Pirate 'Phoenix' ripe with mistranslation

  September 3, 2003 at 8:46 PM ET
  James     BBC
 


A pirated editionopens in new window of the Spanish Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix hits the streets five months before the official release. Plagued by constant mistranslation of certain English phrases and the like found in the novel, the author must feel sorry for his less than agile translation skills - because he or she includes apologies for the errors scattered among the roughly hewn pages.

Translation mistakes and poor graphics litter the version of the book, issued five months in advance of the official Spanish volume's release.

But the author apologises for his or her shortcomings in notes in the book.

On one page the translator warns: "Here comes something that I'm unable to translate, sorry."

Readers will also find the translator admitting not knowing how to translate the word "breathy", while on another page, it reads: "You gave him 'the old one-two' (I'm sorry, I didn't understand what that meant)."

Perhaps an indication of the author's ineptitude at translation, or just phrases that do not translate correctly from English to Spanish - whatever the case may be, this is just funny.
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