Coming back to reread the Harry Potter series, I was struck by how skillfully Rowling draws her characters: with only a handful of words at a character’s very first appearance, she can sketch a figure who feels instantly alive. Unlike most authors, J.K. Rowling describes a character’s looks, clothing, and manner of speaking in a way that always gives me the same feeling I had in high school Chinese class, reading that passage in Dream of the Red Chamber where Wang Xifeng makes her entrance. In the hands of both Rowling and Cao Xueqin, every facet of a character forms an organic whole, and both writers know exactly which few details will convey a character most quickly, so that a reader rarely needs to get through many chapters before grasping who someone is. Admittedly, part of this may be because the Harry Potter series still leans toward children’s literature, so its characterization is not always especially complex, and at times can feel a little flat, a little black and white. But I suspect that is precisely why, as children who had not yet gone through much reading training, we were still able to immerse ourselves in the world of wizardry through the words on the page.
Character Names Worth Chewing Over
It is well known that fans across the Chinese-speaking world love to talk about how the names in Harry Potter were translated or even transliterated, and many readers enjoy poking fun at renderings that feel too on the nose, or that give a character’s personality away. Mainland China’s name translations, apart from a few outright mis-renderings such as the name given to Sirius Black (“小天狼星”), all reflect the two translators’ balancing act between conveying a character’s image and keeping the name easy to pronounce and remember. The first surname worth dwelling on a little is that of Harry’s uncle’s family, Dursley. The translators finally settled on “德思礼” (Desili); yet it is obvious that we readers need only get through the first few chapters to see that this family’s daily conduct has very little to do with the three characters they were given, “德” (virtue), “思” (thought), and “礼” (courtesy). They show no real virtue, do no real thinking, and have no manners to speak of. Whether or not the translators deliberately rendered Dursley as these three characters, we can read a subtle irony into the contrast between the family’s true nature and their surname.
Smart Characterization
As this chapter’s epigraph suggests, the language Rowling uses to portray the Dursleys, along with a few wizards who never quite manage to leave their names in a Muggle reader’s memory, is often concise and clever. In this piece I want to focus on how, in the English original, Rowling paints the Dursleys in such spare, vivid language, along with those wizards whose odd behavior, as they celebrate the Dark Lord’s “death” and the arrival of “the Boy Who Lived,” earns them Uncle Vernon’s distaste.
English originalChinese translation
because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be
因为她妹妹和她那一无是处的妹夫与德思礼一家的为人处事完全不一样
By the time this book was first translated, colloquial Chinese did not yet have a formula along the lines of “don’t be so much of a someone’s-name,” so the translators chose to unpack the invented adjective “unDursleyish” through concrete description instead.
Mrs Dursley… and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours
In the original, Rowling uses “crane,” a word that can mean both the bird and, by its likeness in shape and function, the construction crane, to describe Aunt Petunia stretching her neck to spy on the neighbours. It is wonderfully apt. The translators, for their part, capture this signature gesture with a tidy four-character phrase, “引颈而望,” each version clever in its own way. And “spy,” a word most people file under espionage, is used in everyday English simply to mean watching or observing in secret, with none of the sensational overtones of a real spy.
At half past eight, Mr Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs Dursley on the cheek and…
八点半，德思礼先生拿起公文包，在德思礼太太面颊上亲了一下…
The “亲了一下” (a quick kiss) here is, in Rowling’s original, “pecked,” the pecking motion of a bird (a woodpecker, after all, is a bird that pecks wood). To me, that word is funnier and more nimble, capturing the way Uncle Vernon purses his lips to kiss Aunt Petunia.
Beyond these scattered vivid touches for the Dursleys, Rowling introduces Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall with a technique worthy of Cao Xueqin’s portrait of Wang Xifeng. Her long, intricate sentences were a joy to read, and the sweeping imagery of these extended passages really did give me the same sensation as reading Dream of the Red Chamber. When I turned to the Chinese version, I felt a little deflated, because I did not think it kept that continuous, flowing quality. Yet when I tried to retranslate the passages myself, I could not help admiring the translators’ skill. Let us look at two fairly representative passages, and appreciate both Rowling’s craft and the translators’ professionalism.
English originalChinese translation
Nothing like this man had ever been seen in Privet Drive. He was tall, thin and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak which swept the ground and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man’s name was Albus Dumbledore.
First, a small quibble: in “nothing like this man had ever been seen,” the ones doing the seeing should still be the residents of Privet Drive, not the street itself. Rowling’s choice of “in” rather than “by” points to that intended meaning, so a freer rendering closer to “no one like this man had ever appeared on Privet Drive” might fit better. That said, the flaw is minor. The two translators use a run of verbs paired with items of clothing to render the string of garments that, in Rowling’s English, all hang off the single verb “wear.” They also do a nice job of shifting some of the English clauses into positions that read more naturally in Chinese, and of breaking the long English sentence apart so that the Chinese reader’s experience flows more smoothly.
It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now.
The English here is one complete, knotty sentence: “the real reason” picks up “the point” from earlier, followed by a clause that first uses “for” to explain the cause while also carrying McGonagall’s action. To me this is a genuinely hard sentence to translate. On the whole I think the translators handle this long sentence very well, but when it comes to conveying the logic that McGonagall’s apparent anxiety is inferred from her expression at this very moment, the two of them do not quite pull it off perfectly. That, too, is why, coming back to the Chinese version, I feel the flowing quality created by the long original sentence is somewhat lost in Chinese.
The English passages above, and their translations, are nothing if not brilliant, and my so-called regrets about the Chinese version are really just idle grumbling. Still, if any reader has come this far and would like to think with me about how these long sentences might be translated even better, you are very welcome to discuss it in the comments, or to reach out to me directly.
Conjuring an Uncanny Mood
The opening of this chapter, which is also the opening of the whole series, uses a great deal of scene-setting to conjure an uncanny mood, especially as we watch, through the eyes of Harry’s uncle Vernon Dursley, everything that unfolds around him on the day Voldemort dies and Harry becomes “the Boy Who Lived.” Even as Rowling piles up words insisting that the Dursleys are “normal” and have nothing whatsoever to do with anything “strange,” she and the translators each reach for some rather interesting turns of phrase.
English originalChinese translation
It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar
在街角上，他看到了第一个异常的信号
Here the translators do not, as the English original does, emphasize the place where Uncle Vernon first notices something odd: the corner of the street.
It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive, no, looking at the sign; cats couldn’t read maps or signs
猫这时正在读女贞路的标牌，不，是在看标牌；猫是不会看地图或是读标牌的
Here the translators use two verbs, “读” (to read and understand) and “看” (merely to look), to capture the difference between English “read,” which implies actually taking in and understanding the text, and “look,” which is just the act of looking. It is clever. But I personally think that Chinese publications could, like English, use formatting such as bold or italics to stress information, just as the English original uses “looking” to show Uncle Vernon working to convince himself that this cat, really Professor McGonagall in disguise, merely happens to be performing the act of looking at the sign.
Mr Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren’t young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him!
First, I personally feel that “很生气” (very angry) does not quite match the emotional color of the English “enraged,” even with “很” (very) attached. Second, the “why” here is used to explain the cause of Vernon’s anger just mentioned, and we might match it with something like “为什么？因为……” (Why? Because…). Still, the translators’ finest stroke is turning “The nerve of him!,” a phrase with no neat Chinese equivalent, into “真不知羞耻” (utterly shameless), striking a nice balance between emotional color and how easily a child can understand it. We might also try “好大的胆子！” (What audacity!). I will only mutter this under my breath, though, because I have been watching far too many Empresses in the Palace clips lately, and now the instant I see “好大的胆子” my mind jumps straight to “谋害龙toy.”
Mr Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him.
他突然停下脚步，恐惧万分。
The pairing of “dead” with “突然” (suddenly) is plain and easy to follow, but for the following sentence with “flooded,” I personally think that a phrasing like “弗农姨父被恐惧淹没” (Uncle Vernon was drowned in fear) could convey the sense just as faithfully and in parallel.
Other Translation Points Worth Discussing
There is no doubt that translating a book like Harry Potter, a work of children’s literature steeped in European culture, or more specifically British culture, and full of magic and Rowling’s coinages, into something Chinese children can read with ease and lose themselves in, is an enormously difficult task. The two translators’ work on Philosopher’s Stone, and especially on the chapter “The Boy Who Lived,” unquestionably laid an excellent foundation for the whole series. And yet, now that I am an adult and, having lived abroad for many years, have studied and reflected more deeply on both my mother tongue and English, I feel there is still room to discuss a few things in the translation. Admittedly, raising these so-called “translation nitpicks” is a case of me showing off in front of the experts, but I still welcome anyone who wants to join the conversation. After all, revising and reissuing a long-published work is hardly unusual. Among this chapter’s translation issues, the best known, so much so that it has become one of the translation’s trademarks, is the rendering of “Sirius Black,” so I will not belabor it here and will instead look at a few other details. This section contains a good deal of nitpicking, so I hope readers who have made it this far will go easy on me.
English originalChinese translation
Was he imagining things?
他是在想入非非吗？
“想入非非” can of course be used to translate “imagine,” but here I feel the phrase is not quite right. “想入非非” usually refers to fantasizing about wonderful outcomes far beyond one’s own reach, with a touch of overreaching, improper daydreaming, whereas here it merely describes Uncle Vernon’s self-doubt after running into so many “odd characters.” So perhaps a plainer rendering such as “是他在胡思乱想吗？” (Is he just imagining things?) or “是他在胡乱想象吗？” would fit better.
But Mr Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind.
德思礼先生却思绪万千。
“思绪万千” is not wrong here either, but the original “turning it all over” more likely carries the sense of Vernon turning the day’s string of strange events over and over in his mind, chewing them over. That thinking has a clear, bounded scope, whereas “思绪万千” is closer to letting one’s thoughts roam without limit, so it may not be a perfect fit here.
Its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive
目不转睛地盯着女贞路远处的转角
This describes McGonagall’s expression as she waits for Professor Dumbledore. “目不转睛” (eyes fixed, never turning away) can certainly describe this kind of rapt, focused watching, but here we might also use something like “眼睛都不眨一下” (not blinking even once) to preserve the exaggerated “not blinking” of the original.
… is last night Voldemort turned up in Godric’s Hollow
昨天夜里伏地魔绕到戈德里克山谷
Using “绕到” (to make one’s way around to) for “turned up” feels a little off. “Turned up” itself means to appear, even to appear somewhat unexpectedly, but we do not actually know whether Voldemort “went around” to Godric’s Hollow, so this reading feels a bit over-translated.
… and that’s why he’s gone
所以他才走掉了
“走掉了” (walked off) here refers to Voldemort’s disappearance after he killed James and Lily and tried to kill Harry, for “some reason still unknown.” It is not necessarily a simple matter of “walking away.” Given that people in the story are rushing to celebrate, and that McGonagall speaks earlier of Voldemort’s disappearance (the English there is likewise “disappear”), “gone” here could simply be rendered as vanished or gone missing. After all, Voldemort may well no longer have any objective ability to “walk” anywhere at all.
In short, “The Boy Who Lived,” as the start of the whole series, quickly hands us the most crucial information of the book’s opening: after a man named Voldemort dies, a great many strangely behaved people are celebrating, while the Dursleys keep such people firmly at arm’s length. From the Dursleys’ words and inner thoughts, we can gather that Aunt Petunia’s sister Lily and her husband James are very likely among these “strange” people, and that they were tragically killed by Voldemort. Their child, the newly orphaned Harry, is “entrusted” to the Dursleys by Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and Hagrid, three figures who come from that same strange world. It is not hard to foresee that Harry is in for a far from peaceful childhood. Both the English original and the Chinese translation are wonderful, and it was works like these that drew me, still a primary school student, into the world of magic. With this column, I want to take everyone back through both versions of the novel for a careful reread, in search of the little touches from author and translator that our younger selves may not yet have been able to notice. That is all for the first chapter of the series. See you in the next piece, “The Vanishing Glass”!
