Harry Potter and the Gutenberg Mystery
"Yes, yes, yes, but luckily I'd stationed Mr Tibbles under a car just in case, and Mr Tibbles came and warned me, but by the time I got to your house you'd gone — and now — oh what's Dumbledore going to say? You!" she shrieked at Dudley, still supine on the alley floor. "Get your fat bottom off the ground, quick!"
And now, this:
"Ja, ja, ja, aber zum Gl?be ich Mr. Tibbles unter einem Auto platziert — nur f? Fall — und Mr. Tibbles ist gekommen und hat mich gewarnt. Aber als ich bei deinem Haus war, warst du schon weg — und jetzt — oh, was wird Dumbledore bloߠsagen? Du!" kreischte sie Dudley an, der immer noch im Hausflur lag. "Heb deinen fetten Hintern vom Boden, los schnell!"
An excerpt there from "A Peck of Owls", chapter two of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the book that our planet is reading these days. If you speak French but not English, however, you'll have to wait until December for the translation. If, on the other hand, you read German, you've only got to wait until November. Think about that for a moment. Harry Potter is omnipresent in the media and you must wait for another three or four months to get a shot of Hogwarts magic in your native language. Well, that's simply asking too much say a group of German Potter fans so they've taken matters into their own hands, and using the power of the net, they've set up Harry-auf-deutsch, a site devoted to a team translation of JK Rowling's latest work.
The site claims that 1,000 Potter fans are working on the English-to-German translation of Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, "because English isn't really that difficult". Those involved, pick part of a chapter, usually five pages, and send their finished work via mail to the site. If it's a useable translation, they get the translations of the other community members in return. It's simple, effective, fun and non-commercial.
Carlsen Verlag, the publisher with the Harry Potter rights in Germany, doesn't quite get the "fun" part of the project. Their lawyers are said to be pondering the matter of copyright infringement at the moment. Writs may fly. Given the mania for more Potter, one might think that Carlsen would, at least, make an effort to channel this amazing energy on its dedicated Harry site, but the first impression one gets from looking at it is, well, YAWN. A boring countdown to 8 November, the date the volume appears in German? C'mon, you can do better than that Carlsen. I mean, I could do better than that.
Clearly, there's something amiss in the land of Gutenberg. That the translation, printing and distribution of the book of the year have to wait more than four months after the appearance of the original is flabbergasting. Aware of the time lag, Carlsen should be using the web more imaginatively to tap into the anticipation of the fans. It would be a very Muggles thing to do if Carlsen were now to outlaw the amateur site that's catering for the needs of those willing to translate the book for fun. I know that Project Gutenberg is restricted by copyright laws from doing anything in a case like this, but someone connected with the project should be keeping an eye on this story.
"Keep your wand out," she told Harry as they entered Wisteria Walk. "Halte deinen Stab gezogen", sagte sie zu Harry, als sie den Glyzinienweg betrat."
