DCML digest #1212

Don Rosa donrosa at iglou.com
Wed Jan 8 17:47:51 CET 2003


From: "Claudio Eckert" <c_seiten at hotmail.com>
>Here's the original dialogue ...
>"Hm! I DO recall helping kids fix broken dolls on my last visit!
>>>That's a statement I've always been wondering about as there is no such
scene in the original story. Or am I wrong?

No, there was no such scene in Barks' original story, but $crooge had an
extended "vacation" in Trala-La in that tale, obviously benefiting from it,
and I interpolated such behavior taking place during that stay (as I
*needed* to make a reference to such). I was showing that $crooge was again
settling down into the same relaxed frame of mind as would any Ronald
Coleman, Edward Everett Horton or Thomas Mitchell when stranded in
Shangri-La.
Anyway, my other original dialogue for $crooge in that scene, as someone
already posted, was "I used to fix my two sisters' dolls back home in
Scotland when I was your age".
I'm not surprised that the line was changed in one translation (in Norway, I
think someone said) to "cousins"... as we've said before, some translators
of these comics are not even trying to make direct translations... they are
changing the meaning to suit their own tastes or ideas... and some are
trying very diligently to be accurate to the original (though still making
some needed changes advisable for their local idioms). But it was also said
that in the Norwegian REprint of that same story the line was *correctly*
translated. That means somebody reviewed the entire script, comparing it to
my original. That would be one of the really diligent translators to go to
that much effort. S'nice!
I never have any control over the translations of my stories... sometimes I
am horrified and sometimes greatly pleased. For example, when reading one of
my stories in Finnish, Italian, Swedish or Greek, you can be pretty
confidant you're getting the real goods. Maybe in other editions too, (the
American editions as well, of course!) but those are the languages in which
I'm always proud to see my stories -- those translators seek direct contact
with me. I am in indirect contact with the Norwegian and French translators,
so those are probably dependable. I sometimes think I'm having good
communication with the German translators, but I know it's not always
successful -- in one story of mine they put words in a character's mouth
making a reference to "Jurassic Park" while in the same issue I supplied a
text about the story saying that I would never have a character in that
story make a reference to "Jurassic Park" and that I hoped the translator
would not change my script. The Danish and Dutch translators aren't
interested in having contact with me, so I can't offer any opinion on those
editions (though I know the Dutch editions never use the correct versions of
non-serialized tales). Naturally, *most* of the time I don't have any idea
what's going on in the translations, and the readers can't know what's been
changed in order to warn me.
(I think there will be more accurate translations of my stories in the
future in those regional Egmont editions, hopefully being few, where that's
not been done in the past.)




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