Strange title changes in book translations I was trying to describe To Kill a Mockingbird to a Brazilian, and finally it occurred to me to check the title in Portuguese. (A very helpful resource is Wi

Dan Smith

Strange title changes in book translations

I was trying to describe To Kill a Mockingbird to a Brazilian, and finally it occurred to me to check the title in Portuguese. (A very helpful resource is Wikipedia: look up a book in the English Wikipedia, then check the language list to find a corresponding article in the target language. These corresponding articles are simply articles on the same topic, not translations).

In Spanish, the title is Matar un ruiseñor, which is recognizable. It actually means "To Kill a Nightingale," and a European nightingale is not at all like a mockingbird, but, nevertheless, it is recognizable.

In Portugal, it is Por Favor, Não Matem a Cotovia, or "Please Don't Kill the Lark," which, again, is understandable.

But in Brazil, it is O Sol É para Todos, or "The Sun is for Everyone." This is not only not a translation, but I did a text search through the book for the word "sun" and cannot find any sentiment in the book that resembles it.

And the instant I said "O Sol É para Todos" she immediately said "Oh, yes, of course, I know it, it's famous."

I've already mentioned how one Spanish edition of The Catcher in the Rye is entitled El cazador oculto, "The Hidden Hunter." One Portuguese version is À Espera no Centeio ou Uma Agulha num Palheiro, which Google Translate thinks means "Waiting on Rye or A Needle in a Haystack." Here, though, it is understandable because the English title doesn't really mean anything sensible; it contains a literary reference to a famous poem by Robert Burns that became a song, fairly familiar to English speakers, but the title is the line as remembered incorrectly by the protagonist. The correct line is

Gin a body meet a body

Comin thro' the rye,

but the character thinks it is "When a body catch a body comin' thro' the rye."

Have you run into any cases where a title in one language becomes inexplicably different in another?

Aug 12, 2020 10:46 PM

Comments · 11

Sometimes things get lost in translation even within the same language.

For example, for some inexplicable reason, JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone end up being called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the USA.

The US publishers, Scholastic, saw fit to change something meaningful -

The philosopher's stone, more properly philosophers' stone or stone of the philosophers (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_language" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Latin</a>: lapis philosophorum) is a legendary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">alchemical</a> substance capable of turning <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_metal" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">base metals</a> such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(element)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mercury</a> into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">gold</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysopoeia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">chrysopoeia</a>, from the Greek χρυσός khrusos, "gold", and ποιεῖν poiēin, "to make") or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">silver</a>. It is also called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_of_life" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">elixir of life</a>, useful for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rejuvenation" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rejuvenation</a> and for achieving <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortality" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">immortality</a>; for many centuries, it was the most sought goal in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">alchemy</a>. The philosophers' stone was the central symbol of the mystical terminology of alchemy, symbolizing perfection at its finest, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_(spiritual)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">enlightenment</a>, and heavenly bliss

- into something that makes no sense at all. Why?

August 14, 2020

Here's another good one: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is admittedly not easy to translate. In German it's called Vergiss mein nicht! (Forget me not!) and in Italian Se mi lasci ti cancello (If you leave me, I'll delete you) - way to spoil the movie with the title, Italy...

August 14, 2020

Strange title changes are always a fun topic, thanks for these. À Espera no Centeio ou Uma Agulha num Palheiro is probably my favourite of the bunch. I can think of a few German ones:

Twilight - Bis(s) zum Morgengrauen = Until dawn/ Bite at dawn (with a pun for good measure: bis = until, Biss = bite). Of course, they had to stick with the theme for the whole series, so the bites happen a little later in the day with each book.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - there are even two versions, neither of which is anywhere near the English title: 1) Vielleicht lieber morgen = Maybe rather tomorrow. I read the book in English and never got if the German title is supposed to be a reference to something in particular... 2) Das ist also mein Leben = So that's my life. I think that's a line from the book, so it makes some sense.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Deine Juliet = Your Juliet. It's an epistolary novel, so I assume that's how the protagonist ends her letters in the German version. It could have been such a nice mouthful: Die Guernsey-Gesellschaft für Literatur und Kartoffelschalenkuchen.

While scanning the internet for the meaning of "Vielleicht lieber morgen", I discovered an entire subreddit of Germans getting upset about title translations. For anyone speaking German, enjoy!

<a href="https://i.reddit.com/r/de/comments/7ji8p4/wieso_sind_deutsche_titel%C3%BCbersetzungen_so_schei%C3%9Fe/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://i.reddit.com/r/de/comments/7ji8p4/wieso_sind_deutsche_titel%C3%BCbersetzungen_so_schei%C3%9Fe/</a>;

A friend once told me that film titles in Quebec often differ from the title used in France in amusing ways. Wikipedia has a list: <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_de_titres_qu%C3%A9b%C3%A9cois_de_films" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_de_titres_qu%C3%A9b%C3%A9cois_de_films</a>;

My French isn't good enough to comment on them in detail, but Fiction pulpeuse just sounds amazing and Rock n' nonne for Sister Act is quite something, too.

August 13, 2020

Oh, all the time. Book titles are often dramatically (but not always) reinvented in translation. Deborah Layton, a Peoples Temple survivor (if you recall the Jim Jones/Peoples Temple mass murders in Guyana in 1978) wrote a book about her life in the Peoples Temple called „Seductive Poison“. It came out in a German translation with the title „Selbstmord im Paradies“, suicide in paradise. So, go figure. Yet, Larry Kramer‘s well-known 1978 novel, Faggots, about gay life in New York City in the 1970s was translated directly into German as „Schwuchteln“, which just means faggots in German. So it was a 100% direct translation.

August 13, 2020

These translations and different titles happen not only across languages but also across cultures. In the UK there are many TV shows which have different names in the USA.

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_with_different_titles_in_the_United_Kingdom_and_United_States" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_with_different_titles_in_the_United_Kingdom_and_United_States</a>;

It seems to be the same between Spain and South America - even though they all speak Spanish.

There is a very famous 60s TV show called "The Champions" which in Spain is Los Heroes Invincibles and in South America Heroes De Nemesis

August 14, 2020

Dan Smith

Language Skills

English, Portuguese, Spanish

Learning Language

English, Portuguese, Spanish

Articles You May Also Like