Big Name Books and their Chinese Counterparts

[戴 睿]

Hey all,

So I have a quick question about popular English books and their Chinese translations.

I am a BIG reader. Growing up, some of my favorite books where Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, and Harry Potter.

I have always wanted to read these in Mandarin, but have gotten confusing feedback on how high of a reading level this would require. Many natives seem to think it would be quite difficult, while many more I've spoken with seem to remember reading those books (especially Harry Potter) at a very young age.

Granted, I have the added benefit of being very familiar with the plot of each of these novels, which lends me a lot of contextual support, but does anyone know what kind of reading level you really need to start tackling Harry Potter, LoTR, etc?

Thanks!

[daofeishi]

　　住在四号普里怀特街的杜斯利先生及夫人，非常骄傲地宣称自己是十分正常的人。但是他们最不希望见到的就是任何奇怪或神秘故事中的人物，因为他们对此总是嗤之以鼻。

 

　　杜斯利先生是一家叫作格朗宁斯的钻机工厂的老板。他非常肥壮、结实，几乎肥到没有颈根，但却有一把大胡子。杜斯利夫人则非常苗条，一头金发。她的颈根有常人的两倍那么长，这使得她整天伸长脖子透过花园围栏去偷窥邻居家的动静变得非常容易。杜斯利夫妇有个儿子叫做达德里。在他们眼中，这世界上再没有比达德里更棒的男孩了。

　　杜斯利一家几乎有他们想要的一切东西。但是他们也有一个秘密，而且他们最大的担心就是有一天别人会发现这个秘密。如果有人知道关于波特一家的事，他们就会认为自己无法保守这个秘密了。波特夫人是杜斯利夫人的妹妹，但是她们已经有很多年没有见面了、事实上，杜斯利夫人假装她从来没有什么妹妹，因为她的妹妹和那不中用的妹夫没有一丝一毫杜斯利家族的风范。一想到波特一家的到来会招致邻居的议论，杜斯利一家就会浑身发抖。杜斯利一家知道波特夫妇也有一个儿子，只是未曾谋面。这个小男孩也成了杜斯利一家避开波特一家的借口，因为他们不希望听话的达德里与这种小孩混在一起。

 

 

That is the beginning of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, so that is the kind of language you will have to tackle in order to read the whole book. Lord of the Rings might be a little bit harder than Harry Potter, since Tolkien's language is often more lyrical and complex than Rowling's. 

[imron]

It will be harder for you because the translations will use a lot of transliterations for names of places and people.  If you cannot comfortably and easily recognise such transliterations in text, then you are better off leaving it until your level has improved because you'll be spending all your time looking up words that don't exist in dictionaries, and wondering why nothing makes sense.