[Dfesdefu]

Only two parts of the Malazan book of the fallen have been translated into dutch. So there's probably a lot of grieving among the dutch speaking tribes.

If you ever need a dutch translation of the other parts, I would really like to have the job!!! I'm already halfway the house of chains and I want to spread these great tales in the lowlands.

[Ozymandiac]

Wow Dfesdefu, that's one helluva job! I'm Dutch as well (maar laten we hier maar Engels praten), and also started with those two books..
The library had GotM and CoD in Dutch, and then it suddenly ended.. Pretty dissapointing. Then, over 5 years later, I remembered them, and bought every book of the series on Ebay, in a single month

So I have no need for them, since I already got the English versions. But I'm curious: what made you start?

[Varunwe]

Same here, I also started with GotM and CoD in Dutch from the library. Fortunately my English was good enough to immediately continue with the other books in English.

I was seriously annoyed with the amount of Duiker/Denker mistakes in the Dutch translation of CoD

[Mcflury]

Ozymandiac, on Jan 21 2009, 04:46 PM, said:

Wow Dfesdefu, that's one helluva job! I'm Dutch as well (maar laten we hier maar Engels praten), and also started with those two books..
The library had GotM and CoD in Dutch, and then it suddenly ended.. Pretty dissapointing. Then, over 5 years later, I remembered them, and bought every book of the series on Ebay, in a single month

So I have no need for them, since I already got the English versions. But I'm curious: what made you start?

Aye, I actually had about the same story, though I went through a bit (if only a little) more trouble.

First off, I went to search for those books in dutch all over the e-web and actually found the third book, MoI, had been translated in dutch too, however, they only released that book in such a small amount (a few 100 copies I think) it's rather impossible to get your hands on them. Only then I started eBaying for the English books, never regretted it since.

On a positive side by the way, I noticed many book stores in Belgium have a new print of Deadhouse Gates in stores, which basically means the distributor is trying to see how well they sell now (since first time round they had to stop translating etc because nobody in the dutch countries bought the books).

Ah well, in the end my advice for these books is to actually read them in English. The language isn't too hard (sure, I'm not gonna pretend I understand every single freaking word, but you get the big picture, and you train a foreign language by reading them... winwin ) and I believe you'll get a better hang of jokes and stuff when you read them in english (a thing that sometimes gets lost in translation)

On a plus side for the translation however: if they were translated in dutch I'd be able to recommend to a lot more people. I know quite a few who love to read fantasy, but they're afraid of the huge english books that make the MBotF. If they were all translated in dutch they might actually be more inclined to read them.

[T'renn]

Jup, got the same, so bought part 3-8 in english as well as Nok and RotCG, but good news, Luitingh has started, redoing the series, with book 3 on the way, called in Dutch, "In de ban van de woestijn"

Also Odd

English name Meulenhof Luitingh
Gardens on the moon Het Malazijnse Rijk Tuinen op de Maan
Deadhouse Gates De poorten van het Dodenhuis Het rijk der zeven steden
Memories of Ice In de ban van de woestijn

This post has been edited by Imperial High Mage Tayschrenn: 23 January 2009 - 07:30 AM

[Ozymandiac]

Imperial High Mage Tayschrenn, on Jan 23 2009, 08:29 AM, said:

Memories of Ice In de ban van de woestijn

Haha, hilarious

[For the non-Dutch people: I'll talk Dutch for a moment, since it's something only Dutch can understand..]

Ik snap niet dat ze de oorspronkelijke titel, die ik vrij treffend vindt, zo verneukt hebben.. Ik vraag me dan wel eens af of je de vertalers, die met zo'n titel op komen dagen, het wel toe kunt vertrouwen jouw boeken te vertalen.

[Mcflury]

Ozymandiac, on Jan 24 2009, 02:45 PM, said:

Imperial High Mage Tayschrenn, on Jan 23 2009, 08:29 AM, said:

Memories of Ice In de ban van de woestijn

Haha, hilarious

[For the non-Dutch people: I'll talk Dutch for a moment, since it's something only Dutch can understand..]

Ik snap niet dat ze de oorspronkelijke titel, die ik vrij treffend vindt, zo verneukt hebben.. Ik vraag me dan wel eens af of je de vertalers, die met zo'n titel op komen dagen, het wel toe kunt vertrouwen jouw boeken te vertalen.

And because English readers should also be allowed to get this, I'll translate it

First off, if we literally translate the dutch title for 'memories of ice' (which is in dutch: in de ban van de woestijn) back to english it says: 'enchanted by the desert'

What Ozy said:
"I don't get how they could fuck up the original title, which I find rather moving, that much... I sometimes wonder whether the translators, who show up with a title like that, are to be trusted to translate your books or not."

I must say I agree with Ozy. I can never stand it if a title of a book loses its complete meaning in translation. Sometimes of course a translator has no other choice but to create a new, weird title (if for instance hte title holds a word that cannot be translated easily in another language... like the german Weltschmerz), but that is most obviously not the case in this book. (decent dutch title would be: 'Herinneringen van (het) ijs'

[Ozymandiac]

Indeed McFlury.

For the English-speaking people: the title is not just ridiculous (there is no desert), but it is crappy for a second reason.
When Lord of the Rings was translated in Dutch, it was named 'In de ban van de Ring', which means, as you might have guessed: 'Enchanted by the Ring'. I have always found this a bad translation. If Tolkien named his book 'Lord of the Rings', then it should be translated as such. You are paid to translate, not to improve the book. But that's another discussion
In any case, the new translators thought it would be funny to make the new title similar to the LOTR one.. Or they're just lacking proper working brains.

This post has been edited by Ozymandiac: 24 January 2009 - 03:49 PM

[Dfesdefu]

Guess there's no need for me then
Good i'm much too busy reading. Almost through midnight tides by now.
The translated title of memories of ice is ridiculous, it should be herinneringen aan ijs nondeju!
Greetings Dutch-Belgo-Malazans all over our pity realm!

[Tapper]

Actually, iirc, somewhere way, way back SE praised the dutch hardback versions - the two then released.
I posted a thread about the change of titles in the Inn, btw - never knew we had this many fellow dutchies on the forum - thought myself and Osric (who stayed only for a short while) were the only ones .

[polle]

Some information: Luitingh will be translating the entire series into Dutch under the name 'Spel der goden'

and the first three novels are out already

[Tapper]

polle, on Mar 2 2009, 09:18 AM, said:

Some information: Luitingh will be translating the entire series into Dutch under the name 'Spel der goden'

and the first three novels are out already

aye, saw them in the stores. The titles and the series' title was what made me make the post in the inn re. translations - I think the Book of the Fallen becoming game of gods is a try to latch onto George Martin but fails to convey a lot of the tragedy in the books.

[Ouki]

At first I was happy to see the series back in the belgian bookstores, but the translation of the titles and the name of the series gave me the creeps. And man the covers are really ugly and unimaginative!

The first translation by Meulenhof had a bit creative covers, and at least one reference to the 'Malazan' word (The title of the first book "Het Malazijnse rijk").
The series revolve all about the Malazan empire, but the translators of Luitingh managed to rape the series name.

I even took al look inside one of the new translations and IMO the translation is really awfull, I had the same feeling when I read a page of a dutch translated StarWars novel. Some terms are better left untouched, you don't want to translate "lightsaber" in dutch without sounding ridiculous, same here for "warren", "high fist", etc...

I'm just glad I read the series in english, but I'm curious if someone who read it in dutch will find it as good as we do...
If so I'll recommend it in dutch anyway to the not so fluent english readers.

Greetings,

Ouki