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Harry Potter in Ancient Greek

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Re: Harry Potter in Ancient Greek

#11

Post by VieElm »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #7

Off topic: I have been reading Harry Potter in French as my gateway to French literature. My love for French actually started with The Count of Monte Cristo which made want to learn French just so as to read the original Le Comte de Monte-Cristo . Obviously, my French (starting from zero) a mere year or so later isn't good enough to read something like Alexandre Dumas' masterpiece, but I figured if I started with a b…

I've read the Count of Monte Cristo in English, which is basically my native language and I wouldn't be embarrassed to say that my skills aren't good enough to even read that book's English translation. It's not just the English, it's all the book's references to previous literature, ancient and otherwise, as well as French history.

Re: Harry Potter in Ancient Greek

#12

Post by eru »

ekidd wrote: post #10
ComputerGuru wrote: post #7

Off topic: I have been reading Harry Potter in French as my gateway to French literature. My love for French actually started with The Count of Monte Cristo which made want to learn French just so as to read the original Le Comte de Monte-Cristo . Obviously, my French (starting from zero) a mere year or so later isn't good enough to read something like Alexandre Dumas' masterpiece, but I figured if I started with a b…

This is an amazing way to improve your knowledge of a foreign language. When I started reading French novels, I could mostly understand maybe 60% and guess another 30%. But after 10,000 pages, I was only running into unknown words every few pages, and my understanding of idioms was vastly better. The same thing works for listening comprehension: Find a DVD box set of easy TV series, one where you can understand maybe…

A Hungarian friend learned German with Star Trek The Next Generation this way.

Re: Harry Potter in Ancient Greek

#13

Post by eru »

ldd wrote: post #9
ComputerGuru wrote: post #7

Off topic: I have been reading Harry Potter in French as my gateway to French literature. My love for French actually started with The Count of Monte Cristo which made want to learn French just so as to read the original Le Comte de Monte-Cristo . Obviously, my French (starting from zero) a mere year or so later isn't good enough to read something like Alexandre Dumas' masterpiece, but I figured if I started with a b…

I am a firm believer that one should spend at least 10 or 20 years learning French and then read Les Miserables and Le Compte de Monte-Cristo. The same could be said about La sombra del viento, 100 años de soledad or Neruda's poems in Spanish. In English, only Virginia Woolf inspires the same awe for language that these other books impregnated in me. In some sense, these authors don't use words. They let words use th…

> I am a firm believer that one should spend at least 10 or 20 years learning French and then read Les Miserables and Le Compte de Monte-Cristo.

Sure do that. But no harm in reading these two books a few times before that, too.

Re: Harry Potter in Ancient Greek

#14

Post by eru »

mryingster wrote: post #5
StavrosK wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, both are right, because the words are homonyms. "Hareios" is both the word we use for "aryan" and for "something of Ares". I actually thought "Aryan" was supposed to mean "sons of Ares", but apparently the root is indo-european. I guess it's much better with his explanation, but "aryan glass" sounds amazingly funny in Greek. He basically nailed all the names, they're very well done, and all the explanations…

I wouldn't know :) It must be a weird task to try to translate something as bizarre as names from one language to another. Harry isn't exactly a distinctive name. It's rather common, like the name John. I wonder, why not pick a traditional Greek name for the protagonist rather than trying to find something that seems similar to the English name?

The translation of the names in the Lord of the Rings to German is also interesting. Our hero from the Hobbit becomes Bilbo Beutlin.

Re: Harry Potter in Ancient Greek

#15

Post by vacri »

mryingster wrote: post #5
StavrosK wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, both are right, because the words are homonyms. "Hareios" is both the word we use for "aryan" and for "something of Ares". I actually thought "Aryan" was supposed to mean "sons of Ares", but apparently the root is indo-european. I guess it's much better with his explanation, but "aryan glass" sounds amazingly funny in Greek. He basically nailed all the names, they're very well done, and all the explanations…

I wouldn't know :) It must be a weird task to try to translate something as bizarre as names from one language to another. Harry isn't exactly a distinctive name. It's rather common, like the name John. I wonder, why not pick a traditional Greek name for the protagonist rather than trying to find something that seems similar to the English name?

There was an article on HN in which the author was talking about the impressive translation of Asterix comics into English - not only was the translator able to make the English as pun-filled as the original French, but in most cases the translated puns were very similar in nature to the originals.

Unfortunately I can't recall enough about the article to search HN for it.

Re: Harry Potter in Ancient Greek

#16

Post by ecopoesis »

ldd wrote: post #9
ComputerGuru wrote: post #7

Off topic: I have been reading Harry Potter in French as my gateway to French literature. My love for French actually started with The Count of Monte Cristo which made want to learn French just so as to read the original Le Comte de Monte-Cristo . Obviously, my French (starting from zero) a mere year or so later isn't good enough to read something like Alexandre Dumas' masterpiece, but I figured if I started with a b…

I am a firm believer that one should spend at least 10 or 20 years learning French and then read Les Miserables and Le Compte de Monte-Cristo. The same could be said about La sombra del viento, 100 años de soledad or Neruda's poems in Spanish. In English, only Virginia Woolf inspires the same awe for language that these other books impregnated in me. In some sense, these authors don't use words. They let words use th…

What about Shakespeare, Melville or Hemingway?

Re: Harry Potter in Ancient Greek

#18

Post by ldd »

ecopoesis wrote: post #16
ldd wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a firm believer that one should spend at least 10 or 20 years learning French and then read Les Miserables and Le Compte de Monte-Cristo. The same could be said about La sombra del viento, 100 años de soledad or Neruda's poems in Spanish. In English, only Virginia Woolf inspires the same awe for language that these other books impregnated in me. In some sense, these authors don't use words. They let words use th…

What about Shakespeare, Melville or Hemingway?

Hemingway gets me there too, now that my English doesn't suck. Shakespeare is just really, really funny. Much ado about nothing is my favourite comedy.

Other plays like Hamlet, MacBeth, humble me. Same thing with Cervantes. Those guys pretty much redefined language and I don't think I have read enough to understand them. Maybe someday?

Re: Harry Potter in Ancient Greek

#19

Post by stan_rogers »

StavrosK wrote: post #6
mryingster wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't know :) It must be a weird task to try to translate something as bizarre as names from one language to another. Harry isn't exactly a distinctive name. It's rather common, like the name John. I wonder, why not pick a traditional Greek name for the protagonist rather than trying to find something that seems similar to the English name?

I think it's because an additional constraint. Translating it to just "John" or something is fine, but translating it to something that both sounds like the original and has meaning in the new language and is relevant to the book is just brilliant, and he did it for many of the names.

Harry, though, is a diminutive of Henry, which means something along the lines of "lord of the manor". Seems to me there'd be a Greek name beginning with "ari" that would be a closer fit. I'm not sure whether you could work in the aspiration, though; to say my Greek is weak would be understating the case significantly.

Re: Harry Potter in Ancient Greek

#20

Post by thaumasiotes »

StavrosK wrote: post #2

Oh god, they transliterated the name "Harry Potter" to "Άρειος Ποτήρ", which pretty much means "aryan cup"! I'm dying over here.

Are Greek surnames commonly profession words? I'm wondering how plausibly they could have just translated "potter" as the profession term, and whether a clay pot would be a ποτήρ or something else.
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