A friend of mine has a birthday coming up, and she’s always talking about how much she loves Walter Moers and Zamonia. My own knowledge comes entirely from what she’s told me about this world.
Is there a fan shop or something similar where I can buy merchandise? Or what else could I get her that a big fan would really appreciate? She already owns all the books.
Hello, everyone.
I’m working on an English fan translation of Princess Insomnia, and would really appreciate some input. It’s like this:
The full title in German is Prinzessin Insomnia & der alptraumfarbene Nachtmahr. Common translations of this (as per Wikipedia) are Princess Insomnia and the Nightmare-Colored Night-mare / Princess Insomnia and the Nightmare-Colored Chimera.
In German, “Alptraum” is a more modern word for nightmare and “Nachtmahr” is an obsolete word. In English, there is only one word—"nightmare." The etymology of the word is that at night, a “mare” (often translated as "incubus") lies on your chest, which creates a feeling of pressure—which is also the sensation of terror.
There are two problems here: first, we don’t use “mare” that way in English (we'd more likely say "demon" or "imp"), which means that even if I did something, as above, like hyphenate it, it wouldn’t have meaning on its own.
Second, the Nachtmahr is an actual character in the book, and the word “chimera” doesn’t make sense in context. Take this from Chapter 10:
“No, really,” Opal said, raising his hand as if apologetically. “I should have introduced myself properly.” He cleared his throat. “You see, I’m not actually an [Alptraum]. I’m a [Nachtmahr].” He gave a gallant bow, like a stage actor. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t sound as impressive as ‘I’m your worst [Alptraum]!’ That just works much better than ‘I’m your worst [Nachtmahr]. [Nachtmahr]!’ That sounds so old-fashioned. So harmless. So…outdated.”
“You’re not an [Alptraum] at all?” asked Dylia, who was becoming increasingly amused. “But a...[Nachtmahr]? Is there a difference? I always thought [Nachtmahr] was just another...uh, another term for [Alptraum].”
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance.