Confusions in Translation - Daniel's mom's funeral
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Confusions in Translation - Daniel's mom's funeral

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Yesterday, I finished reading "A Sombra do Vento", the Portuguese version of "The Shadow of the Wind". My method was to also listen to the German audiobook. That way, I didn't have to look up too many words while reading in Portuguese. Today, I started re-reading the first chapters in both Portuguese and German and realized that there was something strange in the translation.

The Portuguese version says that Daniel's mother was buried on his fifth birthday.

Enterráramo-la em Montjuic no dia do meu quinto aniversário. (p.5)

Some sentences later, he talks about the present, which is six years later, and he's still feeling the absence of his mother.

Seis anos depois, a ausência da minha mãe era para mim ainda uma miragem, um silêncio de gritos que ainda não aprendera a silenciar com palavras. (p.5)

When introducing Daniel to the doorman of The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, Senhor Sempere says that Daniel's almost eleven years old.

Está prestes a fazer onze anos, e um dia ficará a tomar conta da loja. (p.7)

The math works – eleven years minus six is five.

On the other hand, the German version suggests that her funeral was on his fourth birthday.

An meinem vierten Geburtstag beerdigten wir sie auf dem Friedhof des Montjuïc.

The present is also six years after the death of his mother.

Sechs Jahre später war das Fehlen meiner Mutter für mich noch immer eine Sinnestäuschung, eine schreiende Stille, die ich noch nicht mit Worten zum Verstummen zu bringen gelernt hatte.

And Daniel is introduced in the same way to the doorman – turning eleven soon.

»Er wird bald elf, und irgendwann übernimmt er das Geschäft.«

Interestingly enough, the math also works because Daniel's yet to be eleven – ten minus six is four. But since his eleventh birthday's so close, it's still a little bit strange.

I went to the Kindle store to get an excerpt of the English version. Here, Daniel's mother's funeral is also on the day of his fourth birthday.

We buried her in Montjuïc on my fourth birthday.

Six years later he and his father still miss her a lot.

Six years later my mother’s absence remained in the air around us, a deafening silence that I had not yet learned to stifle with words.

And, also in the English version, Daniel's introduced as about to turn eleven.

‘He’ll be eleven soon, and one day the shop will be his.’

Unfortunately, I only have the audiobook of the Spanish original in which Senhora Sempere was buried on Daniel's fifth birthday. Maybe someone can provide the citation.

To sum up, in the Spanish original (audiobook) and the Portuguese translation, the funeral was on his fifth birthday, while in the German and English versions, it happened the day Daniel turned four. Since this didn't occur in only one language, I'm asking myself if the translators did this on purpose and what their reasons were for changing this.

When is Daniel's mother's funeral in the other languages? Tell me in the comments!

\\Fontes

  • Image from Clker-Free-Vector-Images at Pixabay
  • Portuguese: Ruiz Zafón, Carlos. A Sombra do Vento. Grupo Planeta. Kindle-Version.
  • German: Zafón, Carlos Ruiz (2013-03-06T22:58:59). Der Schatten des Windes: Roman (Fischer Taschenbibliothek) (German Edition) . FISCHER E-Books. Kindle-Version.
  • English: (2009-04-15T23:58:59). The Shadow Of The Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Series Book 1). Orion. Kindle-Version.

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