The most incredible translation into French!

By Valérie Marzac

 A creative translator pays attention to sounds as well as meaning.

OK, let's say that you must translate 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte into French. No, not the book, only the title. Well, GOOD LUCK! Rendering the 'wuthering' sound as well as the meaning is a Mission Impossible. 

And yet, an incredible translator came up with  "Les Hauts de Hurlevent" (sometimes spelt "Les Hauts de Hurle-Vent"). What an absolutely mind-blowing translation!!!

Not only do the French sounds render the rather scary 'Wuthering' but the meaning is also present. I don't know how long it took to translate such a title but my guess is a rather long time. 

Yes, we're only talking about 2 words. 2 incredibly difficult words to translate which exemplify rather well the work of a translator. We must pay attention to sounds as well as meaning, especially in a literary and marketing context and this can take ages. You can 'Chat GPT' or whatever, only an emotional being with great creativity and knowledge can come up with such incredible translations! 

The translator who came up with "Les Hauts de Hurlevent" deserves utter respect. It's a work of art. And yet, I couldn't find his or her name online after a quick search. Chat GPT was informative in this respect. It mentioned that the title itself, i.e., the 2 WORDS was the work of several translators while it seems that Pierre Leyris first used the French title in 1947.  Those translators' names should not simply be mentioned somewhere rather obscure. Genius should be recognized and translators are usually underrated as it takes a translator to understand what's actually involved.

Just remember that it took several translators to translate 2 single words: "Wuthering Heights". I think it speaks for itself...

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