Skip to main content

Why was an entire minor scene omitted from the French translation of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"?


I'm re-reading the second Harry Potter book, this time in French, and I noticed an odd discrepancy. Here is the beginning of chapter 10, "The Rogue Bludger," in English:




Since the disastrous episode of the pixies, Professor Lockhart had not brought live creatures to class. Instead, he read passages from his books to them, and sometimes reenacted some of the more dramatic bits. He usually picked Harry to help him with these reconstructions; so far, Harry had been forced to play a simple Transylvanian villager whom Lockhart had cured of a Babbling Curse, a yeti with a head cold, and a vampire who had been unable to eat anything except lettuce since Lockhart had dealt with him.


Harry was hauled to the front of the class during their very next Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, this time acting a werewolf. If he hadn’t had a very good reason for keeping Lockhart in a good mood, he would have refused to do it.


“Nice loud howl, Harry — exactly — and then, if you’ll believe it, I pounced — like this — slammed him to the floor — thus with one hand, I managed to hold him down — with my other, I put my wand to his throat — I then screwed up my remaining strength and performed the immensely complex Homorphus Charm - he let out a piteous moan — go on, Harry — higher than that — good — the fur vanished — the fangs shrank — and he turned back into a man. Simple, yet effective — and another village will remember me forever as the hero who delivered them from the monthly terror of werewolf attacks.”


The bell rang and Lockhart got to his feet. “Homework — compose a poem about my defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf! Signed copies of Magical Me to the author of the best one!”


The class began to leave. Harry returned to the back of the room, where Ron and Hermione were waiting.



Now here is the beginning of the same chapter in French:



Depuis le désastreux épisode des lutins, le professeur Lockhart n'avait plus amené de créatures vivantes en classe. Il se contentait de lire des passages de ses livres à ses élèves en reconstituant les scènes qui le mettaient le mieux en valeur. Souvent, il demandait à Harry de jouer le rôle d'une créature féroce qu'il avait terrassée, délivrant ainsi tout un village d'une menace mortelle.


Ce jour-là, il fit jouer à Harry le rôle d'un loup-garou à qui il avait rendu forme humaine, mettant fin à la terreur que le monstre faisait régner sur les paysans du coin.



Lorsque la cloche sonna pour annoncer la fin du cours, Harry rejoignit Ron et Hermione au fond de la classe.



I'm sure you can tell it's much shorter. Here's an approximate translation of what it says. The first two sentences are more or less identical so I just kept the original English text.



Since the disastrous episode of the pixies, Professor Lockhart had not brought live creatures to class. Instead, he read passages from his books to them, and sometimes reenacted some of the more dramatic bits. Often, he made Harry play the role of a ferocious creature he had defeated, saving a village from a deadly menace.


On this particular day, Harry was made to play the role of a werewolf whom Lockhart had returned to human form, ending the monster's reign of terror over the local peasants.


When the bell rang for the end of period, Harry rejoined Ron and Hermione at the back of the classroom.



Notice Lockhart's entire dialogue is gone. The whole scene has been gutted. What happened here? It may not have been plot relevant, but little scenes like this, capturing the eccentricities of the characters, are exactly what make Harry Potter such a joy to read.


The French copy I have is from 1999, and although it doesn't specify its edition, I can only guess that perhaps the translator was working off an early draft of the book before its final publishing, and that perhaps JK Rowling added that scene later.



But I can't be certain. Why might this scene be missing from the French translation?




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

tolkiens legendarium - Did Gandalf wear his Ring of Power throughout the trilogy?

After Gandalf discovered that Sauron was back and sent Frodo on his quest to Rivendell, did he continue to wear Narya (one of the Three Rings)? It seems like a huge risk to continue to wear it after the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths) started to try and reclaim the One Ring; if they managed to get the ring to Sauron, couldn't he be corrupted by his power? Whatever powers Narya bestows upon him couldn't possibly be worth the huge risk, could it? Answer When Sauron forged the one ring and put it on his finger, the other ring bearers were immediately aware of him and his intentions and removed their own rings. There is no reason why they couldn't merely do so again. As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger they were aware of him; and they knew him, and preceived that he would be master of them, and of all they wrought. Then in anger and fear they took off their rings. "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," Silmarillion