Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived
| Simplified Chinese (Mandarin: China) | ||
| 大难不死的男孩 Dànàn bù sǐ de nánhái |
大难不死 dànàn bù sǐ = 'great disaster not die'. 的 de = connecting particle 男孩 nánhái = 'male child' (boy). |
The Boy Who Did Not Die in a Disaster |
| Traditional Chinese (Mandarin: Taiwan) | ||
| 活下來的男孩 Huó-xiàlái de nánhái |
活 huó = 'to live'. 下來 -xiàlái = 'to come down, continue on down to the present'. 的 de = connecting particle 男孩 nánhái = 'male child' (boy). |
The Boy Who Lived On |
| Japanese | ||
| 生き残った男の子 Ikinokotta otoko-no-ko |
生き残る ikinokoru = 'survive, live' (た -ta Past tense). (生き残る is formed from 生きる ikiru = 'live' + 残る nokoru = 'remain'.) 男の子 otoko-no-ko = 'male child' (boy). |
The Boy Who Survived |
| Korean | ||
| 살아남은 아이 Salanameun ai |
살아남다 salanamda = 'survive, live through' (-은 -eun Past attributive). (살다 salda = 'live' + 남다 namda = 'remain') 아이 ai = 'baby, child, kid'. |
The Child Who Survived |
| Vietnamese (Chinese characters show etymology) | ||
| Đứa bé vẫn sống | đứa bé = 'boy' (đứa = classifier
for children, etc., bé = 'small/young'). vẫn = 'still'. sống = 'alive'. |
The Boy Who is Still Alive/The Boy is Still Alive |
| Mongolian (previous) | ||
| Ус уух хувьтай хүү Us uukh khuv'tai khüü |
ус us = 'water'. уух uukh = 'drink'. хувьтай khuv'tai = 'have a destiny'. ус уух хувьтай us uukh khuvtai = 'survive a dangerous situation'. хүү khüü = 'boy'. |
The Boy Who Survived |
| Mongolian (new) | ||
| Амьд үлдсэн хүү Am'd üldsen khüü |
амьд am'd = 'alive'. үлдэх üldekh 'remain' (Past tense). хүү khüü = 'boy'. |
The Boy Who Remained Alive |
This might just be the most famous chapter title in the Harry Potter series.
How is 'lived' translated?
In 'The Boy Who Lived', the word 'lived' has a rather special meaning, different from, say, 'Trolls lived in the mountains' or 'Witches lived in the sixteenth century'. Here it means to survive an accident or disaster, as when we say 'to live to tell the tale'. All the translations reflect this meaning (although the Vietnamese rather implies that Harry is not dead yet).
- The Mainland Chinese version uses the set phrase 大难不死 dànàn
bù sǐ 'great disaster not die', which is used for a lucky or miraculous escape from death. It is actually the first part of the Chinese proverb 大难不死必有后福 dànàn bù sǐ bì yǒu hòufú: 'After surviving a great disaster, one is bound to have good fortune in later years'.
- The previous Mongolian translation also uses an idiomatic expression, literally 'have a destiny to drink water' (ус уух хувьтай us uukh khuvtai), meaning 'to survive a dangerous situation'.
- The Chinese translation from Taiwan is more ordinary with 活下來 huó-xiàlái 'live and come down', which has the meaning 'live down to the present'.
- The Japanese translation uses the verb 生き残る iki-nokoru 'to survive'. This is a double-barrelled verb formed from 生きる ikiru 'to be alive' and 残る nokoru 'to remain'. Korean has exactly the same verbal compound, 살아남다 salanamda 'survive, live through' (살다 salda 'live' +
남다 namda 'remain').
- The new Mongolian translation translates the title as the boy 'who remained alive' (
амьд үлдсэн am'd üldsen 'remained alive').
- In the Vietnamese translation, vẫn sống means 'still alive'.
How is 'boy' translated?
All but the Korean translation render 'boy' as a 'male child'. The Korean uses the neutral word 아이 ai 'baby, child, kid'.
'Who lived' (relative clause)
Ah, relative clauses! Unbeknown to many English speakers, these are among the harder things for foreign learners to master. The following will mainly be of interest to people who like to see how different languages are structured.
The English structure is as follows:
- The relative clause 'who lived' describes 'the boy'.
- 'Who' is what is known as a relative pronoun. It stands in for 'the boy' in the clause, where it serves as the subject.
- The verb in the clause is in the past tense ('lived').
Showing this diagrammatically:
Noun ⤶Rel. pron. Verb past the boy ⤶ who lived None of the languages we cover here requires a relative pronoun. Unlike English the clause directly attaches to the noun.
In most languages of East Asia, descriptive (or 'adjectival') clauses come before the noun. The exception is Vietnamese, which places it after the noun, like English.
- Japanese, Korean, and Mongolian are very similar grammatically.
- The adjectival clause comes before the noun
- the verb comes at the end of the clause
- the verb directly modifies the noun -- no relative pronoun, and
- the verb carries tense (unlike Chinese, which usually omits it)
'survive' past⤷ 'boy' Japanese ikinokotta⤷ otoko no ko Korean salanameun⤷ ai Mongolian am'd üldsen⤷ khüü
This particular Korean verb ending, -은 -eun, occurs only before a noun.
Incidentally, these kinds of grammatical similarity helped prompt some linguists to assign these languages to the now largely discredited Altaic family of languages.
- Chinese puts the clause before the noun, as in Japanese, Korean, and Mongolian, but differs from them in:
- using the particle 的 de to link the clause to the noun
- not usually showing tense (or 'completed action') on the verb.
The Taiwanese translation is:
'survive' particle⤷ 'boy' Chinese (Taiwan) huó-xiàlái de⤷ nánhái
There is no tense on the verb. However, in this case the verb 活下來 huó-xiàlái has the suffix 下來 -xiàlái 'down come', indicating a past action continuing to the present. For an action continuing into the future, the suffix would be 下去 -xiàqù 'down go'.
The particle 的 de is a very versatile one. It's also used after ordinary adjectives (if they are longer than one syllable) and can show possession.
The Mainland Chinese translation uses a set proverb, 大难不死 dànàn bù sǐ 'great disaster not die', instead of an adjectival clause, but 的 de is still used to link it to the following noun:
proverb particle⤷ 'boy' Chinese (Mainland) dànàn bù sǐ de⤷ nánhái
The older Mongolian translation is slightly different. Ус уух хувьтай us uukh khuv'tai 'having the fate to drink water' has the meaning 'being fated to survive'. What is special about Mongolian is that the comitative case of the noun (-tai) can act just like an adjective. It has the meaning 'having' or 'with'.
survivefut.⤷ 'fate' having⤷ boy Mongolian us uukh⤷ khuv' -tai⤷ khüü Vietnamese puts modifiers after the noun. The modifying clause is adjectival, vẫn sống 'still alive' (vẫn 'still', sống 'alive'), which describes đứa bé 'boy'. There is no relative pronoun, which means that this is ambiguous between 'the boy who is still alive' and 'the boy is still alive'.
the boy ⤶ still alive Vietnamese đứa bé ⤶ vẫn sống (For brief notes on grammar, see Word order and other notes.)
(Korean appears thanks to "Hiro".)
(Detailed notes on the chapter can be found at Harry Potter Lexicon)
⇚ Title 