Lost in translation

Sometimes the jokes made in French get lost when translated into another language. As someone who is working on a translation from French into a dialect, I know this all too well. Why this joke had to get lost however, I don’t understand. This is by no means a critique on the translations of Asterix by the way. See it more as a little insight into the difficulties our translators sometimes have to face.

In Asterix and the Goths our friends meet up with a British druid who is named Valuaddetax, at least that is what he is called in the English translation. In the original French story he is named Septantesix and comes from Belgium. Later during the contest of the druids in the Carnute forrest Septantesix, as I will call him, shows off his skills as a druid by brewing a potion that makes you invulnerable to pain. This fact is demonstrated by taking fries out of a caldron with glowing hot oil.

Belgicism

The first joke here, is the name of the druid: Septantesix. In standard French the word for seventy is  soixante-dix, which is literally sixty-ten. 76 is soixante-seize, 60+16. French counting can be a bit confusing at first. 80 is quatre-vingts (4×20) and 90 is quatre-vingt-dix (4×20 and 10). When you think this is strange, remember the Gettysburg Address, that starts with ‘four score and seven years ago’. The name of the druid is a Belgicism, becasue in Belgian French seventy is septante (seven is sept) and thus doesn’t use the 60+10 that standard French uses.

Anachronsim

The second joke here is the fact that Septantesix demonstrates how his potion works by taking a bunch of French fries (or should we call them Belgian fries) from a caldron of hot oil. Fries are made of potatoes which weren’t introduced in Europe until the 18th century.

By having a Belgian druid prepare “French” fries at least 1700 years before the introduction of the potatoe I think Goscinny and Uderzo aknowledge that they were indeed a Belgian invention. In fact, the cook in The Twelve Tasks of Asterix serves fries as well and they are rediscovered in Asterix in Belgium.

Valuaddetax

I really don’t see how the name Valuaddetax is a funny name for the druid. I get that the French name wouldn’t really be understood by English readers, but what is funny about VAT? In the American English translation the druid is named Frumthestix (from the sticks?) and he refers to the fries as Gaulish fries, as opposed to French fries, which makes a better joke in my opinion.

I have since learned that around the time when this album was translated V.A.T. was introduced in Britain that would have been on the mind of the people reading the book back then.

In the old Dutch translation the druid is called Tachtix, which is a play on tachting, the Dutch word for eighty. The fries are just refered to as ‘frietjes’ which is the Dutch word for fries. In newer Dutch translation his name is changed to Mannekepix (a play on the Dutch name of famous statue of a boy peeing), but that name was also the name of the chef in The Twelve Tasks of Asterix.

In the German translation the druids name is Spürnix and there is no joke made about the fries. There is a joke in the name, in German ‘spüre nichts’ means ‘I feel nothing’ and of course he brews a potion that makes you invulnerable to pain.

Invulernable to pain

How practical is the potion? It says it makes you invulnerable to pain, but doesn’t mention if it makes you invulnerable to the effects of pain. Does the hot oil just not hurt him, or does it also not damage him? Imagine what would happen if you’d combine this with the magic potion of Getafix.