Chapter 8: Snape Victorious

 

(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)	斯内普如愿以偿 Sīnèipǔ rú yuàn yǐ cháng	斯内普 Sīnèipǔ = 'Snape'. 如愿以偿 rú yuàn yǐ cháng = 'have one's wish fulfilled'.	Snape's wish fulfilled
Chinese (Taiwan)	石內卜得逞 Shínèibǔ déchéng	石內卜 Shínèibǔ = Snape'. 得逞 déchéng = 'succeed, prevail'.	Snape prevails
Japanese	勝ち誇るスネイプ Kachi-hokoru Suneipu	勝ち誇る kachi-hokoru = 'be victorious' (勝つ katsu to win' + 誇る hokoru 'to be proud'). スネイプ Suneipu = 'Snape'.	Victorious Snape
Vietnamese	Thầy Snape đắc thắng	thầy = 'teacher'. Snape = 'Snape'. đắc thắng (得勝) = 'win victory, score victory'.	Teacher Snape wins victory

This refers to Snape's victory in gaining the post of teacher of Defence against the Dark Arts.

The Mainland translator refers not to 'victory' for Snape, but the fact that Snape achieved a long-cherished wish.

The term used is 如愿以偿 rú yuàn yǐ cháng. This a pithy expression based on Classical Chinese, a very rich class of vocabulary and one more likely than any other to cause problems for the foreign learner. Chinese speakers are apt to come out with an endless store of expressions in situations where a foreign learner can only lamely come up with an everyday phrase. In this case, the meaning is: 如 rú = 'as', 愿 yuàn = 'want, desire', 以 yǐ = 'for', 偿 cháng = 'fulfil, satisfy'; 'as desired in fulfilment'.

The Taiwanese translator uses 得逞 déchéng, meaning 'to succeed, prevail, have one's way'.

The Vietnamese translation uses đắc thắng, meaning 'to be victorious, win victory, win the day, carry the day'.

(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 7

Chapter 9