The Russian Philosopher’s Stone

It’s a process familiar to most of us trying to brush up on a foreign language – get the Harry Potter books in one of the 85 languages they’ve been translated into, and read the story you know backwards and forwards in a language you may not.

My first language was Russian, but the Russian translation of Harry Potter has a… tortured history, to put it mildly.  There has never been much reverence in Russia for faithful translations of foreign works, and HP was no exception.  The first Russian translation was so infamously poor, it stands as a (potentially unique) instance of a translation that needed to be redone.  Around 2015, with the benefit of hindsight offered by a complete series, the entire saga was re-translated into Russian by Maria Spivak.

I recently undertook to read Sorcerer’s Stone in that newer translation, both to brush up on some Russian vocabulary and to take a look at the mechanics of the translation.  With all due respect to a craft that is astoundingly difficult to execute well, and one I don’t pretend I could have done better, here are seven things that really stood out to me in “Гарри Поттер и философский камень.”  Quotes from the Russian hardback, page numbers cited using “фк.”

#1: Lowlight – The Transliteration of Names

We will allow for the fact that names are extraordinarily hard to translate in the world of Harry Potter.  Jo puts so much into coming up with them – multiple meanings, puns, anagrams, alliteration, allusion, and more.  It’s a task that has stumped translators the world over, giving us gems like Tom Marvolo Riddle becoming Tom Elvis Jedusor.

That said, I’m sad to note that Spivak took the easiest route in over 90% of the names, and simply transliterated them.  That means just taking the English name, and writing it in Cyrillic letters with no regard to any meanings behind it.  I’ll note that this may be a cultural convention, since Konrad Rachut says the text is “in accordance with the Russian tradition of transliterating all foreign proper names.”¹“The Specificity of Literary Proper Names: Harry Potter in Translation into Polish and Russian.”  Page 8. https://www.academia.edu/39324264/The_specificity_of_literary_proper_names_Harry_Potter_in_translation_into_Polish_and_Russian  But that doesn’t mean we have to like it.

To an extent, this is understandable in the main characters – for the sake of merchandising and the nominative use of the franchise, no one wants “Harry Potter” to become “Харри Гончар” or “Harry Gonchar,” which is the literal translation of “potter.”  (Though I remain mystified why the Russian translators seem allergic to the letter “H” and transformed characters into “Garry Potter” and “Germiona Granger.”  I suppose I should be grateful we narrowly avoided “Gogwarts School.”)

That said, there are so many instances of smaller characters where their names are meant to convey something about them, but Spivak continued to merely transliterate them.  “Sirius Black” remained “Сириус Блэк” rather than translating “black.”  Even a bit player like “Bane” was called “Бейн” rather than translating the word.

The most egregious example for me was “Katie Bell.”  “Bell” in Russian is “колокол,” with the letter “K” – you could literally add an alliterative name if translating!  And there is no “Katie” in Russian, but “Katya” is a very popular name, stemming from Catherine the Great. So this could have been an elegant translation to “Катя Колокол” (Katya Kolokol).  But instead, we got “Кэти Белл.”

#2: Highlight – Draco’s sass aboard the Hogwarts Express

We all remember Draco’s putdown of the Weasley family, lashing out when Ron issues a laugh/cough at the sound of his name.  “All the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford.” (PS6)  But his turn of phrase in Russian has an even better ring to it: “у всех Уизли рыжие волосы, веснушки и непозволительно много детей.” (фк156)  The literal translation is “All the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and impermissibly many children.”

#3: Lowlight – The Tragedy of Snape

My grousing about transliterated names proved to be a case of “be careful what you wish for.”  Because there is one main character who was not transliterated, but was… desecrated, for lack of a better term.  As is the case in almost any HP essay, we have to talk about Severus Snape.

There’s a lot going on in the name of Snape – the name of an English village (“Snape”), the reference to a Roman emperor Severus who killed Albinus according to Machiavelli’s The Prince, the riff on “severe,” the similarity to “snake,” and the sibilant alliteration of the name sounding like a snake.  What’s a translator to do?

Many foreign translators focused on the serpentine aspects and made him “Severus Python” or something to that effect (ie. Italy and Hungary).  The first Russian translation incomprehensibly turned him into “Северус Снегг” or “Severus Snow” – a decision that was a leading exemplar for ridicule of the first translation.

But Severus Snow is a masterclass compared to what happened to the Potions master in the second translation: he became “Злотеус Злей.”  That translates as “Mean-teus Meaner.”

Done laughing?  Yeah, took me a while, too.

“Professor Meaner” is the single biggest strike against Spivak’s translation, one that the internet has been judging mercilessly ever since publication.  Perhaps the most piercing takedown I saw comes from an established Russian linguist, Maria Mironos, who wrote a very thorough article about translating Snape’s name and all the failings of this particular translation.²”Северус Снейп vs. Злодеус Злей: как героя назовёте, так он и поплывёт” – Translates as “Severus Snape vs. Meanteus Meaner: How you name a hero, that’s how he’ll swim.” https://www.svetlovka.ru/books/about/severus-sneyp-zlodeys-zley-kak-geroya-nazovete-tak-on-i-poplyvet/

Other than how very juvenile the Russian name is, the problem is Snape’s pending change in loyalties – one Spivak knew about when she set out to translate the series in the 2010s!  How on earth is the emotional wallop and mind-blowing twist of Snape’s allegiance to Dumbledore supposed to land with a name like that?  “Professor Meaner was Dumbledore’s man through and through!”  “Albus Meanteus Potter, you were named for the two most ridiculously appellated headmasters of Hogwarts…”

You really would’ve thought there was nowhere to go but up from “Severus Snow,” but every time Meanteus Meaner showed up on the page, my eyes nearly rolled out of their sockets.

#4: Highlight – “P” isn’t just for Prefect

In English, there’s the (surely intentional) alliteration of “Percy” and “prefect,” allowing Fred to joke that Percy’s Weasley sweater has “P for prefect!” (PS12)  In Russian, the word for prefect (“староста”) does not start with a P, so how to translate Fred’s joke?

There is an idiomatic Russian expression for “center of the world,” written “пуп земли.”  So in Russian, Fred jokes that Percy’s Weasley sweater stands for something far loftier than merely “prefect”!  “«П»!  Значит – «пуп земли»!” (фк156)

And on the subject of Weasley sweaters, the Russian translation turned the term into a portmanteau, writing it as “Weasweater” – “Уизвитер.”  I found that delightful.

#5: Lowlight – The Use of the Polite You

Many languages have different forms of “you” for when one is addressing a singular person or multiple people; and for many of them, using the plural “you” is a mark of respect when used for a singular but esteemed (often older) person.  This is known as the T-V distinction.³https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E2%80%93V_distinction_in_the_world%27s_languages

Think French and the difference between “tu” and “vous.”  This is present in Russian as well, with “ty” (ты) for the singular and “vy” (вы) for the plural or polite.

Which version of “you” is used between people can tell a lot about their relationship.  As I was reading, I was surprised at how polite everyone in the wizarding world seemed to be.  Even the professors used the polite “vy” for students, which felt very out-of-place indeed – I’ve never encountered adults who use “vy” for a child.  Perhaps this is a cultural norm for boarding schools that I’m ignorant of, but it stood out.

However, there was one glaring instance when I felt the clearly wrong pronoun was used, and that was during Snape and Quirrell’s détente in the Forbidden Forest.  In the scene, Snape is radiating hostility towards Quirrell (PS13).  In fact, that’s part of Snape’s cover as a double agent: “I saw only greedy and unworthy Quirrell attempting to steal the stone and, I admit, I did all I could to thwart him.” (HBP2)  Given that aspect, it’s imperative to Snape to convey animosity towards Quirrell in this scene.

In the scene in Russian, the contempt seems to be there in the line-by-line translation, but it’s juxtaposed with Snape always using the honorific “vy” for Quirrell.  This seems ill-advised for Snape in trying to keep his double-agent cover, let alone for “Professor Meaner” to be so implausibly polite while he threatens Quirrell.  This is one of those scenes where the translation appears to have been mechanical rather than carefully thought through, and that’s a shame.

#6: Highlight – The Hate for History of Magic

History of Magic, as taught by Professor Binns, isn’t well-regarded no matter what language it’s in!  However, in Russian the narration has FAR less patience with the subject.  Specifically, the description of the final exam contained much less ire in the original text.  “One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who’d invented self-stirring cauldrons.” (PS16)

In the Russian narration, however, the gloves come off!  “Какой-то час ответов на дурацкие вопросы о сбрендивших колдунах, изобретших дебильные котлы-самомесы.” (фк367)  The word-for-word translation is “One hour of answering stupid questions about batty wizards, who’d invented idiotic self-stirring cauldrons.”

I actually think the translation is better, because it captures the attitude of disgruntled students so perfectly.  One of the strengths of the HP books has always been that Harry, far from being a paragon of studiousness, is a very realistic boy when it comes to his attitude towards his studies.  And I well remember that at eleven years old, when a class has really proven to be a giant pain and the stress of final exams gets to you, there is ill will towards every aspect of it.  The questions are stupid!  The subjects is stupid!  Everything they did is stupid anyway!

I just found this paragraph so relatable, and would have been thrilled to read it at Harry’s age – so hat tip to the translator!

#7: Lowlight – The Little Things That Are Lost

As I said at the outset, translating an entire book is a monumental task, and there are so many tiny nuances to consider.  So if this seems like nitpicking… well, it is.  However, there are a lot of tiny little word choices that I thought altered the meaning of the original intended text more than I would wish.

In Russian, Dudley Dursley is way less committed to making Harry’s life hell.  When Harry is given a bedroom at Privet Drive, as part of his protests, Dudley “притворялся, что его тошнит.” (фк59)  He “pretended he was nauseated.”  In the English original, however, Dudley took it much farther: he’d “been sick on purpose.” (PS3)  There’s a chasm of difference between pretending and actually making yourself barf, and the English shows how Dudley will really go a ludicrous extra mile to get what he wants.

This is a limitation of language, but Russian does not have separate words for “hag” and “witch” – they are both “ведьма.”  Which seems like a small issue except when Hagrid recounts Quirrell’s adventures: “ ‘They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o’ trouble with a hag.’ […] Vampires?  Hags?  Harry’s head was swimming.” (PS5)  In Russian, the same exact text exists, but using “ведьма” in place of “hag.” (фк103)  This leads to a rather ludicrous passage coming across as, “Vampires?  Witches?  Harry’s head went in circles.”  The shock at the thought of witches doesn’t quite gel with Harry about to go shopping for supplies to a school of witchcraft and wizardry!

Towards the end of the book, Dumbledore’s assessment of Voldemort is a touch misleading in Russian.  In English, he says, “he shows just as little mercy to his followers as his enemies.” (PS17)  In Russian, Dumbledore says, “он не знает жалости ни к врагам, ни к друзям.” (фк414)  This translates as, “He does not know mercy, not to foes, nor to friends.”  While I like the idea of Voldemort “not knowing mercy” rather than simply “not showing mercy,” I found it incorrect to refer to Voldemort’s “friends” rather than “followers.”  This is a critical distinction that Dumbledore himself highlights later: “Lord Voldemort has never had a friend, nor do I believe that he has ever wanted one.” (HBP13)

Lastly, I adore Dumbledore’s “lack of seemly modesty.” (HBP23)  He refers to the method of getting the Philosopher’s Stone out of the Mirror of Erised as “one of my more brilliant ideas.” (PS17)  In Russian, however, he says it was his “самая гениальная придумка” (фк417) – “most genius idea.”  I think that is far too superlative a description!  Dumbledore has MANY brilliant ideas – I even wrote a whole book  about them!  I don’t think it’s accurate or in character for Dumbledore to place the Stone/Mirror combo above all the rest of his ideas, after an illustrious century-plus of brilliance.

I point all of these out not to complain, but to highlight how even the tiniest word choice conveys meaning in the books, and even a close synonym may alter it.  When translating 70,000 words, it’s a mind-boggling task to consider the meaning in each one, so hats off to the translators… and to Jo Rowling, who picked all these words out to begin with, and picked well enough that we can nitpick at this granular level.