chapter EDIT: My friend has just mentioned Chinese translations- I wonder how they work with their different symbols...
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Post by Esmé's meme is meh on Jun 20, 2015 18:17:19 GMT -5
The official translation in the Spanish version is VFD, though they never got to translate the whole series. The only books oficially translated (as far as I know) are ABB, TRR (I got these two), TWW, TMM, TAA, TEE (I never found these), TVV and THH (I got these two too).
In The Vile Village and The Hostile Hospital they mention VFD. In TVV VFD means "Villa de la Fabulosa Desbandada" (Village of the Fabulous Disbandment). In THH, VFD goes for "Voluntarios Frente al Dolor" (Volunteers Against Pain). Of course, we never get to know what the real meaning of VFD is in Spanish since they never get to translate the last books. The literal translation would be DBV ("Departamento de Bomberos Voluntarios"), but since they decided to keep VFD I assume they planned to do something else (according to Wikipedia, "Voluntarios Frente Deflagraciones", but that sounds awful and deflagration doesn't seem to be the correct word for it).
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Post by Dante on Jun 21, 2015 2:02:18 GMT -5
I think the ATWQ Spanish translations have reached ?3, or at least seem likely to; I wonder what they use. Ditto the German, actually.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Jun 21, 2015 2:24:33 GMT -5
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Post by Kit's tits kick ticks on Jun 21, 2015 2:35:50 GMT -5
I think I have said it before, VFD in German is FF. I was actually really disappointed when I found out that the original English thing isn't an alliteration.
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Post by Esmé's meme is meh on Jun 21, 2015 5:49:51 GMT -5
I think the ATWQ Spanish translations have reached ?3, or at least seem likely to; I wonder what they use. Ditto the German, actually. Why, you're right. According to my investigations (ahem, Google) they translated ?1 and ?2 so far. I suppose VFD is VFD there too. And I can't believe they're translating ATWQ when they didn't even finished ASOUE, what an outrage!
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Post by Tryina Denouement on Jun 21, 2015 12:46:06 GMT -5
I think the ATWQ Spanish translations have reached ?3, or at least seem likely to; I wonder what they use. Ditto the German, actually. Why, you're right. According to my investigations (ahem, Google) they translated ?1 and ?2 so far. I suppose VFD is VFD there too. And I can't believe they're translating ATWQ when they didn't even finished ASOUE, what an outrage! Well, at least my country got to TPP! But they haven't translated ATWQ yet, what a disgrace.
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