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LITERARY TRANSLATION English original, but more like that between a middle-aged person and a teenager. Consistency lend itself to this kind of pun, so we opted simply for Damentoilette ('ladies' room'). The context makes it clear that this is the place where female staff share the latest rumours. Many of the character names are themselves plays on words, or carry meaning in some way – for example Honeychile Rider (Dr No), Shady Tree (Diamonds are Forever) and Tee Hee (Live and Let Die). However, because many Germans know these characters by their English names from the films, we tend to leave them in English. One exception is the assassin in From Russia, with Love, described by the press as 'the moon killer' because he has the urge to kill whenever there is a full moon. We called him Mondscheinmörder ('moonshine murderer'), which is more poetic than the literal Mondmörder and sounds like a name the press might use. 'Mr Big' is another 'telling' name, but Fleming explains this himself: he is big and has the initials B I G (Buonaparte Ignace Gallia). This will take a little thought on the part of German readers, but it shouldn't be difficult for most to understand. Mr Big's gunman is called 'the Robber', which is more problematic in German because there is no way of differentiating between the name Räuber and the noun Räuber. To avoid confusion, we left 'Robber' in English, as it is cognate with the German, and included the definite article to make it clear that this is a nickname. In Moonraker, the villain, Sir Hugo Drax, turns out to be the German Graf Hugo von der Drache. These are actual German words – Drache means 'dragon' – but von der Drache is not grammatically correct. The appearance of German characters in Vol/52 No/2 2013 COVER GIRLS Book covers from Cross Cult's 007 series, inspired by the Bond girls and 1960s graphics this, the third Bond title, created a number of issues. Drax's henchman, Willy Krebs, has a slight German accent, which is something you can't simply translate into German – for example, by giving him a Bavarian dialect – because that would create a rather comical effect and change the character. Krebs calls Drax 'mein Kapitän' and uses words and phrases in German, such as Sehen Sie her ('look here') and Jesu Maria, bist du ein braves Kind! ('Jesus Mary, you are a good child!'). These are subtle clues about the nature of Bond's enemy. When he kidnaps the police inspector Gala Brand, Drax too starts to speak German fluently. That gives the reader a very strong hint about his true identity, but it doesn't work in the translation because, of course, all the speech is in German. As a classic Bond villain, however, Sir Hugo later tells our hero the story of his life and his sinister plan, so all is revealed to the German reader. The accents in Live and Let Die were also challenging, but for different reasons. The first part is set in New York, and the black people talk in Harlem slang. We tried to transmit that by shortening words and leaving out some elements of speech, but it is not something you can carry across fully. Bond begins to get the hang of this slang by listening to a young couple in a club. He can't understand them well at first, yet in our translation it was quite obvious what they were saying. The language difference is not as extreme as it is in the Fleming wrote 14 Bond titles and we are currently working on the seventh book, Goldfinger (1959). It is important to ensure consistency over the entire series. Certain words and terms come up time and again, and they have to be translated in the same way each time. These range from civil service positions, such as the Chief of Staff (Stabschef) and Paymaster (Zahlmeister), which are simple to translate but have to be the same in all the books; to more complex terms, such as the 'skeleton grip' on Bond's gun. Fleming first describes the weapon as 'a very flat .25 Beretta automatic with a skeleton grip'. Instead of a literal translation, we chose a concise description that could be used again in later books: 'eine sehr flache .25 Beretta Automatic […], deren Griffabdeckung entfernt worden war.' In this way, 'with a skeleton grip' becomes 'the handle cover had been removed'. Stephanie and I have worked together before, which also helps. Before we start work, we divide the text into two equal parts (taking it in turns to do the first part, which is mostly exposition and explanations, and the second part, which is more action orientated). When we're finished, we read each other's work and make corrections. There is always a very tight schedule. We started the first book only a few months before the publication date and worked hard to get the first three novels published at the same time. We were translating up to 5,000 words a day. Now the schedule is slightly more relaxed, and there are many terms that we don't have to look up any more, such as the Beretta with the skeleton grip. But, of course, things don't always stay the same in the Bond universe. In Dr No, Bond gets a new weapon – the famous Walther PPK – because M. and the Armourer think the Beretta is a 'ladies' gun'. Mr Fleming certainly keeps us on our toes. The first six Bond titles are out now on Cross Cult. Goldfinger and For Your Eyes Only are due to be published in June. Interview by Miranda Moore. APRIL/MAY The Linguist 9