Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
Chapter 5: The Whomping Willow
(For the romanisation of Chinese and Japanese, see Transliteration. To understand the writing systems of CJV, see Writing Systems. For word order notes, see Word Order)
Where a Vietnamese word has been borrowed from Chinese, the original Chinese characters are shown in parentheses.
| Chinese (Mainland) | 打人柳 Dǎ-rén-liǔ |
打人 dǎ rén = 'hit person'. 柳 liǔ = 'willow'. |
Person-hitting willow |
| Chinese (Taiwan) | 渾拚柳 Hún-pīn-liǔ |
渾 hún = 'stupid, unsophisticated'. 拚 pīn = 'go all out, be ready to risk all (in a fight, in work, etc.)'. 柳 liǔ = 'willow'. |
Blindly fighting willow |
| Japanese | 暴れ柳 Abare-yanagi |
暴れ abare- = 'running amok, riotous' (from the verb 暴れる abareru 'behave furiously, run amok'.) 柳 yanagi = 'willow'. |
The violent/rioting willow |
| Vietnamese | Cây liễu roi | cây = 'tree'. liễu (柳) = 'willow'. roi = 'whip, lash, bamboo cane'. |
The whip willow tree |
The English is based on 'Weeping Willow', playfully modified to 'Whomping Willow' (thanks to Randolph Fritz for pointing this out).
The Mainland Chinese version chooses to render the meaning of the name ('person-hitting willow').
The Taiwanese version tries to render the English word 'whomping' phonetically (hún-pīn) while hinting at the English meaning. The name means something like 'willow that struggles stupidly'.
The Japanese is a good attempt to capture the nature of the willow in a natural-sounding expression. In fact, 暴れ柳 abare-yanagi is an echo of the construction しだれ柳 shidare-yanagi ('weeping willow'), being a similar structure with the same number of syllables (Thanks to Ramon Escamilla for pointing this out).
The Vietnamese likens the willow to a bamboo cane or whip.
(A summary of this chapter can be found at Harry Potter Facts.) Detailed notes on the chapter can be found at Harry Potter Lexicon)
 Chapter 4 |
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