The art of erasing queer subtext German translations of Sherlock Holmes
When I first came to tumblr for reading all the fantastic analysis of the Sherrlock Holmes stories and adaptations, I was quite confused. Of course I read the Holmes stories before, well, most of them, but a lot of the quotes I read here didn't sound familiar at all. I thought, well, I must have forgotten that or didn't read properly. That doesn't sound like me, but I never picked up my (german) copy and looked it up. One evenening, I sat over a glass of wine with my friend and she denied the gay subtext of the Holmes stories so vigorously, that I felt like proving my point and so I took her copy and wanted to show her some of the evidence. To my suprise, i could not find it. Starting with the „Quick. Hide if you love me“ part in „the dying detective“ wich was translated to „Hide if you want me to be thankfull forever“ (Verstecken Sie sich, wenn Sie sich meines ewigen Dankes gewiss sein wollen). That made me curious and I bought a copy of the original english ACD stories.
I will now start to read along with you, in german and in english to see what had been changed and why.
First, we have to note, that the most common german translation is the one by Adolf Gleiner, Margarete Jacobi, Louis Ottmann and Rudolf Lautenbach. It is an early translation (the first in some stories) and is used until today. I had a look at five different copys of the translated canon, modern ones and old ones, but they all had that translation. There is one other common translation by Gisbert Haefs, but I don't have it, so I can't say anything about that. Maybe someone has read those.
Then we have to note some general problems with translating from english to german, wich is not only true for Holmes but also for many other stories. There is, for example the „Sie“ and „Du“ problem. „Sie“ is the formal, polite way of saying „You“ wich one would use to adress strangers or respected people or people you don't now well, „Du“ is the more intimate way of saying „You“ which one would use if you are adressing friends or family or people of your own age if you are younger than 25. Of course, it is always hard to get the point in a movie, book or series when people stop to use „Sie“ and start using „Du“, for it requires a permission or invitation in the spirit of: „Please, you can say „Du““ which is a big deal. In the Holmes stories, Watson and Holmes always talk to each other using „Sie“ and it is hard to create this natural intimacy between two people who do that. In translated english stories, it became quite normal that two people use „Sie“ even when they know each other quite well, especially in stories written before the 1950s. Even children adress their parents as „Sie“. Maybe it was just a way of showing how posh the English are.
Then we have the trouble of words with a slightly different meaning in both languages. But we will see that when I point out some examples.
When I read through the first three stories (TheGloria Scott, The Musgrave Ritual and The Spraceled Band) I recognized some parts that were translated pretty wrong and had to come to the conclusion, that it was done on purpose. By the third story I knew which part would have been changed before I even looked at the translation.
The „certain quiet primness of dress“ that a lot of people refere to by pointing out a queer reading of the canon was changed to „In his appearance he showed a certain accuracy and punktuality“ which is not the same and they could have used many german expressions wich would have been closer two the point. (German: Was sein Auftreten betraf trug er eine gewisse Genauigkeit und Pünktlichkeit zur Schau). But I see, that it is not easy to catch that exact meaning for the word „quiet“ is not really used in german in that manor.
Holmes „mischivious eyes“ were changed to „smart smile“.
„He (Musgrave) was a dandy“ was changed to „He emphasised his suit“. Wich is understandable because the term „dandy“ hadn't been used in Germany.
Fun fact: The term „woman“ refering to Rachel Howells was changed to „Weib“ (a deprecative term for woman) or to „Mädchen“ (girl) on various occations.
In this story, Holmes speaks to Victor Trevor using „Du“. That might be because of their age.
Then they left out were Holmes was going the day the dog bit him, („I went down to chapel“).
„before the end of the term we were close friends“ was changed to „before I recovered, we had formed a friendship“ (German: Ehe ich wieder auf den Beinen war, hatten wir Freundschaft geschlossen.). And there is a term for „close friends“ in german (enge Freunde). There is no reason to change that.
But these two stories aren't the interesting part. Let's move on to „The spraceled band“
It starts with minor changes in the description of Holmes (They changed „love of his art“ to „Love of his work“) and in the way Holkmes adresses Watson („my dear fellow“ was translated to „My dear boy“) but they mix up the boy/fellow thing in every way, all the time.
Then, when Holmes wakes up Watson, Watson accompanys Holmes down to the sitting room in the english version, while in the german translation, Watson follows Holmes to the sitting room. They could as well have translated the sentence word by word. But they didn't.
Holmes intruduction of Watson („This is my intimite friend and associate Doctor Watson before whom you can speak as freely as before myself“) stayed the same. I wanted to point that out.
When Holmes says that „(The gun) and a toothbrush are all we need“, the translator went through some trouble because he obviously was concerened about the singular. Instead of just changing it to plural, he invented a comb, so you can read the german sentences as plural or singular. Its hard to explain... („Wenn wir Kamm und Zahnbürste mitnehmen, haben wir alles was wir brauchen“).
When Holmes and Watson go to „the Crown“, they engage „a bedroom and a sitting room“ in the original version, while in the german version, they get „two rooms“. Well, I guess that is not exactly wrong, but it is not the whole truth either.
These are not the big ones, those will come later on, when we read more stories. But you can find this sort of changes in every Holmes story, while the rest of the story (For example the Cases) are translated with a certain accuracy.
Why did they do that? Well, I think they realised how strong the subtext is and didn't want that to come out. I don't think they said:“Oh my god, this is so gay, let's not write that“, I think they thought: „Well, if I translate it word by word it sounds wrong in german, to intimate. I have to look for less strong words or discriptions.“. Maybe it was because of differences in german and british culture at that time. But they clearly changed most of the parts which one could read as „to intimate for friends“.
Thanks to @handl0ck for talking to me about this and to @astudyincanon for encouraging me to write it down... and sorry for the mistakes. I am still learning.
