English translations of Asterix

All the ''Asterix'' stories, created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, have been translated into English. The vast majority of the albums were translated by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge. Their first volume, '' Asterix the Gaul'', was published by Brockhampton Press in 1969. Bell retired in 2016 due to ill health and died in 2018; Hockridge died in 2013. Adriana Hunter currently serves as translator, with ''Asterix and the Chariot Race'' being her debut.

Translating names

In the ''Asterix'' stories, many of the original French names are humorous due to their absurdity. For example, the bard is ''Assurancetourix'' (''assurance tous risques'' or "comprehensive insurance"), the translation of which is pointless since the bard has no connection to insurance of any kind – it is the silliness that makes it humorous. To maintain the spirit and flow of the story the translators change the joke in the name to a comment on the character. Thus in the English language edition the bard's name is ''Cacofonix'' which is an allusion to the term ''cacophony'' (a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds), since the central trait of the bard character is that the Gauls all hate listening to his music.

This happens in the original as well, as with ''Geriatrix'' (French: ''Agecanonix'' – canonical age – a French expression meaning very old or ancient), but it is not common, while absurd names in English, such as ''Dubius Status'', are reserved for minor or one-story characters. Fictional place names however tend to be equally silly in all translations, for example the four camps (castra) which surround Asterix's village: Compendium, Aquarium, Laudanum and Totorum (Tot o' rum, colloquial English for shot of rum) – in French this camp is called "Babaorum", a pun on ''baba au rhum'' or rum baba, a popular French pastry. (In one of the American translations, one of these camps is named Nohappimedium.)

Lost in translation

Bell and Hockridge were widely praised for their rendition of the English language versions, maintaining the spirit and humour of the French original even when direct translation is impossible – as it often is when translating puns between languages which are not closely related. A good example occurs in '' Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield'' when Obelix redistributes the water in the spa pools by diving in, the other guests complain and the druid in charge arrives asking Vitalstatistix, "Where are your Gauls?" In the original French he responds ''Mes Gaulois sont dans la pleine'' ("My Gauls are in the full one") which is a play on a famous (in French) quote ''Les Gaulois sont dans la plaine'' ("The Gauls are on the plain") which sounds exactly the same, though not in English. Instead the translated reply is "Pooling your resources" (the water), a clever double entendre on a common phrase even though the original pun is lost.

Sometimes, nothing of the original joke is salvageable. In '' Asterix in Britain'', there is a scene in Londinium where a greengrocer argues with a buyer; in the next panel, Obelix says (in French), "Why is that man wearing a melon?" This relies on the fact that the French word for melon is ''also'' the name for the iconic British bowler hat; with no way to convey this in the English translation, in the British edition Obelix says, "I say, Asterix, I think this bridge is falling down" (a reference to the children's rhyme "London Bridge Is Falling Down"), leaving the original joke incomplete. In the preceding panel, the reply of the British man was, in some publications of the book, "Rather, old fruit!"; a good pun and typical of the way the British address each other in ''Asterix in Britain''. In the same album, much of the humor came from Goscinny's high-fidelity rendition of the English language ''using French words''. This, of course, is totally lost by re-translation into English, but compensated for by making the British characters speak in an antiquated, early-twentieth-century style.

Sometimes, the translators even go further and add their own humor when it is appropriate. An example of this is in '' Asterix and the Goths'', where a group of Goths who kidnapped Getafix run puzzled through a forest populated by Romans looking for Asterix and Obelix, who they think are responsible for the kidnapping. In the original, the Goth chief says "Faut pas chercher à comprendre", meaning "We shouldn't try to understand", a common French phrase with no particular pun attached. In the English version, the chief instead comments "Ours is not to reason why", a reference to "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, which states in its third stanza "Theirs not to reason why/Theirs but to do and die".

Comparison of names of major characters

In earlier translations, such as in ''Valiant'' and ''Ranger''/''Look and Learn'' (see below), other versions of names have appeared.

Other English-language translations and versions

''Valiant'' comic

An edited-down version of ''Asterix the Gaul'' appeared in ''Valiant'', a boys' comic published by ''Fleetway Publications'', beginning in the issue dated 16 November 1963. It appeared in colour on the back page. Set in the Britain of 43AD, the strip was originally called ''Little Fred and Big Ed''. Little Fred and stonemason Big Ed lived in the village of Nevergivup which was surrounded by eight Roman camps: Harmonium, Cranium, Pandemonium, Premium, Rostrum, Aquarium, Maximum and Laudanum. Their druid was called Hokus Pokus. As the story progresses and Obelix is absent from the action, the strip was renamed ''Little Fred, the Ancient Brit with Bags of Grit''. The story concluded in the issue dated 4 April 1964.

''Ranger'' magazine

''Ranger'' was a British magazine for boys published in 1965 and 1966. It included a version of ''Asterix and the Big Fight'' with the action transferred to Britain. Beginning in issue one, the strip was called ''Britons Never, Never, Never Shall Be Slaves!'' with Asterix renamed Beric the Bold and Obelix being called Son of Boadicea. They are referred to as the henchmen of Chief Caradoc and Son of Boadicea has a dog named Fido. Their druid is called Doric. The story concluded in issue 40 at which point ''Ranger'' was merged with ''Look and Learn'' magazine. The first combined issue, number 232, saw the beginning of a version of ''Asterix and Cleopatra'' called ''In the Days of Good Queen Cleo''.

William Morrow

In 1970, William Morrow published English translations (by Bell and Hockridge) in hardback of three Asterix albums for the American market. These were '' Asterix the Gaul'', '' Asterix and Cleopatra'' and '' Asterix the Legionary''. Sales were modest so it was discontinued after the third.

''National Geographic''

In their May 1977 issue, the ''National Geographic'' featured an article titled "The Celts: Europe's Founders". The article featured a section called ''Vive Les Celts'' devoted to ''Asterix'' with a comic strip exclusively drawn for the magazine. The inclusion of the article was an attempt by Asterix's creator to make the character well known in the United States. The strip, which was the first to ever appear in the publication, was later reprinted in ''Asterix and the Class Act''.

American newspaper syndication

From November 1977 until early 1979, five albums and the beginning of a sixth were serialized in syndicated form in a number of North American newspapers. Since these were printed as part of the standard daily comics, and were broken into separately licensed but concurrent daily and Sunday strips, the art needed considerable reworking. This required editing a lot of the dialog. In addition, a number of names, jokes, and pieces of art were further changed to be more politically correct or idiomatic for the newspapers' family-oriented audience. The results were very different from the original translations. Moreover, the selected albums appeared in essentially random order. The experiment came to an end after less than a year and a half.

An introduction to the series ran from Monday, November 14, 1977 to Sunday, November 27, 1977. Papers that started with ''Cleopatra'' ran an abridged introduction starting Monday, February 20, 1978.

The stories which appeared were
* " Asterix the Gladiator" from November 28, 1977 to February 26, 1978
* " Asterix and Cleopatra" from February 27 to May 28, 1978
* " Asterix and the Great Crossing" from May 29 to August 27, 1978
* " Asterix and the Big Fight" from August 28 to November 26, 1978
* " Asterix in Spain" from November 27, 1978 to February 25, 1979 (however, most papers had dropped it well before the final date)
* " Asterix in Britain" began February 26, 1979 in a very few papers including the ''Windsor Star'', where it last appeared March 10

Transitions between stories were made from the Thursday or Friday of the final week of a story until the following Monday (including the Sunday color comic), devoting part of each strip to the ending story and part to the upcoming story.

American albums

Robert Steven Caron translated five volumes into American English for Dargaud's international branch. These are '' Asterix and the Great Crossing'' in 1984, '' Asterix the Legionary'' and '' Asterix at the Olympic Games'' in 1992, and '' Asterix in Britain'' and '' Asterix and Cleopatra'' in 1995. For copyright purposes, most of the names of the characters names were changed. With Asterix never achieving great popularity in the United States, this series of re-translations was halted after these albums, leading to some confusion among the few American fans of the series (the other volumes though to '' Asterix in Belgium'' were issued with the British translation by Dargaud in the same market).

In 2019, ''The New York Times'' reported that new Americanized translations of Asterix would be published by Papercutz, starting in May 2020. The new translator is Joe Johnson (Dr. Edward Joseph Johnson), a Professor of French and Spanish at Clayton State University. The Papercutz editions refer to the village druid by his original French name of Panoramix, and various other minor characters have been renamed as well. Papercutz publishes omnibus volumes in chronological order, with each book containing three albums. Papercutz also published the most recent albums, ''Asterix and the Chieftain's Daughter'' and ''Asterix and the Griffin'', as solo books.

References

External links

English and American edition comparisons

The ''Asterix'' Annotations
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{{Asterix

Asterix
Asterix, English translations of
Translation-related lists