August 1, 2007

Harry Potter in Vietnamese??

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows reaches even in Vietnam -- don't you doubt it.

I forget that one of the natural things to occur with the recent publication of Book 7 is that it would be translated into different languages. When Book 6 came out, I was in Saigon, and I too pre-ordered a book and promptly read it in one night, but that's because I paid a hefty sum to pre-order an English version, hardcover edition, in Viet Nam. It was very, very expensive for my pocket at that time (but what could I do! It was HP!). Twice as much, I think. Anyway, I was able to read it straight through b/c it was in English. I asked about the Vietnamese translation, but they said it would take months if not at least half a year before a copy was ready for purchase. So I didn't think more of it -- and I so wish I did! Because imagine the thrill it would be to read HP in a different language! How the heck do you translate the spells? The names? The curses? He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? How do you translate the whole Tom Riddle anagram thing? And parseltongue?

I missed the chance to read it in Vietnamese -- and now I itch to find out. I recently browsed a few websites w/ personal commentaries about HP7 in Vietnamese, and it took me a while to figure out some of the names and references. Very interesting, actually. If I were to read HP in my birth tongue, it would take oh, maybe 3 months, b/c I'll be flipping from English to Viet to English and back again probably several times each page, just to see how they translated it.

I would love to get my hands on a Vietnamese copy of Deathly Hallows... recommendations anyone?

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