Tintin Forums

Hello
If you translate Flight 714 from French it says Flight 714 to Sydney.
Why is the English not a direct translation?

There are all sorts of differences in the English titles - e.g. Prisoners rather than Temple of the Sun; most were done by the translators - in consultation with Hergé - in order to increase the impact for sales purposes.
I suspect that the removal of Sydney was to make the title even more mysterious, but I don't have proof of this...

Carried to new thread from Tintin at the London Barbican, Christmas 2005:

Harrock n roll
The Young Vic's marketing team have created a downloadable "resource pack"

edcharlesadams noted:

...has anyone noticed how on the last page, the text on the bookcover of Flight 714 reads as Flight 714 to Sydney? Presumably this came from publicity material from Egmont, could they be thinking of revising the title? Or has someone translated directly from the French without looking up the English version's true title?

Ed

I hadn't noticed that, how odd! I know that the thumbnail covers are made seperately rather than being straight reduced scans of the covers (you can tell because some of the lettering is at a smaller size - The Black Island for instance) However, it seems a bit of effort went into it with the small plane being moved to fit after the "to Sydney".

It seems a strange mistake to make and just as strange if they really are thinking of changing the title after nearly 40 years.

As reported by edcharlesadams in this thread, here's a first look at the Flight 714 to Sydney cover in colour, scanned from the back cover of the re-lettered Tibet.

It will be interesting to see if this comes to pass - remembering that Broken Ear has been shown as Tintin and the Broken Ear in the thumbnails for years, without ever reaching a full blown cover...

I was surprised that this change wasn't on the back of Congo: it must be very recent.

remembering that Broken Ear has been shown as Tintin and the Broken Ear in the thumbnails for years, without ever reaching a full blown cover

That has been corrected on the back of the newly re-lettered Tibet to read The Broken Ear. I'd swear to having seen a copy of Tintin and the Broken Ear once many years ago, but maybe I dreamed it!

Harrock n roll
I'd swear to having seen a copy of Tintin and the Broken Ear once many years ago, but maybe I dreamed it!
You know, I've never even considered that the thumbnail might have been correct when made, and that the cover was where the change was made. That's food for thought - perhaps there was a run like that...?

I was looking through my books last night, and going by the list of titles on the back, the Dutch version of the book is actually called Vlucht 741, without a Naar Sydney; perhaps MT&LL-C saw that, and thought it was a bit punchier?

Anyway, I'd imagine that the Dutch title came almost simultaneously with the French, so the dropping of the "...to Sydney" wasn't so much an English-language innovation after all. It's even possible that - when presented to foreign language publishers - documentation from Casterman suggested that Flight 714 was the title to go with...

Flight 714 to Sydney doesn't sound very good English to me. Like you said Jock, maybe the English translators thought it was an improvement to just be Flight 714.

the Dutch version of the book is actually called Vlucht 741, without a Naar Sydney

Good point jock (although I'm sure you mean 714).

I just checked our Tintinologist page for the book and the Sydney has been left out in several other languages; Afrikaans, Finnish, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Sinhalese, Vietnamese.
One or two of these editions have had their translations made from the English (I know Hebrew and Indonesian were, there may be others).

Anyway, I'd imagine that the Dutch title came almost simultaneously with the French, so the dropping of the "...to Sydney" wasn't so much an English-language innovation after all.

It's possible that MT and LLC saw the Dutch title, but it could just as well been the other way round as by this time (1968) Methuen were also releasing their books simultaneously with Casterman.