Harry Potter is a star around the planet. J.K. Rowling's novels have sold 30 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 33 languages, including Spanish, Japanese, Hebrew and Danish.
In many of those countries, the books feature different illustrations on the covers. And, of course, different words inside.
From L to R: Harry in Hungary, Holland, Italy and France
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The translators have changed words like Hogwarts and Muggles, Quidditch and Crookshanks. J.K. Rowling chose her words--even the names of places and people--to spark readers' imaginations. But even in English, many of the words don't necessarily have exact meanings. Sure, you might be able to describe "Ravenclaw" as "a bird's talon," but what is a Muggle anyway? (Whatever it is, kids in the Netherlands call it a Dreuzel.)
It's a translator's job to convey the feeling of a word or a book. The translators who took the J.K. Rowling word "Slytherin" had to think: What would make a reader in my country think of something icky and evil?
KidsPost got copies of the Potter books from all around the world to compare the illustrations and the translations. In the box below are some familiar words with their counterparts in French, Italian, Hungarian and Dutch. We've tried to give rough translations of some of the words, but many of them are just made-up words that sound good in that language.
As for Harry's Hogwarts house, Gryffindor, it is pretty much the same in every tongue. It's a combination of griffin (a mythical half lion/half eagle creature) and d'or (French for "made of gold").
French
Gryffindor: Gryffondor
Slytherin: Serpentard (snake-ish)
Hufflepuff: Poufsouffle (puff breath)
Ravenclaw: Serdaigle (eagle claw)
Muggle: Moldu
Hogwarts: Poudlard (sounds a little like "poularde," meaning fat chicken)
Snape: Rogue (haughty)
Madame Pomfrey: Madame Pomfresh
Italian
Gryffindor: Grifindoro
Slytherin: Serpeverde (green snake)
Hufflepuff: Tassorosso (red badger)
Ravenclaw: Pecoranera (black sheep)
Muggles: Babbani (sounds like
"babbioni," meaning idiots)
Snape: Piton (a python)
Dumbledore: Silente (silent one)
Scabbers: Crosta (a scab)
Hungarian
Gryffindor: Griffendel
Slytherin: Mardekar ("kar" is the shriek of a bird)
Hufflepuff: Hugrabug
Ravenclaw: Hollohat
Muggle: muglik
Hogwarts: Roxfort
Quidditch: kviddicscapat
Diagon Alley: Abszol ut ("ut" means street, so it means "absolute")
Dutch
Gryffindor: Griffoendor
Slytherin: Zwadderich (poison)
Hufflepuff: Huffelpuf
Ravenclaw: Ravenklauw
Muggle: Dreuzel (sounds like "dreutel," slang for clumsy person)
Dumbledore: Perkamentus (parchment, an old writing material made from sheepskin)
Quidditch: Zwerkbal (heaven ball)
Crookshanks: Knikkebeen (crooked leg)
Wild About Harry!
"The Goblet of Fire" goes on sale in the Washington area tonight at midnight and The Washington Post will be covering Harrymania all this weekend.
Tomorrow's paper will have a front-page story on the book's long-awaited release, both here and in Britain. Because of the time difference, kids in the United Kingdom will have a five-hour headstart on tackling the 752-page Book 4.
The Post will also have reports from Washington-area book stores, as kids wait in line to be among the first to taste this "Goblet."
