Animorphs translations

[nostalgichild.livejournal.com]

I feel like sharing my thoughts about the german translations of the books. So here it goes:

I really love the German translations. I'm glad they translated Animorphs into German because otherwise I would never have come across them. Moreover I think the German translator, Christoph Arndt, did a really good job. The way he translated them and his choice of words at certain points were a major reason why I liked and still like them so much. I think he really did them justice.
The Megamorphs on the other hand were translated by a different person and I could clearly see the difference in quality, e.g. I don't know why they did this but they turned the R/T kiss in MM3 into a hug! A hug! It's a shame.
But the regular series is a pretty good read in German. And here comes the big BUT: They stopped translating them after # 30!! This is a big disadvantage of translations. They sometimes do not translate the whole thing when it doesn't sell well. And towards the end Animorphs obviously didn't sell well. I mean they never have been a big success in the German speaking world (actually I don't know a single person who has actually read them except me) but some kids must have liked them otherwise they wouldn't have translated them up to #30.

Anyway, I'm glad I can read them in English now because this made me realize some differences, which I think are pretty interesting. There are some language based differences, e.g. yeerks became Yirks and the chee became Djees.
But what is really strange is the fact that they even changed certain names. Instead of Jordan and Sarah Rachel's sisters were called Kate and Sarah. And Tobias cat was not called Dude but Mickey.

Well, that's everything that comes to my mind right now, maybe I'll add something later on.
Is there anybody in this community whose mother tongue is not English and who therefore had to read them in another language? I'm pretty interested in experiences with Animorphs translations, so feel free to share.
 

Comments

[famine.livejournal.com]

I'm English and the series was "translated" to British English (idiomatic changes as well as spelling differences) for release in the UK. I caught up very early on, though, and had my copies shipped over from the USA after about book 25.

[ruka-nanjou.livejournal.com]

LOL didn't know it! They often "translate" books from American English to British English?

[famine.livejournal.com]

No, usually it's just spelling and often not even that. I think it's much more often the other way around.

[ladysugarquill]

I first read the series in Spanish. The translations were OK, I think (I don't remember them changing anything except Cassie's NIN joke, which ended up sounding even sillier in Spanish). But it was made in Spain, and like yours, they translated only until bok 20, and here in Argentina they only sent until book 12! That's why I still haven't finished them - I have to find them online, and read them on the computer :(

[sylverlining.livejournal.com]

Oh man, now I'm curious, how'd they do the NIN joke thing in Spanish? xD

[ladysugarquill]

They called them "Nueve Inocentes Niños" ("nine innocent children"). Not even Cassie's mum would have fallen for that ¬¬

[nostalgichild.livejournal.com]

Still it made me LMAO for some reason.

[ruka-nanjou.livejournal.com]

The italian translation sucks *cries* First of all, the translation itself isn't very good: my friend and I have found a lot of errors/omissions/sentences totally changed without reason.
Also, they stopped the translation after #50 (yep, it's crazy. I firmly believe that after that number, they decided that Animorphs wasn't a young boy's series (as they presented it in the beginning) and their very fast solution had been pretty awful: in less than two years from the first publication the series was no more on sale. I told you: CRAZY.)
I finally bought the last two books on Amazon last year and I will do the same for the chronicles and the others ASAP. In the meanwhile, I'm reading them here (http://animorphsforum.com/ebooks/m1/). Thanks God internet exists ;)

(Sorry for my bad english. I can read just fine but stil have some problem in writing LOL)

[wayya.livejournal.com]

The French translation was pretty awesome, very faithful though it failed to keep all the puns. But books #47 to #52 were never translated, instead they released #53 as #47 and #54 as #48. I'll let you imagine how confusing it was to read #53 directly after #46. The French readers missed almost all the plot leading to the finale, there were new characters out of nowhere, etc :/ But hey, at least thanks to that I started reading full books in English ♥

[moonreviews]

Your icon is really pretty :D

[wayya.livejournal.com]

Thank you ^^ It's from an painting in the videogame Bioshock 2. I find the picture very fitting to Animorphs.

[nostalgichild.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I can imagine that it's not always easy to translate puns so that they are still funny in another language.
I just realized that in the German books they skipped whole sentences or small paragraphs. Yesterday I compared German #23 to English #23 and there was this Sean Connery/ Steve Urkel joke in the original version and I was like WTF? Where is this dialogue in the German version? How could they just skip this? I mean we know who Sean Connery is and we also know who Steve Urkel is, so it would still have been funny, even for German speaking people.
Also they erased part of the R/T dialogue of chapter 22 in book #23. The part where Rachel compares their relationship to Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio and Jake and Cassie is missing. The comparison stops after Romeo and Juliet.

Man, I start to think that tranlations suck. Even though they were written very well, nothing is as good as the original.

[wayya.livejournal.com]

I can never understand how translators and editors think. It's not like Titanic is an obscure reference! And why would they remove Jake and Cassie. So weird. I checked in my own books and the French version kept the whole dialogue. But yeah, original is always better.

[raeraem.livejournal.com]

I don't have much to add to the conversation in terms of translations. Read the USA releases from start to finish, didn't even know the books had been translated at all. I had no idea there was an international group of fans in this community :) The internet is pretty damn amazing.

I guess to add something to the conversation, would reading the alternate-language release of books that I'm already familiar with be a good supplement if I wanted to learn another language?

[nostalgichild.livejournal.com]

Yep, there is indeed an international Animorphs fandom, a very smal one though :)

As for reading it as a support for a foreign language... I don't know... but I think it's not a bad idea. I guess it is a bit easier to figure out what certain words mean since you know the original. That is at least my experience as I read both versions of Animorphs.

[moonreviews]

Dutch: They translated up till #14. I emailed the publisher, saying I wanted to translate further (my father was getting all the other books from the USA for me ^-^), but they didn't want to publish them anymore. They were pretty hardcover editions too!
The Dutch translations were quite good, they only changed "Andalite" to "Andaliet" and they left all other names the same (my little sister, who didn't know any English at that time, thought "Jake" was pronounced as "Yah-keh"...).
Japanese: They only translated up till #5, but they did new cover art and inside drawings. They were hardcover too.
Danish: I saw up till #6 in the supermarket, but I don't know if they translated more. They were for sale already when I was in Denmark...

I got the series completed in the US editions.

Photos of my Animorphs books: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23632610@N02/sets/72157624168924316/
(the last image has text on it to indicate languages etc.)

[wayya.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I didn't think of precising that. In French, they translated Yeerk as Yirk and Visser as Visserk. Why they did that is beyond me.

And here are a few pictures: my whole collection in French (http://pics.livejournal.com/wayya/pic/001g0kgg), and for the curious the first page of #1 (http://pics.livejournal.com/wayya/pic/001g1sep).

[nostalgichild.livejournal.com]

Heyy, thanks for sharing this! Makes me want to refresh my French by reading Animorphs :)

[moonreviews]

I think they changed 'Yeerk' for the pronunciation? I think the French spelling is cute :D And Visser+k is funny (though it reminds me of the word "berserk"...). I've read French #6 and #10 [I found those on a flea market in France].