Title translations... oddities

[herbertwest]

The other thread in which we were discussing the german Dark Tower titles, made me think about this thread :

What about odd/ creative/poetic / unusual title translations? King or not.



¤ Confusing one :
- NIGHSHIFT COLLECTION. French title : DANSE MACABRE
- DANSE MACABRE (Steve, that's confusing now!) French title, part 1 : ANATOMIE DE L'HORREUR (lit. Anatomy of the horror). Part 2 : PAGES NOIRES (lit. Black Pages. or. Dark Pages).

¤ NEEDFUL THINGS. French title : BAZAAR. aka. LE BAZAAR DE L'EPOUVANTE (lit. the bazaar of the scary things).

¤ DEAD ZONE. The very first french title was : L'ACCIDENT (lit. The Accident).

¤ THE STAND. French title : LE FLEAU. (lit. : the plague).

¤ GERALD'S GAME. French title : JESSIE.

¤ JUST AFTER SUNSET. French title : JUSTE AVANT LE CREPUSCULE (lit. : just before dawn).

¤ THE LONG WALK. French title : MARCHE OU CREVE (lit. : Walk or Die).
Comment : i actually prefer the french title.

¤ FULL DARK, NO STARS : french title. NUIT NOIRE, ETOILES MORTES (lit. : DARK NIGHT, DEAD STARS).
I believe that the french title, is a good translation as it is not easy to translate otherwise.

¤ THINNER. French title : LA PEAU SUR LES OS (lit. : a french expression for saying : Skinny. It literally translates to : THE SKIN ON THE BONES).

¤ FROM A BUICK 8. French title : ROADMASTER
Well... Why not. The translation of the title would have been a bit complicated i think.

¤ SHINING. First french title : L'ENFANT LUMIERE (lit. : The Shining Kid)

¤ THE TALISMAN. First french title : LE TALISMAN DES TERRITOIRES (lit. : the talisman of the territories)

¤ THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE. French title : LA CLE DES VENTS (lit. : the key of winds).
I find this translation quite poetic...



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¤ BATTLEGROUND (short story). Prior to the publication of the collection, the story was published in a french magazine, with the title : ATTAQUE A NAINS ARMES. (lit. : attack with armed midgets). I quite like this title, because it has a play on word with "attacked with bare hands", and i think that it's almost 'poetic'.


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NOT KING RELATED :

¤ Dan Simmon's CARRION COMFORT. French title : L'ECHIQUIER DU MAL (lit. : the chessboard of evil).
I personnally prefer this french title. Still need to read the book though....

¤ JK Rowling's CASUAL VANCY. French title : UNE PLACE A PRENDRE (lit. : a seat to take. or : a position to take).

[Randall Flagg]

Interesting differences.

[Bev Vincent]

I remember visiting the back room of King's office where all the translated editions were laid out and playing a game of "what book do you think this is?" based on the titles and cover art!

[Dan]

I remember visiting the back room of King's office where all the translated editions were laid out and playing a game of "what book do you think this is?" based on the titles and cover art!

Haha, that's great! I would love to see King's face trying to figure them out.

[Ari_Racing]

Some funny translations in spanish:

Salem's Lot: La hora del vampiro (the vampire hour)
The Shining: Insólito esplendor (insolit shining)
The stand: La danza de la muerte (the dance of the death)
Firestarter: Ojos de fuego (fire eyes)
The gunslinger: La hierba del diablo (Devil's weed)
Needful things: la tienda de los deseos malignos (the store of the evil wishes)
The green mile: el pasillo de la muerte (the death's hallway)
Roadwork: carretera maldita (evil road)
The regulators: posesión (posession)

And the worst of all:

Skeleton crew:

It was divided into three different books, with the following titles:

La expedición (The expedition), La niebla (The Mist) and Historias fantásticas (Fantastic stories). AND....two of the stores were left behind: Nona and The Raft, which were later included in another book called Dos historias para no dormir (two stories to prevent sleep)

[herbertwest]

The stand: La danza de la muerte (the dance of the death)
Dos historias para no dormir (two stories to prevent sleep)
>>>> i kind of like those titles. The last one keeps, i think, the main idea of "Nightshift Collection" : stories to keep you awake during your nightshift... [edit : you said that it was for Skeleton Crew, not NIGHTSHIFT...]



SKELETON CREW, was simply called : BRUME (lit. : THE MIST)
In pocket books, it was divided in 2 volumes : BRUME - LA FAUCHEUSE (lit : THE MIST - THE REAPER, cf the reaper's image), & BRUME - PARANOIA (cf Paranoid : a chant)

I always loved the pocket cover for the first of those 2 volumes :

[Randall Flagg]

I like Gunslinger as Devil's Weed

[needfulthings]

FRENCH NIGHT SHIFT.

[Shannon]

A question. Does anyone know what book this is? The title is "Satan's Store", which I thought would be Needful Things, but then I looked and I have a Needful Things in the same set of books, so that's not it. Can't go by the artwork, as most of these books have very unrelated artwork. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

[needfulthings]

CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF (SILVER BULLET) ITALY

THE ONLY CLUE THE FULL MOON (ART by JOHN ALCORN)

[needfulthings]

A question. Does anyone know what book this is? The title is "Satan's Store", which I thought would be Needful Things, but then I looked and I have a Needful Things in the same set of books, so that's not it. Can't go by the artwork, as most of these books have very unrelated artwork. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

From what I found This book PIGGY SATAN is made up from STEPHEN KING stories from different KING books.35,000 print run 1996

[Bad Penny]

A question. Does anyone know what book this is? The title is "Satan's Store", which I thought would be Needful Things, but then I looked and I have a Needful Things in the same set of books, so that's not it. Can't go by the artwork, as most of these books have very unrelated artwork. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

From what I found This book PIGGY SATAN is made up from STEPHEN KING stories from different KING books.35,000 print run 1996

Bruce - how the hell do you know this shit ??? Are you, like, the Wizard of Oz, but real ????

[needfulthings]

Bruce - how the hell do you know this shit ??? Are you, like, the Wizard of Oz, but real ???? [/QUOTE]

HERE IN THE STATES(OZ) HE HAVE A THING CALLED THE INTERNET
.

By the way THAT'STO YOU.

[Bad Penny]

We Down Under have heard rumours, mostly unsubstantiated, of this newfangled interwebby whosimabob of which you speak - you Americans are a canny mob, aren't ye ????

[Stebbins]

Walk or die mother fuckers, walk or die.

[needfulthings]

Bruce - how the hell do you know this shit ??? Are you, like, the Wizard of Oz, but real ???? [/QUOTE]

GRANT i WILL LET YOU IN ON MY SECRET IF YOU PROMISE NOT TO TELL.

Spoiler:

And if you are still not sure "SMELL THE SHOES"

[Jean]

A question. Does anyone know what book this is? The title is "Satan's Store", which I thought would be Needful Things, but then I looked and I have a Needful Things in the same set of books, so that's not it. Can't go by the artwork, as most of these books have very unrelated artwork. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

The page with the text is the first page of Shawshank. I can't identify the listed stories by their titles - they are nothing like any King titles I've ever seen. Shawshank itself is here titled "A Road from Hell", so if not for the text I'd have never known.

They called the whole collection Satan's Moneybox (literal translation from Russian), and translated it as "Satan's Store".

[RainInSpain]

To add to what Jean said:
Apparently, this compilation combines stories from 2 different King books: the first two - Дорога из ада and Ученик дьявола (literally The Devil's Pupil) are Shawshank Redemption and Apt Pupil, respectively. The other 12 stories are from Night Shift (further research needed to determine, which ones). It is further mentioned in one of the sources that all titles were completely changed when translated to Russian, because that was the typical approach used by book publishers in the former Soviet Union in the '90s. This particular book was published in Kharkov (Ukraine).

[Jean]

awesome guess, about The Devil's Pupil! Now, who do you think Мартовский Выползень could be?

[RainInSpain]

My brain almost gets to the boiling point trying to guess that I absolutely love the word "выползень" and use it quite often in different situations, but I am totally at a loss as to what might have prompted the translator/editors to use it as part of the title. (I also wonder if there is a sort of a corresponding word in English - but that's offtopic.)
I think I might get back to this brain-teaser tomorrow.

[Shannon]

Does the title in question not have an English translation? And, after we guess, i can post the first page so we can see the answer.

[needfulthings]

INDEX TITLES I FOUND
ROAD FROM HELL 3-110
DEVIL'S DESCIPLE 111-316
BURAN 317-334
BLACK SPOT 335-366
MARCH VYPOIZEN 367-377
PARIS 378-398
FLOWERS FOR THE VICTIMS 399-407
WHO'S NEXT? 408-439
SONS OF BITCHES 440-462
INSIGHTS 463-489
SOMEONE WHO IS NEVER WRONG 490-524
NEW TECHNIQUE 525-539
FUCKING CAR 540-560
DROWNED OUT OF THE CLOSET 561-575.

[Shannon]

My guesses:

ROAD FROM HELL (novella) - Shawshank Redemption
DEVIL'S DESCIPLE (novella) - Apt Pupil
BURAN (short story)
BLACK SPOT (short story) - I Am The Doorway
MARCH VYPOIZEN (short story)
PARIS (short story)
FLOWERS FOR THE VICTIMS (short story) - The Man Who Loved Flowers
WHO'S NEXT? (short story)
SONS OF BITCHES (short story) - Children Of the Corn
INSIGHTS (short story)
SOMEONE WHO IS NEVER WRONG (short story)
NEW TECHNIQUE (short story) - Quitters Inc.
FUCKING CAR (short story) - Trucks
DROWNED OUT OF THE CLOSET (short story)

[Bethany]

Someone Who Is Never Wrong-- I Know What You Need perhaps?

[RainInSpain]

Does the title in question not have an English translation? And, after we guess, i can post the first page so we can see the answer.

I don't think it can be properly translated. The word that I said I loved is a made-up word, based on wordplay, I think.
My best attempt at describing it in English would be "something that crawls (out of somewhere or from under something)". Does it make sense?