Bramblethorn
Sleep-deprived
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2012
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Anthea Bell has died, aged 82. She was a translator who brought many famous works into English, but she might be best known for the comic Asterix.
The original Astérix might have been called "untranslatable" if she hadn't proved otherwise. It depends heavily on puns and other word-play in French, most of which would've been lost in a direct translation to English. Sometimes she managed to come up with a perfect counterpart: Obelix's pet Idéfix ("fixed idea") becomes Dogmatix, which carries a similar meaning and also squeezes in a "dog" pun.
Elsewhere, she invented entirely new jokes that matched the spirit of the originals, keeping it as funny and clever in English as they were in French. Some examples here:
https://auntymuriel.com/2012/12/23/...he-genius-of-anthea-bell-and-derek-hockridge/
The original Astérix might have been called "untranslatable" if she hadn't proved otherwise. It depends heavily on puns and other word-play in French, most of which would've been lost in a direct translation to English. Sometimes she managed to come up with a perfect counterpart: Obelix's pet Idéfix ("fixed idea") becomes Dogmatix, which carries a similar meaning and also squeezes in a "dog" pun.
Elsewhere, she invented entirely new jokes that matched the spirit of the originals, keeping it as funny and clever in English as they were in French. Some examples here:
https://auntymuriel.com/2012/12/23/...he-genius-of-anthea-bell-and-derek-hockridge/
