translating puns

[Mattias Hallin]

About translations to Swedish: of course puns are sometimes lost because they
refer to specific english/american matters; or because a play of words just
isn't possible. There are a few more points to this, however:

a) The main translator of Disney comics in Sweden is NAFS(k) founder Stefan
Di|s; a donaldist who actually got to make a living from his "hobby" (lucky,
lucky, lucky!) - and who is usually very conscientious about his translations,
and who LOVES to sink his teeth into a good, untranslatable pun - not least in
a Don Rosa story; but who also is very aware of

b) the fact that there by now is a very specific Swedish translating tradition:
the translations from the late forties and early fifties by Axel Norbeck, and
those from the late fifties through late seventies of husband-and-wife team
Per-Anders and Majbritt Westrin - a tradition that has actually been a major
litterary and linguistic influence on generations of young Swedes, including
many that are now donaldists. This means f'rinstance, that when Rosa uses an
old Barks character, Stefan usually checks how that character's name was
originally translated, and most often uses the name given then. Sometimes there
are conflicting translations, one by Norbeck and an updated/revised one by the
Westrins in a later reprint - and then Stefan has to chose, or use a new name
altogether...

c) The Swedish duck-comics are always written in grammatically correct Swedish
with as little slang or such idiomaticisms as possible, and with no use
whatever of dialect.

Thought you'd like to know a bit...

Mattias