Snow

Yesterday evening it started snowing heavily and today the langscape is covered by this white "duvet". It is very pretty outside.

Last night, while out in the snow, I kept humming a childhood song "Det snør, det snør"This song is from the Norwegian translation of the Winnie-the-Pooh book The House at Pooh Corner. Norwegians have taken Winnie-the-Pooh, or Ole Brum as his Norwegian name is, to their harts. This has nothing to do with the Disney-fication of Winnie-the-Pooh, but to the marvelous translation made by Thorbjørn Egner several decades ago. Egner is a well known Norwegian childrens author and his voice is well known from radio where he read from his own books and sang. When translating Winnie-the-Pooh he also made tunes to the poems that Pooh is said to be singing in the book and these have become a part of Norwegian general knowledge.

The poem is like this in English:

The more it
SNOWS-tiddely-pom,
The more it
GOES-tiddely-pom
The more it
GOES-tiddely-pom
On
Snowing.

And nobody
KNOWS-tiddely-pom,
How cold my
TOES-tiddely-pom
How cold my
TOES-tiddely-pom
Are
Growing.

(A.A.Milne, 1928)

In Norwegian it run like this:

Det snør, det snør,
tiddeli bom.
Det er det det gjør,
tiddeli bom.
Nå snør det mye mer enn før
tiddeli bom og huttemei tu.

Så kaldt det er,
tiddeli bom.
Jeg kjenner det her,
tiddeli bom.
Jeg kjenner det på mine tær,
tiddeli bom og huttemei tu. (T.Egner)

I have not come across anyone in Britain that knows this poem by heart, but I think any Norwegian can sing the song. When reading Umberto Eco's Mouse or Rat? on translation I was reminded on the fact that translation is not only between two languages, but also between two cultures, making the text understandable in the translated context. Egner has to a large extent made Ole Brum a part of the Norwegian culture and Ole Brum seems to have a life of his own independent of Winnie-the-Pooh. Has the translator done to good a job when this happens?

Does anyone know other books or characters that has its own life after translation?

Comments

[David (TEFL Smiler)]

The only thing I can think of off-hand - and it isn't exactly the same sort of thing as you're writing about - is an English film called 'Dinner for One' (or something like that). Most people in Britain have never heard of it, although it has been on TV a couple of times in the last decade.

In Germany, however, everybody knows it, as it's on German TV every New Year's Eve. I remember German friends being shocked that I and some other Brits had never heard of it, as most Germans seem able to quote certain parts of the dialogue verbatim. (I think it's dubbed into German apart from just a few significant lines, which are left in English. If I remember correctly, they're something like "Cheerio, Miss Daisy", which makes a lot of Germans think it's typical to say 'cheerio' instead of 'cheers' in English!)

[ksbrorson]

I know which film you mean. I cannot remember the English title, but in Norway it is on TV every 23. December as "Grevinnen og hovmesteren". No Christmas without it, and lots of people know it by heart.

And the lady is "Miss Sophy".

[des]

Frank Sinatra's (other) theme song "My Way" started life as Paul Anka's translation of Claude François's
Comme d'habitude.

Bonus link: The sad story of the rival translation that didn't make it.

As for Winnie the Pooh - I recognise the poem, but it would need a tune to catch on. I can sing the Disney version of "I'm just a little black rain cloud/hovering over the honey-tree", if that counts?

[ksbrorson]

I have never seen the Disney version of Winnie-the-Pooh. It was never a part of my childhood and I now try to avoid it. However, I think you are right that a catchy tune is what one need to be famous.