Santa-Khryakus - Hogfather

I'm now embarked on the Russian translation of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and so far it's an excellent job - kudos to Mssr Berdennikov and Zhikarentsev!

We can start with the simpler (hah!) things, like the names. To begin with the title - Санта-Хрякус (Santa-Khryakus) for Hogfather - khryak is a boar, and the 'santa' plus the -us catch the 'Father Christmas' analogy; -us is an affectionate suffix, as well.

Then Наверн Чудакулли (Navern Chudakulli) for Mustrum Ridcully - Chudak is an eccentric and Ridcully suggests 'ridiculous', while Navern is a slightly cropped version of the word meaning "for certain" so it echoes the "must" in Mustrum and yet still looks like a name. Archchancellor Weatherwax becomes Ветровоск (Vetrovosk) which is more like "Windwax" but works better with the sounds of his name. Susan Sto-Helit is Сьюзен Сто Гелитская (Syuzen Sto-Helitskaya), and the addition of the adjectival ending to her surname elevates the style, which is appropriate for a duke's daughter.

And then Чайчай (Chaichai) for Teatime - with Тчайтчай (Tchai-Тchai) for his "Teh-ah-ti-meh" pronunciation of his name.

Amusingly, when Jack Frost makes his cameo appearances, they call him Дед Мороз (Ded Moroz), Grandfather Frost. They could have used the cutesier Мороз Красный Нос (Moroz Krasnyy Nos), Frosty Red-Nose, but that is just a nickname for Ded Moroz. And they use Ded Moroz's Christmas associations to come up with a very Pratchett-like footnote of their own:

На Плоском Мире Дед Мороз наконец-то занялся выполнением своих прямых обязенностей.

On the Disc World, Grandfather Frost was finally able to devote himself to carrying out his primary duties.

They don't all work of course. Bergholt Stuttley, or Bloody Stupid, Johnson becomes Бергольд Статли (Bergold Statli), or Чертов Тупица (Chortov Tupitsa), Джонсон (Dzhonson), which is a fine translation, but completely misses the B.S. Johnson joke of his name and nickname. Getting the BS was probably impossible, but instead of just transliterating his name they might have come up with something with the initials CT (ChT, really). Minor, very minor, complaint.

But there's more. There are lots translation choices to look at, most of them interesting. A number of examples are found in this passage (the last paragraph of which is one of my favorites in the whole Pratchett canon):

Time stopped.

But duration continued.

She'd always wondered, when she was small, why visits to her grandfather could go on for days and yet, when they got back, the calendar was still plodding along as if they'd never been away.

Now she knew the why, although probably no human being would ever really understand the how. Sometimes, somewhere, somehow, the numbers on the clock did not count.

Between every rational moment were a billion irrational ones. Somewhere behind the hours there was a place where the Hogfather rode, the tooth fairies climbed their ladders, Jack Frost drew his pictures, the Soul Cake Duck laid her chocolate eggs. In the endless spaces between the clumsy seconds Death moved like a witch dancing through raindrops, never getting wet.

Here's the Russian, and I'll follow that with a fairly literal translation back into English

Время остановилась.

Однако момент продолжал длиться.

В детсве Сьюзен пару раз навещала дедушку, гостила у него по нескольку дней и все равно возбращалась домой в тот же день, когда и уехала, -- согласно настенному календарю. Это всегда ставило ее в тупик, она задавал вопросы, но ответов не получала.

Это было тогда. А сейчас Сьюзен знала -- хотя ни одно из человеческих существ не смогло бы разделить с ней это знание. Просто... иногда, как-то, где-то, часы переставали иметь значение.

Каждый разиональный миг разделяют миллиарды мигов иррациональных. Где-то вне времени едет в своих санях Санта-Хрякус, зубная фея поднимается по лестнице, Дед Мороз рисует свои узоры, а мясленичная утка откладывает шоколадные яички. В бесконечном пространстве между неуклюжими секундами Смерть двигался как ведьма, танцующая меж каплями дождя.

Time stopped.

But the moment continued to endure.

As a child Susan had several times visted her grandfather, stayed for several days each time, and yet returned home on the very same day as she had left -- according to the calendar on the wall. This had always left her confused, and she had asked about it, but had gotten no answers.

That was then. But now she knew - although no other human being would be able to share her knowledge. It was simply that ... sometimes, somehow, somewhere, clocks ceased to have meaning.

Each rational moment was split into billions of irrational ones. Somewhere outside of time the Hogfather rode in his sleigh, the tooth fairy climbed her ladder, Grandfather Frost drew his patterns, and the Shrove-cake duck laid her chocolate eggs. In the infinite space between the clumsy seconds Death moved like a witch dancing between raindrops.

There are several types of translation problems here, and interesting choices made by the translators.

First, yet another culture-bound name: the Soul Cake Duck. Soul cakes are eaten in England on All Souls Day. Russians don't do that. But they do eat blinis, or pancakes, on Shrove Tuesday. So the Soul Cake Duck becomes the мясленичная утка (myslennichnaya utka), the Shrove-cake duck.

There is also a neat depersonification of the calendar. In the original, it "was still plodding along", but in Russian things don't perform actions nearly as often. (A common problem for my students is the ubiquitous indefinite + location, such as "In the Kremlin 'they' said" or "In Izvesitya 'they' published", where we would just have "The Kremlin said" or "Izvestiya published"...)

Also interesting is the way they handled the "Susan had always wondered..." bit. There is no good single verb for "wonder" in Russian; in fact, one of the most common ways to render it is "zadavat' vopros, put a question" (another common one is "ey interesuetsya, it interested her", but that wouldn't have worked well here). Their solution - not "Susan had always wondered how X..." but rather "X had happened when Susan was young, and she had not understood it, and had asked, but had never found out" seems wordy, but is probably the best way to capture the meaning. And it sounds natural and unforced in the Russian.

And there's another little thing: the original English has "Sometimes, somewhere, somehow", but the Russian is "иногда, как-то, где-то (sometimes, somehow, somewhere)". It's a different order, but it's unmarked, just as the English is; that's the kind of rewording that should be done without a second thought.

Yes... I'm really enjoying reading this book.