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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince |
Chapter 18: Birthday Surprises
(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 character is shown in parentheses.
| Chinese (Mainland) | 生日的意外 Shēngrì de yìwài |
生日
shēngrì
= 'birthday'. 的 de = connecting particle 意外 yìwài = 'surprise, accident, mishap'. |
Birthday surprise/mishap |
| Chinese (Taiwan) | 意外的生日禮 Yìwài de shēngrì-lǐ |
意外 yìwài = 'unexpected, accidental'. 的 de = connecting particle 生日 shēngrì = 'birthday'. 禮 lǐ ＝ ‘present' |
The unexpected birthday present(s) |
| Japanese | たまげた誕生日 Tamageta tanjō-bi |
たまげた tamageta = 'astonishing, startling, appalling'. (Past tense of たまげる tamageru. The function of the past tense here is to modify the following noun, not to indicate past tense.) 誕生日 tanjō-bi = 'birthday'. |
The startling birthday |
| Vietnamese | Những bất ngờ sinh nhật | những = plural marker bất ngờ = 'unexpected, sudden, unprepared'. sinh nhật (生日) = 'birthday'. |
Some birthday surprises |
A birthday surprise in English is normally something pleasant, like a surprise party thrown by your friends. In this case, Rowling is being a little ironic because the surprises that befall Ron on his birthday are anything but pleasant -- chocolates with love potion in them and a poisoned drink.
The Chinese translator does not attempt to pretend that the 'surprises' are pleasant. The word 意外 yìwài can mean something unforeseen or unexpected -- in other words, a 'surprise' -- but it also has the meaning of 'mishap, accident'. Chinese readers are thus somewhat better forewarned.
The Taiwanese translator specifically refers to unexpected presents (禮 lǐ), which are the 'surprises' being referred to.
The Japanese translator does not attempt to refer to a 'surprise' in any form, instead using the word たまげた tamageta to indicate a startling or appalling birthday.
The Vietnamese translator refers literally to 'birthday surprises' or 'surprises of the birthhday'.
(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 17 |
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