Fantôme du Klondike

Icybro

Member
Mostly as an exercise, I spent the past couple weeks(!) translating Jérôme Jacobs' Indiana Jones Jr et le Fantôme du Klondike into English. It's not a professional job (I don't even speak French, for one thing; thankfully, those online translation tools are getting pretty good), but for the most part it turned out pretty readable.

If anybody wants to check it out, here's the link:

Young Indiana Jones and the Phantom of the Klondike

(Note that I'm only making this available because no English language version has ever been released, and even the French version is long out of print. If you download it and then Lucasfilm later decides to release an official translation, obviously you should go out and buy it. The translation will be a lot better, anyway.)

Fantôme du Klondike was the first original French-language novel in Hachette Livre's "Indiana Jones Jr" series. The story is notable in that it takes place immediately following the opening of Last Crusade, and brings together characters from that movie (namely, Herman), and characters from YIJC (Miss Seymour).
 

Junior Jones

New member
Dude!!!!!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

That is awesome. I only looked at the first few pages, since I'm at work, but I can't wait to get home and read some more.

Again, thank you. I know this is a lot of work. I tried to do it with Hohlbein's first book and only made it through the prologue.










(Not to be greedy, but when can you do the other six books?)
 

Stoo

Well-known member
This is GREAT, Icybro! Thanks a lot.(y) In a couple of weeks, I'll have one of these books in my hands (thanks to DIrishB) and was going to translate it. Not sure which title it is but once I know, I'll tell you so you won't have to go to the trouble of doing that one. If you need ANY help with the others, I'm at your service.:hat:

I haven't read the whole story yet either but at first glance, it looks like it read pretty well. Nice job!

P.S. Hope you enjoyed the "Cité de la Foudre" translations. The 3rd Bagheera comic is on its way...
 

Icybro

Member
Yeah, it took a lot of time... more than I expected, actually. :p I'm not real anxious to start another one all by myself. Scanning the book takes a couple of hours, which isn't too bad, but cleaning up the OCR output and massaging the Google Translate text is a pain. Maybe if we can get a couple of folks to pitch in on the next one...

I didn't spend much time proofreading the final text, so if anybody catches any typos or grammatical errors, please let me know so I can fix them.

Stoo: Your Cité de la Foudre translation is what inspired me to tackle this project. Excellent work! I can't wait for Grimoire Maudit.
 

Rob Dangerous

New member
Wow, what an achievement. Thank you very much for your hard work. Maybe someone could change the title of the thread, so people can see what's actually hidden in here.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Icybro said:
Yeah, it took a lot of time... more than I expected, actually. :p I'm not real anxious to start another one all by myself. Scanning the book takes a couple of hours, which isn't too bad, but cleaning up the OCR output and massaging the Google Translate text is a pain. Maybe if we can get a couple of folks to pitch in on the next one....
Up next, "Violon du Metropolitan"! I recently received it from DIrishB!:D

Icybro said:
I didn't spend much time proofreading the final text, so if anybody catches any typos or grammatical errors, please let me know so I can fix them.
Icybro, you've done an amazing job but you asked for some corrections so, PLEASE, don't take this as nit-picking...They are merely suggestions...

Chapter 1
----
Page 5 = Original Page 11
“Not quite. The Klondike is part of Yukon. It is a province located between Alaska, which has just been declared the an American territory, and the Northwest Territories, which belong to Canada.”
“Pppppfffftttt!!...” Herman said.

Page 5 = Original Page 11 (Revised)
“Not quite. The Klondike is part of the Yukon. It is a province located between Alaska, which has just been declared American territory, and the Northwest Territories, which belong to Canada.”
Bbbrrrrr!!...went Herman.

----
Page 12 = Original Page 20
“Hmmm…Certainly… We should be more tolerant,” muttered Henry Jones. “But the subject is closed. We will not be going to the Yukon. Archie had to stay in Utah to raise cattle. Can I go searching for gold in the North Pole, me?”

Eager to return to his gloomy Middle Ages, Professor resumed his reading.

Page 12 = Original Page 20 (Revised)
“Hmmm…Certainly… We should be more tolerant,” muttered Henry Jones. “But the subject is closed. You will not be going to the Yukon. The only thing Archie had was to stay in Utah and raise cattle. Have I left to search for gold at the North Pole, me?”

Anxious/Eager to return to his gloomy manuscript of/from the the Middle Ages, the professor wanted only to dive back into his reading.

----
Page 13 = Original Page 21
Now Herman’s ruddy cheeks turned cadaverous white.

Page 13 = Original Page 21 (Revised)
This made ruby-red cheeks turn cadaverous white.

----
Page 14 = Original Page 22
…and he dropped all his weight on the worm-eaten chair: the seat broke net, and the poor boy collapsed on the floor in a cloud of dust.

Page 14 = Original Page 22 (Revised)
…and he dropped all his weight on the worm-eaten chair: the seat broke clean/clear, and the poor boy collapsed on the floor in a cloud of dust.

Anyone else willing to help out?:confused:
 
Last edited:

Icybro

Member
Stoo said:
Icybro, you've done an amazing job but you asked for some corrections so, PLEASE, don't take this as nit-picking...They are merely suggestions...

These are great, Stoo. Thanks! Let's see if anybody else has any suggestions, and I'll integrate them into the PDF all at once.

"Violon du Metropolitan," eh? I've got that one, too . . . and I have been eager to try out Google's recently revamped translation toolbox ;)
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Hey Icy,

Do you have any of the other 5 remaining ones? It might be wiser to concentrate your efforts on another title, if you have 'em.

Also, I was actually going to ask you for your original text document to use as a formatting template for "Violon". (I already had a go at the 1st few pages in a close approximation of your layout but can't identify the font.) Plus, with your original doc, I could make changes for the entire thing and flag them in red before sending back to you. What do you think?
 

Icybro

Member
I do have several others:
  • L'Ampoule Radioactive
  • La Météorite Sacrée
  • Le Spectre de Venise
I suppose I could start on one of those, but like I said, tackling a whole book alone is a major undertaking. If you need any help with Violon, let me know.

The Fantôme PDF was constructed using the pseudo-LaTeX document editor, LyX. If you're interested in the source, here it is. If you don't want to bother learning a new document editor (it's kind of a pain!), but like the way Klondike turned out, you can share the raw text, and I'll be happy to format it.
 

DIrishB

New member
I have all seven, so if there are any remaining to be translated besides the ones Stoo and Icybro have, I'm more than willing to photocopy the pages of mine and send them to either of you for translation.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Icybro said:
I suppose I could start on one of those, but like I said, tackling a whole book alone is a major undertaking. If you need any help with Violon, let me know.
Personally, "Ampoule Radioactive" is the one I'm most curious about...Thanks for the offer on "Violon" but it won't be hard. Since, I'm going from my head, the pages can be typed out directly instead of going through a translation site. IF there are any obscure, slang expressions that are difficult to decipher, then I'll come calling!;)

Icybro said:
The Fantôme PDF was constructed using the pseudo-LaTeX document editor, LyX. If you're interested in the source, here it is. If you don't want to bother learning a new document editor (it's kind of a pain!), but like the way Klondike turned out, you can share the raw text, and I'll be happy to format it.
That's probably the best way to go, Icybro. You can have the raw text and format it to match. (Same for the "Klondike" edits.) Good stuff!

DIrishB said:
I have all seven, so if there are any remaining to be translated besides the ones Stoo and Icybro have, I'm more than willing to photocopy the pages of mine and send them to either of you for translation.
As usual, extremely generous of you to offer, DB!(y) If no one else steps up to the plate, you may be taken up on your offer when the next one is done.
 

Plaristes

New member
I'm a terrible Indy fan, since I just now finally got around to reading this. It's a fun, quick read. I was surprised how it references the earlier Titanic book in the series, but then contradicts the following book (The Pirates' Loot) by saying that Indy doesn't believe in ghosts even though he's already met one. :confused:
 
Top