Opinion: Who is afraid of Maria Spivak? Maria Spivak: biography, personal life, family, photo Translation of Harry Potter by Maria Spivak reviews.

On Friday, July 20, translator Maria Spivak, best known for her translations of books by JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter saga, died. Spivak's work was awarded literary awards, but she was not particularly loved by Potter fans: they even created an online petition to remove Spivak from translating Rowling's books.

The director of the Russian book publishing house Phantom Press, Alla Steinman, on Friday, July 20, announced the death of the translator of the Harry Potter books, Maria Spivak.

Alla Shteynman

Masha Spivak died today. My dear friend, I’m sorry that we didn’t save you. RIP.
Details about the funeral date will be available later.

Information about Spivak’s death was also confirmed by translator Olga Varshaver.

Olga Varshaver

Masha Spivak died today.
There are no details about farewell yet, but Alla Shteynman will have them.
And I kindly ask you not to arrange a debriefing of translation flights on such a day. This is completely inappropriate.
Happy memory to Masha.

The remark about the “debriefing of re-submissions” refers to the ambiguous reputation that Maria Spivak enjoyed among Russian-speaking fans of the work of the English writer JK Rowling.

Spivak was not a professional translator. She herself described her entry into the profession in an interview with the PotterLand portal.

I am a mathematical engineer by training, and I magically became a translator thanks to Harry Potter. Our fates are similar: it was suddenly revealed to him that he was a sorcerer, and to me that I was a translator. For me, retelling a foreign text in my own language - my own in every sense: my native and my own - and conveying all the nuances of this text is a true pleasure.

Maria met Harry Potter in the original language in 2000 and immediately decided to create her own translation of Rowling’s books into Russian. By that time, Spivak already had experience in literary translation - she retold Douglas Adams’ cult novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” in Russian, and this translation was a success among her friends.

In her version, Spivak tried to translate proper names almost literally, which is how Professor Dumbledore, Neville Longbottom and Zloteus Snape appeared. At the same time, the official translation from the Rosman publishing house featured Dumbler, Longbottom and Severus Snape.

From 2000 to 2002, Rowling's first four books about a boy with a scar on his forehead, translated by Maria Spivak, were published on the Harry Potter Research Institute website. However, after the intervention of copyright holders, the translations were deleted, and Spivak continued to work on the next two books in the series under the pseudonym Em. Tasamaya.

In 2013, the Rosman publishing house expired its license to publish JK Rowling’s works in Russian, and Swallowtail, part of the ABC-Atticus group, began publishing books. The new publishers refused to cooperate with the translator Marina Litvinova and her colleagues who collaborated with Rosman, and turned to Spivak.

Later, the translator complained that some of the decisions of the publishing house's editors led to readers disliking her translations. This is what she said in an interview with the Harry Potter Research Institute.

While my translation was only online, I received millions of enthusiastic letters. And when it was published, I began to receive not only numerous abusive reviews, but also even more numerous threats to kill me.

To date, eleven books by JK Rowling have been published, translated by Maria Spivak, including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages and The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

In 2017, when the ABC-Atticus publishing house announced the publication of a new book about Harry Potter, which is a printed version of the script for the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” opponents of Spivak’s translations created

A few days ago, a small “bomb” exploded among RuNet residents interested in literature when a group of enthusiasts began collecting signatures against translations of Potter books authored by Maria Spivak. After watching this butch from the sidelines, I wanted to put in my two cents.

Let me make a reservation that the following is a purely personal opinion. Not the position of the World of Fantasy magazine, not the view of the editor of the book section of this magazine. But just the opinion of a science fiction fan with a very solid reading experience.

First, a little history. When Rosman first started publishing Rowling’s books in Russia, the series was already an international bestseller, but the total world madness around it was just beginning. Only echoes reached us, so it seems that the publishing house was afraid that the series “wouldn’t work.” Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why the best forces were not brought in to translate the potential mega-hit. After all, there are truly outstanding translators from English in Russia, who have done a lot of brilliant work. Likhachev, for example, or Dobrokhotov-Maikov. There are many others. But it is clear that the work of a high-quality translator costs money. And to translate “a pig in a poke”, it simply doesn’t make sense to involve such a person. Probably, the books about Potter were considered just such a “cat”, because teenage fantasy was not quoted in our country in those days. Suffice it to say that the first circulation of the book amounted to a modest 30 thousand for such a hit. These were later reprinted - almost half a million, not to mention numerous reprints.

In general, “Rosman” in some “leftist” way attracted Igor Oransky, a sports journalist who at the same time dabbled in translating science fiction stories, to work on “The Philosopher’s Stone”. Oransky himself noted that he remained absolutely indifferent to Rowling’s text. As a result, the book was simply not interesting to read. All the hype around the novel and the cycle in the West was completely incomprehensible. Have they gone crazy? Why on earth did this dull and naive garbage become a world bestseller?

Many people began their acquaintance with Harry Potter with these books.

The already established Potter fan base (after all, many people read English here) literally exploded! Oh, what storms raged on the Internet! If you really want (after all, the Internet remembers almost everything), you can delve into these ancient records from 2000 and enjoy... Oransky’s translation was simply crucified, and although a number of errors were corrected in subsequent editions, the “black mark” was firmly attached to this work. The funny thing is that even this controversial version was a solid success, although, probably, world hysteria contributed to the hype around the Potter series.

And against this background, “folk translations” began to appear on the Internet - both the first and other volumes already published in the West. They were terrible - actual interlinear edits that were edited by everyone. And one of these masterpieces was Masha Spivak’s translation, which stood out from the rest like a diamond among the cobblestones.

Moreover, Spivak’s Potter series (and she gradually began translating other books) was rated among fans much higher than the official versions from Rosman! Although, starting from the second volume, the publishing house attracted solid forces. “The Chamber of Secrets”, “The Prisoner of Azkaban” and partly “The Goblet of Fire” were translated by the eminent professional philologist Marina Litvinova. And a whole brilliant team took part in the work on subsequent books, among whom were such stars of domestic literary translation as Viktor Golyshev, Vladimir Babkov, Leonid Motylev, Sergei Ilyin, Maya Lahuti. Although there were blunders here too. For example, the final novel of the series, “The Deathly Hallows,” turned out to be crumpled. For the sake of efficiency, the book was translated by three people at once - Ilyin, Lahuti, Sokolskaya, which is why the novel came out stylistically very heterogeneous. It is precisely for the sake of correcting such shortcomings that there is a literary editor, which, it seems, this publication simply did not have...

"Harry Potter" from ROSMEN: "black series"

By that time, Spivak’s translations were already actually banned, because officially they were considered pirated. The story of hunting them is a different story! And as soon as the fans didn’t get creative, fighting the system, “Um. Tasamaya" has become an actual meme...

And now, when the rights to publish the Potter series have changed hands, Swallowtail and ABC-Atticus used Spivak’s translations (of course, heavily edited in comparison with the online versions). While we were talking about reprints of books, which, apparently, were already in almost every home, this did not cause much fuss. However, with the advent of the new Potter book, the situation has changed. Everyone who is a Potter fan will probably want to buy the new novel, but the overwhelming majority are “covered” by Rosman’s translation, and Spivak’s version seems alien to them. So the hype is understandable.

I do not undertake to judge the comparative advantages and disadvantages of Rosman’s and the ABC versions in terms of fact, for example. Moreover, we will soon have a detailed article on this topic. I will only express my opinion as a person who has read both versions. Personally, I like Spivak’s Potter much more, and here’s why.

Spivak very clearly captured the spirit of Potter. Its translation is often reproached for being “childish,” but, for mercy’s sake, the cycle was written primarily for children! In the first novel, the hero is only eleven; with each book he grows up, which also happens to his readers. And the approach chosen by Spivak is completely justified. Before us, first of all, are fascinating fairy tales “with meaning”, and with each new volume the fabulousness becomes less and less, and the meaning becomes more and more. The Potter novels of Spivak's version are a sane synthesis of charming fairy tales, childish spontaneity, external fascination and quite serious semantic content. This is exactly what Rosman’s translation lacks - the author’s magic, without which there would not have been such a crazy success of the series, is simply not there! The translation was done by serious people who worked professionally and responsibly. But nothing more...

Although the main miscalculation, perhaps, is precisely that Rosman’s version was translated by as many as twelve people in total! The situation could be corrected by ONE literary editor, who would bring the disparate translations to a common denominator. Well, as did, for example, Alexander Zhikarentsev, who at one time supervised the translations of Terry Pratchett at Eksmo - after all, many people also worked there, and not all translations were equally good. But alas.

Spivak's translations are much more complete in this sense. From the first to the last word of the series, the translation was carried out by one person, who, moreover, was sincerely passionate about the original and worked with all his heart. And this is also important... It is the “soulfulness” that attracts in Spivak’s version - Rowling’s text lives and plays, breathes and shines. You read it with pleasure, with joy, it is truly “tasty”, like a bag of multi-colored candies from under the New Year tree... Against this background, Rosman’s version looks like a hearty and satisfying meal from the first, second, third. Nutritious, healthy - yes, possible. But, alas, it’s not fun.

This gorgeous edition of Harry Potter was published in Swallowtail

Perhaps the main drawback of Spivak’s version, which became a stumbling block, is the translation of proper names and a number of titles. Here, perhaps, we can partly agree with the dissatisfied. If in the initial, most carefree and fairy-tale volumes of the series, the “speaking” names still looked, albeit exotic, but more or less appropriate, then in the darker books their frank childishness looks simply ridiculous. Zloteus Snape, brrr... On the other hand, in Rosman’s translations there are also such pearls that you will rock, - Longbottom, for example. It would probably be more appropriate not to translate names at all, limiting ourselves to footnotes or a detailed glossary. But what's done is done - in both versions.

However, if we abandon names and terms (especially since many of them quite successfully reflect the essence of characters, titles and objects), the remaining claims to Spivak’s translations simply crumble to dust.

Moreover, I am one hundred percent sure: if “Rosman” had from the very beginning released the Potter series in Spivak’s translation, then all those who are now foaming at the mouth shouting “hey!” to them, would have defended them with the same fervor . Because the question is not at all about the real quality of translations. The right of birthright and a matter of habit - that’s the secret. The vast majority of Potter readers became acquainted with the books in Rosman's translation - and simply got used to it. Even if it were a million times worse than Spivak’s translations, first love will not rust...

But for those who are just getting acquainted with Rowling’s books, I wholeheartedly advise: read it yourself and give your children this series “from Spivak.” Get much more genuine pleasure! And the rest will have to resign themselves or follow the beaten path of fans of the “zero”, creating sites with a “folk translation” of the eighth volume of the series...

On July 20, 2018, 55-year-old writer and translator of books about the wizard Harry Potter, Maria Viktorovna Spivak, died. The head of one of the publishing houses, Alla Steinman, announced her death. Information about the death of the talented Russian writer was confirmed by Olga Varshaver and her other colleagues.

The biography and personal life of Maria Spivak, after translating books about the sorcerer, began to interest the press. The author's translation caused incredible criticism among Russian citizens and Harry Potter fans. Fans of the boy-sorcerer even created a petition in which a demand was made to remove the Russian woman from translating the original text. More than 70 thousand people voted to remove the translation of the book Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Now the media is discussing Spivak’s death and the date of the farewell ceremony.

Biography and personal life of the scandalous translator Maria Spivak

Maria Viktorovna became popular thanks to the successful 10 translations of JK Rowling's books. More than 20 texts by other authors were also translated into Russian. In addition to making translations, the Russian woman wrote her own novels. The most famous were “The Year of the Black Moon” and the English book “The World Elsewhere”. Nine years ago, Spivak received the Unicorn and Lion Award. This award was given for the best translation of Irish and British texts.

The writer decided to translate the original of the famous books about the sorcerer at the beginning of the 2000s. The first 4 books about the wizard were translated by Maria Viktorovna within two years, and they were published on the Harry Potter website. Critics gave mixed reviews to the work of the Russian translator. Nevertheless, Spivak was on the long list for the Little Booker Prize. At the end of 2002, Maria received a letter from the copyright holders, after which she was not allowed to translate literature by foreign authors under her initials.

A decade later, Spivak was contacted by employees of the Azbuka-Atticus publishing house, who received the right to publish JK Rowling’s books in the Russian Federation. They offered to publish translations of a talented Russian woman for a good fee. Three years ago, the publishing house published a translation of the original book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Previously, the Russian translation of this literature did not appear on the Internet.

Literary critics are in unpleasant shock from Spivak’s translation

After the text appeared online, Maria began to receive letters containing threats and blackmail. She was told that her translations were far from the original source and had no right to exist. Also, fans of the boy-sorcerer noted that Spivak changed many names in the books beyond recognition. Two years ago, one of the Russian publishing houses, despite the scandals surrounding Maria Viktorovna’s person, decided to publish her translated literature “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

Fans of the sensational bestseller criticized Masha’s work because of the nicknames of the main characters: “Dumbledore”, “Dursley”, “Professor Moonshine” and others. Also, readers of the 55-year-old Russian woman’s translations condemned Spivak for haste in translation and lack of any editing.

Vladimir Babakov, the translator of Rosman, said that he would soon publish a normal translation of the book and distribute it through torrents. Not much is known about the translator’s personal life and biography. The funeral date is not yet known.

When did you first read Harry Potter?

In 2000, a friend from America sent me a book. Her husband worked in Russia - he brought Harry Potter as a gift. I remember lying down on the sofa with a book and never getting up from it until I finished reading it.

Did you learn English at school?

No, I studied German at school. I studied English with a tutor who was hired by my parents.

When did you start wanting to become a translator?

In general, I am a mathematical engineer by training, graduated from MIIT. After university, I translated scientific texts for the Academy of Sciences for several years, and then got a job as a manager in an office that sold computers and software, and began translating instructions and other technical things for them. The head of this company also knew English - and began to bring me his favorite books. He really liked Douglas Adams - and I usually give in if someone praises a book. I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and began translating it to read aloud to my family. Then 1998 happened, I was fired, and my husband told me: “Stop looking for a job, let’s be a translator.” Not in the sense that I should. But what can I do if I want?

At that time I had no idea what kind of profession this was - I simply translated as it was. Then I noticed that I was repeating many words, and began to rewrite, use synonyms, get rid of constructions unusual for the Russian language with a bunch of subordinate clauses. In general, it was a student translation. “Harry Potter” was going completely differently.

Did you also translate Harry Potter for your husband and son at first?

Yes. It seems to me now that it really was witchcraft: I read the book in one sitting, and the next day I found myself in front of a large computer. Although Nikita (son of Maria Spivak. —Esquire) was then 13-14 years old, and he could probably already read English. That's why in my version he only knows the first book. After all, he didn’t read any of my translations, books or stories. Shy.

What are you ashamed of? Afraid that you won’t like it and that it will be awkward?

Don't know. Shy. I'm his mother, not a translator. Although he helped me translate the last play (we are talking about the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” - Esquire).

And you weren’t the only one who made amateur translations of Harry Potter?

Yes, there were a lot of translators on the Internet, we competed with each other in speed - for us it was a really fun game. My husband tried to give my translation to a publishing house, and when they didn’t accept it, he created the website of the Harry Potter Research Institute, where he posted these texts. He created the site alone, although he presented it as a serious project with a large number of people supposedly working on it. My husband read out the comments to me - then I was very praised, of course. Three thousand people came to the site, and everyone wrote some kind of jubilant messages, what a great job I was. Naturally, this was encouraging. But, in fact, my only true love was the first book. Then people began to demand, and I translated for them - there was nowhere to go. I didn’t know that this story would have some kind of continuation.

So you only loved the first book? What about the rest?

There is no talk of dislike. For a very long time I was satisfied with everything that was there. Then, towards the fourth book, the film came out - and Rowling herself, under pressure, began to make certain decisions. And these moments upset me a little. But, again, I didn’t really read, I translated. And when you see a book this thickness, over which you sit for a long time at the computer, there won’t be much love - it’s not the same as lying on the couch and then going for a walk.

At first, “Harry Potter” was just a book, but now it is a cult, “Harry Pottery.” No other book has had such an impact on people's lives.

And in general, I never liked fantasy. At first, “Harry Potter” was just a fairy tale, and then this increased detail began - biographies began to be written for the heroes. Rowling, for example, said that Dumbledore was gay. Well, why is this in a children's book? Somehow this is no longer so interesting.

How long did it take to translate The Philosopher's Stone?

I won’t say exactly, but not much, about three to four months. It’s not that I lashed out - there were other things to do. Some things were invented on the fly - successfully and not so well.

You see, at first “Harry Potter” was just a book, and you had to treat it like a book: in many countries they translated names, as I did, because they are speaking. It was like that until a certain moment, and then “Harry Potter” became... I still don’t understand what it is. This is something unique. And a book, and a movie, and a computer game, and a cult of worship - all this Harripotteria. And this phenomenon has no analogues, in my opinion - no other book has so influenced the lives of people all over the world.

Now I have a different opinion about names. Now it seems to me that they should be the same as in the original. But I couldn’t foresee a worldwide cult, and then it was stupid to change my shoes. By the time “Swallowtail” decided to publish my translation, I no longer thought about this story at all. I took on the seventh book under great pressure from those who were accustomed to my style. This feeling can be compared to marriage: the first year with a person is not like the thirtieth, and love from passion is not like love for money.

Is Harry Potter a commercial story for you now?

No, that's not true. In 2013, when Rosman ceased to own the exclusive rights to Harry Potter in Russia, the publishing house Azbuka-Atticus offered to publish my translation. I refused because I was not satisfied with the harsh editing - when the editor considers himself more important than me. This is too expensive for me. I'm rarely edited at all, so I'm capricious in this regard. Six months later, “Makhaon” came to me with much better conditions (“Makhaon” is part of the “Azbuka-Atticus” publishing group. —Esquire). They said they would leave everything as is. This respectful approach suited me, because the most important thing for me is not to be offended. Plus, they appointed a very good editor: Nastya Korzunova is very smart, she sees shortcomings like a computer. I calmly entrusted her with the text and allowed her to change a lot: literally two titles she asked not to touch, but everything else was welcome.

What are the two names?

I asked to leave the "moogles". I think it conveys the meaning better. There is a disdain in this word - in contrast to the word "muggle", which is phonetically similar to "magician". Rowling coined the term muggle at a time when there was no talk of any political correctness, this word is imbued with arrogance ( muggle- derived from mug, which is British slang for "a foolish person who is easily fooled." —Esquire) And, it seems to me that in Russian “muggles” convey this attitude much better. At least it seemed so to me then. Now I don't care. If you want "Muggles", take "Muggles".

And the second?

Hagrid, not Hagrid, because there's something spitting about the name Hagrid. And Hagrid is a bit of an ogre.

Did you come up with the names yourself or did you consult with someone?

Mostly by myself. They were easy enough to come up with, but it also happened that I got stuck on some. And then my husband and I went to bed thinking about this name - and thought and thought. But he rarely came up with something successful.

Do you remember which names were difficult?

It was difficult with the pen of Rita Vrita. In the original it is Quick-Quotes Quill, and I called it principled (“The Quick-Writing Pen” in Rosman’s translation. —Esquire). We thought for a long time and came up with a lot of good things, but everything was wrong. In the end, the meaning turned out to be a little different, but it seems to me that a Russian person understands such a play on words like no one else.

What about the street where the Dursleys lived? Fans are very picky about your version.

Why Privet? The amazing is nearby. In the original it is called Privet Drive, from English privet translated as “privet” - this is a typical plant for England, a classic one, boring, but very stable. In "Rosman" they named the street Tisovaya - it is completely unclear for what reason. This has always amazed me.

Fans suggested an alternative: not to translate street names at all. What would you do now?

I would probably still translate the streets. Still, the context needs to be clear: not everyone speaks English. In general, there are many controversial issues here. For example, my director's name is Dumbledore. The editor kept the name because she thought it sounded better than Dumbledore - a reference to the bumblebee that buzzes (name Dumbledore comes from English bumblebee. According to Rowling, she gave the character this name because of his passion for music: she imagined him walking around humming to himself. — Esquire). And I agreed, because Dumbledore had an object that I called “doubledum” (in Rosman’s translation - a pensieve; in the original - pension. This word in turn comes from English passive(thoughtful) and has Latin roots: pensare means "to think". —Esquire). With Dumbledore we would have to call him something else. This is the only reason why I allowed Dumbledore to stay. And so I thought: let it be as people are used to.

You probably know what controversies there were on the Internet about names...

I don't know everything, but I know something. It’s impossible not to know when you get “die, you bastard” on your phone.

Seriously?

Yes, they threatened me, they wanted to kill me. But I believe in such things, I begin to be afraid. As for names: at one time my translation was logical. And now they [the fans] are kind of right, because Harry Potter is a whole world, and it's better for everything to sound the same. I even talked to my publisher that it would be a good idea to publish the series again, but change the names. Of course, I won’t take on this anymore, but if the editor took it on, then why not? I don't understand why this is all so difficult. Previously, any number of translations could be published - like with “Alice in Wonderland” or “Winnie the Pooh”. Maybe they’ll get around to it with Harry Potter. After all, my text itself - and I’m sure of this - is better than another Russian translation, because it was done too quickly. At least for that reason.

It seems you haven’t read the translation of “Rosman”?

No. I read Harry Potter only in English, and then on the go. But at some point films began to come out - that’s how I found out what the translation of Oransky, Litvinova and the others sounded like. In principle, I realized that this translation into cinema suits me, although I don’t really like films. Then Rosman got very good translators, but they became hostages to the translations of their colleagues: that is, they didn’t come up with “Hufflepuff,” which, in my opinion, sounds very strange.

Have you talked to people from Rosman?

No, the publishers didn’t want to see or hear from me, they hated me.

Is it true? What did this mean?

My husband told me that they were talking about me at Rosman. Not that it was nasty, but from their words it became clear that it was impossible to know me and that with my translation I had sunk to the very bottom that exists. Something like that. Therefore, even if all the translators ran away from them, they still wouldn’t take me.

Where does this attitude come from?

Because I was popular on the Internet. Then the copyright holders, Rowling's agents, forbade me to post translations - and I gave the site to the fans. It still exists in some form, but I don’t go there at all.

Do you have a favorite hero?

This doesn't happen to me. A lot of people.

Do you have to somehow immerse yourself in the characters in a special way in order to speak like them?

For me this happens somehow on its own. Although, for example, the same Hagrid says this because I imagined my school friend - she is a nurse in a children's intensive care unit. Not completely, of course, but they have something in common.

Before translating, what were your favorite books?

Oh, I have so many favorite books, and it’s impossible to name the best one. For example, “The Forsyte Saga” is not even a favorite book, but some kind of special book for me. I read it when I was 12 and then re-read it almost every year. Although in English the first short story did not make an impression on me at all. It was the translator’s work that fascinated me. For a long time I really liked Nabokov. Now for some reason it suddenly stopped. It’s the same with “The Master and Margarita”.

“Harry Potter” made me the translator I was born to be, I just didn’t know it. They touched me with a magic wand, and I went on my way.

Since I became a translator, I almost stopped being a reader. For myself, I only read in English, because with text in Russian my reflex worked, and I began to mentally edit it. So mostly I read American, English literature, and usually nonsense, because before bed.

Do you remember your first serious translation job?

Yes, Eskmo gave it to me for translation The Volcano Lover Susan Sontag. I felt so responsible that I finished it in four months. The book was very difficult, I actually had to rewrite it. There is another translation of the novel - it sounds like bullshit. And I wrote very beautifully. I sat for a long time every day. My son went to school, my husband went to work, and I sat down at the computer and sat until the evening, and then fell on the sofa.

Was this during Harry Potter?

Hardly at the same time. I got noticed because of Harry Potter. A fairly well-known person in the field, Max Nemtsov, found out about me and decided to ask for help in translation - it turns out that he made me a real translator. We met in a cafe and talked for a very long time about Rowling, about books in general, about this and that. I felt like I had accidentally found myself among the saints and was glad that I was allowed to become part of the community. And then Max gave me a book to translate - I forgot which one, it looked like a detective story - and I didn’t like it at all. I said this honestly. And then Max rejoiced - he said that it was a test and that in fact he was going to give the book to Sontag. Well, there’s no more talk here - I sat down to translate without even reading. During the process, it became clear that this was a very difficult book to translate, but I managed to do it anyway. True, I still read the following books first.

Are you working on something right now?

No. I wrote a series of stories in 2013, but then a lot of things came up, so I just finished writing it now. I want to publish this somewhere. I don’t know yet what will come of this.

Do you feel like writing your own more now?

I've wanted this for a long time. Although, I must admit, working on Harry Potter was not so frequent and not so hard, but I enjoyed doing nonsense in my free time. So maybe I'm not that much of a writer. Although everyone really likes the series of stories - I tested it on different people.

Let's get back to this scary fan story. When did it start?

As soon as “Swallowtail” published a book with my translation, then it all started - and the further it went, the worse. And before the play (“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” - Esquire) were completely furious: they were collecting signatures for a petition to throw me out, and they wrote to me telling me to die and that they would kill me. They wrote that they were watching me, but I immediately believed in this.

Have these threats ever translated into real action?

Not yet, thank God. Maybe someone was watching me, but I didn’t see them. I don't like to remember this.

Are you afraid to leave the house because of this?

Thank God, I forget everything quickly, so I’m not very afraid. Now I’ll talk to you and I’ll be afraid for a while.

It's very scary that fans of the magical world of Harry Potter might wish someone dead.

Somehow this has become common among us lately. As a matter of fact, they want to kill many.

Why did you still take on the play, despite threats and petitions? Why was this important to you if the previous interest in Harry Potter was no longer there?

Because of money. I was offered an amount that other translators are not offered - not page by page, but so that I agreed. You could say that “Harry Potter” seemed to give me a gift so that I could live in peace. So naturally I was concerned about the fate of The Cursed Child. Then the publishing house told me that they didn’t even think about hiring anyone else, even despite the petition. Because books with my translation were sold very well, and this is an indicator. Although, maybe they came up with it for me.

Do you even care about reviews? Do you listen to or try to avoid negative comments?

There was a period when I tried to avoid any comments, because they affected me so much that my translation began to seem nightmare to me. I wanted them to forget about me and not say anything. Then it went away, also because all sorts of smart people whom I trusted said that it was stupidity. After all, there is an editor, publishers - and they probably better understand what is good and what is bad.

I don’t know if we can talk about vanity in relation to you, but are you proud of your work?

Anyone who wants, of course, can [talk about vanity].

I'm interested in you. How do you feel about your work?

So, I would publish a new version.

Are negotiations with the publisher regarding the reissue of books progressing somehow?

So far, the publisher, who periodically calls me to find out how I’m doing, listens to me patiently and says that they are “slowly talking to agents on this topic.” How true this is, I don't know.

Do you think “Harry Potter” made you happy or, on the contrary, brought you more problems?

He made me a translator, which is what I was born to be - I just didn’t know about it. So there is something magical in this story. And for this I bow to Harry Potter. They touched me with a magic wand, and I went on my way. Even my character has changed. I didn’t envy anyone because I was minding my own business. But I remember well that the opposite happened, when I did some nonsense. Thanks to Harry Potter, I was able to become a real translator and, moreover, began to write myself - and this is what I was told since childhood: you are a writer.

Did Harry Potter teach you something? The book itself, not the work with it.

Yes. I believed that magic exists.

Do you find any evidence?

Yes. Of course, magic doesn’t work the way it does in the book—without magic wands. But it exists. We're just too tight and don't use it. This is what I feel.

About Harry Potter, which caused mixed reactions among readers. Alla Shteinman, director of the Phantom Press publishing house, announced this on her Facebook page.

“Masha Spivak died today. My dear friend, I’m sorry that we didn’t save you. RIP. Details about the date of the funeral will be later,” Steinman said.

At the moment, the circumstances of the translator's death are unknown.

In 2016, Maria Spivak worked on translating the last eighth part of the series of books by writer JK Rowling “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Parts one and two."

Then the translation caused a mixed reaction among fans of the saga. Fans demanded that the work on the text be entrusted to a person who “could avoid “gags” and free retelling.”

The very news that Maria Spivak will be translating the book upset fans of the Potter universe. Most of them began their acquaintance with the series of books with a translation from the ROSMEN publishing house. However, in 2013, the publishing rights were transferred to the Machaon publishing house, and since 2014 the saga has been published in an “alternative” translation from Spivak.

After the book’s release, excited users on social networks published fragments of the text in which they found numerous errors, and even created a petition against the release of the book with Maria Spivak’s translation. One of them was signed by more than 60,000 people.

Most readers complained that Spivak, trying to adapt the language, literally translated the characters' names and surnames and used them as puns. So, Severus Snape turned into Zloteus Snape, Luna into Psycho Lovegood, and Madame Trick into Madame Moonshine.

Such adaptations caused outrage among fans. In particular, readers noted that by the end of the saga, Snape’s hero reveals himself on the positive side, while Zloteus Evil, translated from Spivak, sounds unambiguously negative.

Despite the dissatisfaction of fans, the publishing house "Makhaon" refused to change the translator.

Maria Spivak in interview The Gorky publication admitted that she was not familiar with other translations of books about Harry Potter, and when working on the text, she started from the meaning inherent in the names and “tried to convey the same thing in Russian.”

“Severus Snape is a name that also sounds frankly harsh, although my version certainly sounds harsher. However, the word “Zloteus” implies both “evil” and “gold” at the same time, so the double connotation of this character’s character has not gone away,” the translator explained the origin of the name “Zloteus”.

Maria Spivak also reported that since the release of the first book she had to face numerous threats from fans of the saga.

In addition to those who opposed the transfer from Spivak, there were also those who supported her. So, translator of the fifth book about Harry Potter stated, that “the translator should be guided by the opinion of the public, but not follow its lead,” emphasizing that the adaptation of names is Spivak’s own business.

Maria Spivak is a Russian writer and translator. It gained its greatest popularity after the release of translations of JK Rowling’s book series “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” Parts one and two." She is also the author of two novels, The Year of the Black Moon and A World Elsewhere.

In 2009, Spivak was awarded second place in the Prose category for her translation of the British writer Nicholas Drayson's novel The Book of the Birds of East Africa.

Premiere of the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Parts one and two” took place on July 30, 2016 in London at the Palace Theatre. The play was directed by director John Tiffany. The action of The Cursed Child begins immediately after the finale of the seventh part of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Books “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Parts one and two" were released in English immediately after the premiere of the play, on July 31. In Russia, the series went on sale on December 7, 2016.