Bad Translations in other Languages

[Excelsius]

Ill start with german translations i know off:
 

Mistborn= Die Kinder des Nebels(1)/ Krieger des Feuers= Warriors of Fire (2)/ Der Herrscher des Lichts= The Ruler of Light (3)/ Die Jäger der Macht= The Hunters of the Power (4)

Breeze=Weher

Elend Venture=Elant Wager

Ham= Hamm

Spooki=Spuki

Dockson=Docksohn (still shortend to Dox)

Clubs=Keuler

Warbreaker = Sturmklänge =Stormsounds
Vasher= Fascha

[Draginon he/him]

Here's a weird translation my gf told me about:

Tangled is called Two on the Run in Danish

[Botanica she/her]

Ha, the Chinese translation of Mistborn is exactly the same as the German one, meaning Die Kinder des Nebels: 迷雾之子, The Mist's Children (Sons) /The Children (Sons) of Mist 

It is also interesting that Elend and Straff are actually German words. 

A very bad Chinese translation worth mentioning: The Worldhopper Felt from Mistborn series. His name is translated into some like "soft skin/fell" (柔皮), which bemused me a lot. 

Edited September 29, 2017 by Botanica

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

8 hours ago, Botanica said:

It is also interesting that Elend and Straff are actually German words. 

Straff is a swedish word too. It means punishment. And Vin is swedish for wine.

[Penumbra]

2 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

Straff is a swedish word too. It means punishment. And Vin is swedish for wine.

I have noticed they began translating Mistborn to swedish recently. The names of the books seem ... decently accurate (and sound way less cool. "Uppstigningens brunn" is literally "the well of ascension", so good on them for that, but to me it sounds like someone just got out of a bath for some reason). I'm admittedly still afraid to leaf through them and see what they changed all the names to ... 

Edit: From what I read online, they didn't change the names (aside from naming The Lord Ruler something closer to "The Overlord"), so yay.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Penumbra

[flying_shadow she/her]

In case you didn't know, transliteration is when you keep the word as is, but write the sounds in a different alphabet.

It was a bit annoying that the Russian translation transliterated Ham's name as is even though in WOA, a pun is made about his name and it made no sense. They had to add a footnote explaining the meaning of his name in the original English.

Also, for some inexplicable reason, Shadesmar was transliterated as "Шейдсмар" even though the translation is otherwise good at translating proper nouns and terms when they are actual words. How hard would it have been to translate it as "Тенемар"? Or is there some deeper meaning to the word that I'm missing?

Maps' name is transliterated the first time he's mentioned, and it's translated the rest of the time. That has the potential to confuse readers.

Skar's name was translated despite the misspelling in the original English(side note-does anyone know why?) which I, at least, don't mind(if it doesn't take place on Earth, translate proper nouns if they are actual words. If they convey a certain meaning to the reader in the original, why not preserve it?).

TFA became "Ash and Steel", not sure why. The other book titles were properly translated.

I'm not sure if Warbreaker has been officially translated, but the version I read struggled a lot with the names of the Returned. Most were split up into two words, and I spend too much time trying to figure out how to keep it one word without making it sound clunky.

In Mistborn, Ruin and Preservation became "the destroyer" and "the protector" despite the fact that the other books had the shard names translated correctly.

Odium was translated as "strife" or "hostility", which is close enough I guess? I tried to translate "odium", and "hatred" is pretty much the only thing I can think of. I read an amateur translation where it was "malice", which was worse in my opinion.

"Laral" got a soft sign tacked onto the end, as did "Wyndle". "Ialai" ceased to be symmetrical, with one 'i' becoming 'и' and the other one 'й'. The 'h' sound is sometimes written as 'x', sometimes dropped(depending on what makes it sound right) and that altered quite a bit of names. Nothing you can do about that, though.

Shadows of Silence isn't officially translated, and the version I read transliterated "Earnest" and "Amity", and then added on a sentence explaining the meaning. Why not just translate the words, if you're going to go to the trouble of explaining the meanings?

Names of very minor characters that are actual words in English are sometimes translated, sometimes not, sometimes both and people end up thinking they're different characters.

This is a tiny nitpick(just like literally everything I just wrote hahaha), but the epigraph in WOR that mentions Skybreakers dividing the innocent from the guilty was changed to dividing the innocent from the sinners, which has an entirely different connotation. It does fit in with the archaic style of writing, but the meaning is changed rather drastically.

Terms such as "shardblade", "soulcaster", "misting" were translated very well. The only compound word that wasn't kept as one word was "mistborn".

Wow, this turned into an incoherent rant. Sorry about that, I have pretty firm opinions on how things should get translated.

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

8 hours ago, Penumbra said:

I have noticed they began translating Mistborn to swedish recently. The names of the books seem ... decently accurate (and sound way less cool. "Uppstigningens brunn" is literally "the well of ascension", so good on them for that, but to me it sounds like someone just got out of a bath for some reason). I'm admittedly still afraid to leaf through them and see what they changed all the names to ... 

Edit: From what I read online, they didn't change the names (aside from naming The Lord Ruler something closer to "The Overlord"), so yay.

I leafed through Mistborn: Sista Riket (Final Empire) at the library. What bothered me the most was the metal translations. 

[Excelsius]

1 hour ago, Toaster Retribution said:

What bothered me the most was the metal translations. 

Ahh, yeah german had it easy with that one, the only i stumbled over was Pewter =Weißblech but that still works fine.

[xxcyv he/him]

On 28.9.2017 at 9:21 AM, Excelsius said:

Krieger des Feuers= Warriors of Fire (2)/ Der Herrscher des Lichts= The Ruler of Light (3)/ Die Jäger der Macht= The Hunters of the Power (4)

Oh, I hate these translations. They have nothing to do with the books, so why did they give them these titles?! But although the titles of Mistborn 2-4 are nonesense, to me "Kinder des Nebels" ("Children of Mist") is an ok translation for TFE because I think it still fits to the book.

Another german translation I absolutely despise is "Sturmklänge" ("Stormsounds") for Warbreaker.

But since Brandon changed to a new publisher in Germany my hopes are high that these ridiculous titles come to an end. The titles for SoS and BoM are very close to the original ones so the new publisher seems to care more about them (although they seem to keep more english terms untranslated than the old transators, what I don't really like).

[Excelsius]

On 28.9.2017 at 9:21 AM, Excelsius said:

Warbreaker = Sturmklänge =Stormsounds

I did mention the abomination that Warbreakers translation is :'D
And yeah with the new Publisher we can hope for better translations.

What do you mean with untranslated words?

[xxcyv he/him]

@Excelsius Oh sorry, I overlooked your reference of Warbreaker ^^"

I haven't read one of the new releases, but while flicking through SoS the phrase "Hammonder River" catched my eye. I honestly don't remember how it was translated in AoL, but even if it is the same, I personally don't like it when such easily translated phrases are kept in their original language.

[kenod]

I haven't read the books themselves in Dutch, but the cover blurb already has some interesting translations.
Mistborn = Nevelaar, which somewhat translates to mistborn, but means something more along the lines of fog, or haze.
Allomancer = ertsmagiër, which basically translates as ore magician.

(Saw the cover blurbs in the library, while already having read the English versions. I never felt the temptation to actually read them after that)