On November 22nd, 2020, we had the honor and pleasure of having a guest speaker: Arun “Arele” Schaechter Viswanath, who was gracious enough to allow us to share a recording of his presentation about translating Harry Potter into Yiddish, and the challenges of translating such wordplay-rich, pop-culture referential text.
The Harry Potter series is the most-translated book series of all time, having appeared in languages as various as Tamil, Ancient Greek and Hawaiian. In this presentation, Arun will talk about the journey and challenge of translating Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone into Yiddish. Along the way, he will address questions and topics such as: What does it mean to translate something into a Jewish language? Is Yiddish, or any other Jewish language, inherently Jewish? What relevance does Harry Potter have for Jews? You are welcome to join whether or not you have read Harry Potter and whether or not you know any Yiddish!
Arun “Arele” Schaechter Viswanath (Twitter) grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey in a Yiddish- and Tamil-speaking home. Harry Potter un der Filosofisher Shteyn is his first foray into literary translation. Arun enjoys bouldering, playing board games, and learning new languages and instruments. He lives with his wife, Tali, in New York, where he works in analytics at a tech company.
Click here for Information on how to order the Yiddish translation.
Click here to listen to a reading of the first chapter in Yiddish.
Watch a recording of his presentation:
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