Harry Potter is not just a phenomenon in the English-speaking world but also in countries like China where twin sisters Ma Ainong and Ma Aixin have translated the adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for Chinese readers.

The first print of 800,000 copies of the simplified Chinese language edition of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince," which was released in mid-October, sold out within just two weeks. The publisher, the People's Literature Publishing House, has placed an additional print order of 200,000 copies.

Born translators

The twins were born into a family of translators in 1964. Their grandfather was a senior translator at the renowned Commercial Press. Established in 1897, the press is one of China's first modern publishing organizations.

The women satisfied their love for literature by devouring classical works in their childhood. While in just second grade, Ma Aixin was already reading "A Dream of the Red Mansions" (Hong Lou Meng) a novel that scares off most adults with its length and hidden meanings.

After graduating from secondary school, both girls chose foreign languages as their undergraduate major. The older one Ma Ainong headed to Nanjing University, which is located in their hometown, and the younger one to the Beijing Foreign Studies University.

During her sophomore year at university, Ma Ainong chanced upon "Anne of Green Gables," a children's book by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery first published in 1908. She was so impressed that she wanted to immediately translate it into Chinese.

The following summer vacation saw her busy at work. The granddad flew down to Nanjing to help his grand-daughter's first ever translation, by going through it word by word.

After graduating from university, Ma Ainong became an English teacher, and was later admitted to a graduate programme at Ma Aixin's Alma Mater. Now, she is an editor with the People's Literature Publishing House.

Ma Aixin became an interpreter after graduating from university, worked for the United Nations for half a year, and now lives in the United States.

According to Ma Ainong, it took the twins only one-and-a-half months to finish translating the sixth instalment of Harry Potter, or "Hali Bote," as the boy wizard is called in Chinese.

The Potter challenge

Ma Ainong was in charge of the translation of the first 17 chapters, while Ma Aixin worked on the rest of the 13.

"Although we hurried to work every day, it was still an enjoyment to immerse ourselves in the magic and mysterious wizard world created by Rowling," said Ma Ainong.

In her opinion, the Harry Potter series has some elements of Chinese wuxia (martial arts) novels, in terms of supernatural powers and the fight between good and evil.

Despite being twins, the women have their own unique translation styles. While Ma Ainong tends to weigh the use of every word, her sister prefers the overall sense to sharpen the language.

In the course of the Potter translation, every day the two made telephone calls and wrote e-mails to exchange views on the translation of certain words or paragraphs. They also conferred with translators of other languages on the Internet.

"The most difficult part," said Ma Ainong, "was the translation of the proper names Rowling uses for witchcraft. Of course, you cannot find entries for these words even in the most comprehensive dictionary."

For example, there are some interesting differences between the translations of "Firebolt" in the simplified Chinese language edition and the traditional Chinese language edition published in Taiwan Province.

In the fictional world of Harry Potter, a Firebolt is an advanced, professional flying broomstick. Harry was given a Firebolt by his godfather Sirius Black for Christmas after his old broomstick a Nimbus 2000 was destroyed by the Whomping Willow.

It is translated semantically in both editions. The traditional Chinese language edition translates it literally as "fire lightening bolt (huo shan dian), " while the simplified Chinese language edition uses "fire crossbow-arrow (huo nu jian)," which compares the broom to an arrow that has been shot from a crossbow.

(China Daily 11/19/2005 page9)