Hari se vraća kući

The Serbian translation of the newest book in the Harry Potter series did not simply apparate, of course. Rather it was translated, in record time, by Vesna and Draško Roganović. Vesna Roganović has a most amusing essay in today's Danas on the question of how they did it. The greatest challenge, of course, was finding suitable equivalents for Ms Rowling's neologisms, which draw on folklore, popular culture, and the tradition of fantasy literature in English. Much of this is not available to readers of the translation, and so the pair had to invent ways of expressing these products of the linguistic imagination. I have to admit that I am not thrilled with their rendering of «Muggles» as «Normalci»—it seems to miss both the elements of class derision and the comical effect of the diminutive that seem to be in the original. But they came up with a good many more creative resolutions, many of which the essay kindly lists. Her essay also gives a good sense of the pleasure and humor that the pair brought to the job.