Picsou translations

[Francois Willot]

Harry:
>> today Barks is recognized as one of the best comic
artists ever and readers want
>> to read his stories, not a subjective, and often
bad
>> "adaptation" by unknown writers.
>
>I wonder how many readers want to. Most hard-core
Barks fans will want to
>read his work in the original (American) language.
Most other people will
>want to read the stories in their own language, and
with the local
>traditions they are used to.

That's part of the "Picsou education". They explain
how great an author Barks is, why Don Rosa is refering
to this or that in his stories, when Barks created his
characters, and so on. Not long articles aimed to
Barks freaks, but small ones that the average reader
has a chance to read.

It's the use of a faithful translation that you can
read Barks in your own language. Except for things
like poetry, I usually think that people who prefer to
read an author in the original language are snob. In
Barks' case there is a good reason: the changes are
very important in most countries' translations. With
Picsou, people can skip English and loose very little.


>For instance, for German Barks readers, the
translations/adaptations by
>Erika Fuchs are highly appreciated. She is an
counter-example of your phrase
>"bad, by unknown writers". (Maybe the French
adaptations have been much
>worse than the Dutch and German ones?)

Maybe. Of course if you are able to make something
better or even as good as Barks, why not, but I know I
would be annoyed by having those "wrong versions". And
if you're able to do something as good as Barks, why
not make your own stories?

>This is what I would call "local tradition". It is
the result of many
>decisions in the past by publishers, translators,
etc. Maybe you think these
>decisions were wrong. But maybe the Dutch children
would never have read
>these Disney comics if they would have been literal
translations of the
>original. And then people like me would never even
have heard of the work of
>Barks.

So you think that adaptating a story to local
traditions is a good thing because it helps getting
closer to the readers. In Barks' case I sincerely
doubt it, although this is only my impression, and it
would be hard to predict what woud have happened if
the Dutch had made faithful translations from the
beginning.

But note that: 1. AFAIK there are not so many elements
in Barks' stories that are only understandable in
America. It seems to me that most of the plot and
situations are "universal". The dollar as a symbol of
money is, also, universal. 2. Many comics are set in
other locations and different times, and are very
popular among children. I remember having read "Trick
or Treat" while not knowing anything about Halloween,
which didn't exist in France at the time, and I still
enjoyed the story.

>The problem that the current editors are facing, is:
should they continue
>their local tradition, or should they make faithful
translations? If they do
>the latter, they take the risk that many children
turn away from Disney
>comics because they are not "what they should be".
(Children don't care very
>much about the faithfulness of a translation.)

They don't care, but will they turn away if they see
the dollar symbol instead of a F? No, no, no! I think
the Ducth editors are giving themself extra work for
nothing.

Why not explaining them that the euro was an occasion
to correct their mistakes? that's what Picsou did.

>Other foreign literature for *children* is also
translated with name
>changes, etc. Like Lewis Carroll's Alice in
Wonderland. And A.A. Milne's
>Winnie the Pooh (Winnie de Poeh). I think we can't
expect Dutch children to
>read books (for entertainment) when the main
characters have unpronounceable
>names like "Scrooge" or "Gearloose".

Did they translate "Scrooge" in Mickey's Christmas
carol? In France, they did not, although the name is
unpronouncable (but after a few minutes you are able
to pronounce it even when you don't know English).

>When you wrote that they mention Calisota several
times, I thought you
>meant they were putting that name into Barks stories
(where that name was
>not in the original).

I see. No, they just publish Barks stories and the
Rosa ones that refer to them in the same issue.
Explaining the cross-references without trying to make
both visions consistent.

Ari:
>Both Tolkien and Barks translations have the same
>problem when it comes to revising them: should they
>be revised and if so, does anyone dare to do it.

But what revision would you want? Replacing phones by
Finnish celular ones?...

I have no problem to read Francois Villon in the
original which has more than 500 years. (I of course
like his work since his name is so close to mine).



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