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Album Titles: What do the original French titles of the albums mean in English?

rodney
Member
#1 · Posted: 19 Apr 2012 01:35
Hi,

Can someone tell me the Engliah meanings of the original French titles?
I know 'Red Sea Sharks' was actually named 'Coke en Stock' which I think means - Coke on Board.

On the subject, do you agree with the renaming of these titles or do you think the translators should have kept the original namesake?
skater95
Member
#2 · Posted: 19 Apr 2012 02:04
Explorers on the Moon was originally titled "On a marché sur la lune", which translates to "We walked on the moon".
I think The Shooting Star was "L'Étoile mysterieuse" or "The mysterious star".

In regards to your second question, I think the changes were mostly for the best, especially The Red Sea Sharks, since "coke" has a very different meaning today and most might not realize what the coke that they refer to in the book actually is.
mct16
Member
#3 · Posted: 19 Apr 2012 02:12
Most of the English titles matched the French ones, but there were exceptions, albeit very minor in some ways:

Le Sceptre d'Ottokar ("Ottokar's Sceptre") became King Ottokar's Sceptre;

L'Étoile mystèrieuse ("The Mysterious Star") became The Shooting Star;

Le Temple du soleil ("The Temple of the Sun") became Prisoners of the Sun;

On a marché sur la lune ("We Walked on the Moon") became Explorers on the Moon;

Coke en stock ("Coke in Stock") became The Red Sea Sharks;

Les Bijoux de la Castafiore ("The Castafiore Jewels") became The Castafiore Emerald;

Vol 714 pour Sydney ("Flight 714 for Sydney") became Flight 714.

I think that the translators did all right in translating the titles, though I've always thought that Prisoners of the Sun was a bit odd, given that they are prisoners of worshippers of the sun rather than of the sun itself.

In a roundabout way I have always found Coke en stock rather awkward to pronounce in French, since "stock" is not a French word.
Hergé made a very strange choice of title there.
In that case The Red Sea Sharks does sound more exciting and menacing.
Balthazar
Moderator
#4 · Posted: 19 Apr 2012 19:56
mct16:
I've always thought that "Prisoners of the Sun" was a bit odd, given that they are prisoners of worshippers of the sun rather than of the sun itself.

Well maybe, but Prisoners of the Sun has a kind of poetic ring to it and sort of makes sense in a symbolic or metaphorical way, whereas "Prisoners of the Sun Worshipers" might sound as if Tintin and Haddock had been kidnapped by obsessive sunbathers at a beach resort! ;-)

But I know you weren't really suggesting that title variation! A direct translation of the original - Temple of the Sun - certainly works fine, but maybe the translators thought that the word Prisoners sounded more gripping, or that the word Temple sounded a bit too occultish for the British children's book market back then. I'm just guessing, I should stress!
jock123
Moderator
#5 · Posted: 19 Apr 2012 23:55
The original French titles are actually given under the entry for each volume in our Guide to the Official Tintin Books.

According to Michael Turer at the Greenwich Conference, the titles were indeed changed to make them more exciting if possible - hence the substitution of "prisoners" for "temple", as Balthazar surmised.
mct16:
they are prisoners of worshippers of the sun rather than of the sun itself.

The Sapa Inca, the de facto emperor of the Incan nation, and equivalent to the High Inca of the books, was held to be divine, and the "son of the Sun"; he was the Sun manifested on Earth, so it's not really a stretch to say that if he held someone prisoner, then the Sun was holding them prisoner.

mct16:
"stock" is not a French word.

No, but it is a word used in French, and can be found in a French dictionary (e.g. Larousse, in exactly the same way as many "French" words are now standard in English. It's used in commerce, and may have specific use in maritime circles.
Balthazar
Moderator
#6 · Posted: 20 Apr 2012 01:10
The Shooting Star is an odd title, since whatever the rock from space is, it doesn't seem to be a shooting star in the common meaning of the word: a meteor or meteorite that burns brightly and briefly as it enters and passes through the Earth's atmosphere.

The object in the story is already burning brightly when it's still out in space, more like a comet would, but it clearly isn't a comet either.

The French title's use of mystéreuse is certainly apt, but describing the object as a star (étoile) isn't really accurate either.
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#7 · Posted: 20 Apr 2012 12:07
Balthazar:
The French title's use of mystérieuse is certainly apt, but describing the object as a star (étoile) isn't really accurate either.

Professor Phostle said it was a ball of fire ("a VA-A-A-A-AST ball of fire!") and also "a gigantic mass of matter in fusion", which does pretty much describe a star.

But quite what a star would be doing moving through the solar system and passing so close to earth is rather "mysterious"...!

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