Translating a Country Name

[Graylorne]

The name of my third Revenaunt book is in Dutch: Ordelanden.

These three countries are each ruled by a militant order, like the Teutonic Order. To translate this literally, I would get: Orderlands.

Somehow that sounds a bit awkward, or is that just my idea?

Or could I use the original name and would this clear enough to the reader?

 

[The Unseemly]

Google translate...

Eherm. 'Scuse me.

Remember that you don't have to point out that your book is called "Orderlands" (so no awkwardness), and yeah, Ordelanden sounds pretty clear to me.

 

[Graylorne]

I wasn't completely clear in my question. I'm translating the book into English, for international publication. So I have to call it something.

In general I don't translate names of places etc, but as this is the title of the book I wondered if it would be clear enough. In full it would be: Ordelanden, The Shadow of the Revenaunt.

I think I'll just stop worrying about it

 

[advait98]

Well, you don't just have to directly translate the title into English. You can always come up with a different meaning title.

You wouldn't believe the titles of the Harry Potter books that were translated into Hindi. I literally burst out laughing at one of them. IMO, literally translating into another language is a bad idea, it mostly comes out wrong, except in some cases (but I speak from experience of a language much farther in spelling and syntax than Dutch, so I don't know).

I guess that's why some people got the brilliant idea to not take a literally translated title, and instead one of a slightly different meaning.

Of course, Ordelanden sounds pretty good too.

 

[Graylorne]

Generally I've no problem in finding alternatives, but in this case I couldn't find the words. The tricky thing in translating from Dutch to English is, that sometimes the same words create different images.
In this case, I'm encouraged to leave the title as it is.

 

[CupofJoe]

Generally I've no problem in finding alternatives, but in this case I couldn't find the words. The tricky thing in translating from Dutch to English is, that sometimes the same words create different images.
In this case, I'm encouraged to leave the title as it is.

Please do... "Ordelanden" rolls off the tongue so much more nicely...

 

[Graylorne]

What more does a title need? Thanks!

 

[Jessquoi]

A title should be simple and grabbing. And I find one-word titles to be the most interesting. Ordelanden actually sounds fine by itself. It's exotic because it's obviously not English and I as a reader would find myself more enticed by just that word than a really long title. I wouldn't add an English translation, but that's just me. I'm trilingual English,German and Spanish so I'm naturally interested in foreign words.

 

[Graylorne]

A title should be simple and grabbing. And I find one-word titles to be the most interesting. Ordelanden actually sounds fine by itself. It's exotic because it's obviously not English and I as a reader would find myself more enticed by just that word than a really long title. I wouldn't add an English translation, but that's just me. I'm trilingual English,German and Spanish so I'm naturally interested in foreign words.

Yes, I agree on the one-word names, I use it wit all of my books. And being exotic can't hurt, most people seem to like my naming things like the Gisterwoud.