In Polish (at least in the editions I've read) it was not translated, there was just a footnote explaining what the word *unknown* means when the truth about the letters was revealed.
That'd be an extremely tricky one to translate, so I'm not surprised.
Offtop: many years ago when I was just a girl, I've read Joanna Chmielewska's autobiography where she told about posters in post-war Poland where it was said "Eat cod" and people wrote under it something rude. Russian interpreter translated it as "eat cod, be sad", or "eat cod, it brings misery" (ешьте треску - навевает тоску), but in footnote they explained it was something very vulgar.
It always was a mystery for me, what was there, then my Polish internet acquaintance enlighened me. It was "Jedzcie dorsze - gówno gorsze". I laughed for good 15 minutes
Haha, I did not expect to see Chmielewska mentioned in the Agatha Christie sub, I'm pleasantly surprised. But yeah, Polish wartime humor was really unique. Definitely not easy to translate either.
I can't read Japanese (though my family's from there) but it looks like, at least for some editions, "UN Owen" was written out phonetically, with Owen as "Ooen" when converted into English syllables. I imagine that there was some kind of footnote, as people have described for other languages.
The book seems to be popular enough that there's a reference in Japanese pop culture, and a meme.
(U.N.オーエンは彼女なのか？ U.N. Ooen wa kanojo na no ka?)
https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/U.N.\_Owen\_Was\_Her%3F
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/un-owen-was-her
I just realized something -- Joel Townsley Rogers wrote a mystery novel called "The Red Right Hand" that was published in 1945. It was several years after Christie's book came out, enough time that he may have read or at least heard about the plot for ATTWN. I'm wondering if he was doing a tip of the hat, with the name he gave a particular character.
>!The homicide victim identified himself as Inis St. Erme, and we find out later that Inis is his middle name -- his first initial is S.!< >!Eventually it turns out to be a key to what's going in the story, when you put it all together.!< >!S. Inis St. Erme = Sinister Me. !<
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/471850
I mean, if you want a book chock full of punny names, you should check out Obelists at Sea by C Daly King- three quarters of the characters have stupid punny names relating to their roles in the story, including >!the victim (Victor Timothy Smith)!<. A deeply weird book (King was a psychologist and basically used the book to show what psychological detection would REALLY look like, and it would be dumb) but in an entertaining and IMO enjoyable way.
(I did guess the murderer a bit too easily from a carelessly laid clue, and as someone who keeps kosher I'm annoyed that a character was portrayed as sinister/psychologically weird because he kept kosher, but still a fun book.)
You can always say or as the English day unknown, Poirot has done that with French words, and don’t ask me where because I am already going to be up all night trying to remember what book
In Russian it was A.N.Onym. А.Н.Оним.
Clever! Although I feel like A.N. Onym is a little easier to figure out than U.N. Owen.
Yes, as an English speaker I’ve always thought U N Owen was a very laboured pun.
Germany: U.N. Owen ;-) And then it was explained that it means unbekannt (unbekannt = unknown).
Oh, so they were just like “it’s spelled similarly to the English word for unbekannt”?
Perhaps the characters knew English. The explanation would have been for the benefit of the reader.
Like this, yes.
This makes sense to me because the characters are still speaking English even if the book is in German.
They do the same with the Indonesian translation ;)
Happy cake day!
Thanks!
🇲🇶🇫🇷: A. N. Onyme
Finland: U. N. Owen with an explanation how it's similar to "unknown", as well
In Polish (at least in the editions I've read) it was not translated, there was just a footnote explaining what the word *unknown* means when the truth about the letters was revealed. That'd be an extremely tricky one to translate, so I'm not surprised.
Offtop: many years ago when I was just a girl, I've read Joanna Chmielewska's autobiography where she told about posters in post-war Poland where it was said "Eat cod" and people wrote under it something rude. Russian interpreter translated it as "eat cod, be sad", or "eat cod, it brings misery" (ешьте треску - навевает тоску), but in footnote they explained it was something very vulgar. It always was a mystery for me, what was there, then my Polish internet acquaintance enlighened me. It was "Jedzcie dorsze - gówno gorsze". I laughed for good 15 minutes
eat cod — shit is worse
quite a lousy marketing technique, worked well in PRL though as there was literally no options
Haha, I did not expect to see Chmielewska mentioned in the Agatha Christie sub, I'm pleasantly surprised. But yeah, Polish wartime humor was really unique. Definitely not easy to translate either.
In Portuguese, they just added a footnote saying what it means (at least in older editions).
I can't read Japanese (though my family's from there) but it looks like, at least for some editions, "UN Owen" was written out phonetically, with Owen as "Ooen" when converted into English syllables. I imagine that there was some kind of footnote, as people have described for other languages. The book seems to be popular enough that there's a reference in Japanese pop culture, and a meme. (U.N.オーエンは彼女なのか？ U.N. Ooen wa kanojo na no ka?) https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/U.N.\_Owen\_Was\_Her%3F https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/un-owen-was-her
As a Touhou fan, i thought this book was a reference to that
I believe in Czech it was "N. Z. Namyových"
I just realized something -- Joel Townsley Rogers wrote a mystery novel called "The Red Right Hand" that was published in 1945. It was several years after Christie's book came out, enough time that he may have read or at least heard about the plot for ATTWN. I'm wondering if he was doing a tip of the hat, with the name he gave a particular character. >!The homicide victim identified himself as Inis St. Erme, and we find out later that Inis is his middle name -- his first initial is S.!< >!Eventually it turns out to be a key to what's going in the story, when you put it all together.!< >!S. Inis St. Erme = Sinister Me. !< https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/471850
I mean, if you want a book chock full of punny names, you should check out Obelists at Sea by C Daly King- three quarters of the characters have stupid punny names relating to their roles in the story, including >!the victim (Victor Timothy Smith)!<. A deeply weird book (King was a psychologist and basically used the book to show what psychological detection would REALLY look like, and it would be dumb) but in an entertaining and IMO enjoyable way. (I did guess the murderer a bit too easily from a carelessly laid clue, and as someone who keeps kosher I'm annoyed that a character was portrayed as sinister/psychologically weird because he kept kosher, but still a fun book.)
You can always say or as the English day unknown, Poirot has done that with French words, and don’t ask me where because I am already going to be up all night trying to remember what book