Reuters writer Andrej Shuksin, wrote

Reuters writer Andrej Shuksin, wrote a very interesting article about the big problems Russia has with its Harry Potter translations. Here are some excerpts:

Harry Potter, trainee wizard, or Hamlet, Prince of Denmark? That was the dilemma facing Maria Litvinova, Russia’s top translator and world-renowned expert on Shakespeare, when she agreed to set aside her cherished research into the Bard of Avon to translate the tale of a bespectacled wannabe wizard.

Litvinova says she has absolutely unorthodox views on Shakespeare and it is her life’s goal to prove her point. But she felt it was no less urgent to give Russian children the best of Harry Potter who has so mesmerized children the world over. “But the book is such a gem that it was unbearable for me to think that the magic of the language would be lost on Russian readers,” she said.

Russian children have been treated so far to only the first of the four-volume saga. Rosman, publisher of the Russian-language edition, soon started to receive calls from parents distressed by the poor quality of the translation. “Parents complained that their children were devouring the book — and the not-so-good Russian it was written in,” Litvinova said. And Rosman [the Russian publisher] asked me to help them with the ‘Chamber of Secrets’, the second book, which went on sale in Litvinova’s translation on July 1.