Photo via Hogwarts Philippines Facebook Page
At the Manila International Book Fair last week, Lampara Publishing released the first-ever Filipino edition of a Harry Potter book, translated by author Becky Bravo. Coconuts Manila caught up with the prolific children’s story writer about this exciting career milestone.
It took you four months to finish translating Sorcerer’s Stone. How were those four months like?
Mentally exhausting, most of the time. I’m far more used to writing in English, and before the Harry Potter project I had previously only written two or three short stories and translated one short novel into Filipino, so you can imagine what a jump it was to be suddenly translating Harry Potter. It was a lot like on-the-job training; I was working and learning at the same time. I read books written in Filipino in between my scheduled Harry Potter work days so I could get a better feel of writing in my native language. Every time I sat down to work on Harry Potter I had three dictionaries scattered around me, one of them as thick as the Bible. There were days when I would only translate a couple of pages before knocking off, but usually I did six to eight. If I suddenly felt anxious that I wasn’t going to be able to make my deadline, I would force myself to do ten, and usually ended up working right through lunch and dinner. I seem to remember surviving some days only on coffee and chips, but my mind was fed very well the whole time.
How familiar were you with the books before this project? And did you end up with a different kind of appreciation afterwards?
I was already very familiar with the Harry Potter series before I was given the translation project. I have copies of the first five books, all read and reread so many times that some of their pages are dog-eared and crumbling. I borrowed books 6 and 7 from my sister. When I read book 7 I didn’t want to put it down until I got to the ending, so I stayed awake for about 40 hours straight just to finish it. I was so happy that Harry ended up with Ginny. I had been rooting for her since the day she saw him get on the train for his first year at Hogwarts 🙂 When I was done with the translation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I was left with a deeper appreciation of JK Rowling’s fabulous brainchild. Whatever language it is told in, the story of Harry Potter never fails to thrill, excite, and engage the reader.
Like an actor preparing for a role, what kind of immersion skills did you utilize to prepare for this task, and how did you get out of it once you were done?
Well, I would put on my robes, take up my wand, swish it in front of my computer and yell, Alohomora! Just joking. Thinking back, I think I should’ve cracked open a DVD and watched HP and the Sorcerer’s Stone to get myself “into the groove”, but there wasn’t any time for that, I had to get right to work. I just simply imagined how JK Rowling might translate her own words if she knew how to write in Filipino.
Do you still have energy to translate the rest of the Harry Potter books?
That’s a very daunting prospect, considering that the books keep getting thicker and thicker as you go through the series. You can probably hurt yourself if you happened to drop book seven on your foot. Who knows if I can make it all the way to the finale? I can’t say for sure myself. For now, I think I should just concentrate on turning out a good translation of book 2 (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets).
What was the most difficult part to translate?
The most difficult portions of the book to translate were the verses. There’s one when Harry and Hagrid enter Gringotts, one when the Sorting Hat sings to the freshmen, one when they sing the school song, and one when Harry and Hermione try to get past Snape’s potions to get to the Sorcerer’s Stone. You had to be able to translate everything well enough and still manage to preserve the rhyme. These were the portions when I really did wish I had a wand and could come up with the perfect translation with a swish and a flick and the appropriate spell (Translatus instare!).
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: The Filipino Edition is available in paperback at Precious Pages bookstores nationwide, including 3/F SM City North Edsa, Main Building, Quezon City; +63 2 3555166, www.phr.com.ph. PHP199.
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