Indeed (to continue in a barbarian tongue) I have very much enjoyed the experience of reading the book a second time, and this time perforce more slowly, even though the Latin is for the most part easy. I have been made to savour details of plot and character which I missed in skim-reading in English. J.K. Rowling is really rather a good writer.
The translation is designed for easy reading. Needham makes no attempt to produce imitation Cicero. To take a passage completely at random (the book opened at page 49):
'magis miror te in taberna videre, Visli,' respondit Malfoy. 'sententia mea, parentes tui mensem agent fame laborantes ut pro mercibus illis pecuniam solvant.'Would Cicero have presented this in Oratio Obliqua?
'cui Malfoy se magis mirari respondit Vislium in taberna videre propterea quod sententia sua parentes mensem ut pro mercibus illis pecuniam solverent fame laborantes acturos.'Readers may be very thankful that Needham's Latin version is nothing like that.
The decision to follow closely English sentence patterns and idioms rather than artificial Latinate ones does result in one or two questionable usages. Where the English, I assume, uses the gender-neutral 'they' for the older 'he', Needham follows the modern idiom by using the plural (p.237).
heres Slytherinus est quoque huius generis. sic Basilico moderati sunt.But that plural in Latin is clearly masculine, no longer gender-neutral. Perhaps there is no way round this.
There are innumerable felicitous phrases, and connoisseurs of Latin prose will delight in a nicely placed 'quippe qui' and suchlike. On the other hand, repetitions of the phrase for 'changing-rooms' grow tedious. 'Cellas vestibus mutandis designatas' is a mouthful that gives pleasure on first meeting, and loses charm on each subsequent occurrence. Here again, though, I have no suggestion for an improvement. 'Apodyterium' is not quite the same; Quidditch is not played naked. Reading this, and the recherche names and phrases for foodstuffs at feasts, I did wonder whether Needham consulted the Vatican's lists of modern words, or whether he made up his own.
There are one or two (literally) places where, if I did not have such a respect for the translator's Latin, I would use a red pencil. I don't have Rowling's original to hand, but the context on p.118 suggests 'for a few days'; Needham has 'paucis diebus'. Accusative, surely? On p.157 Lockhart indeed personifies his magic wand, but is that sufficient reason for 'vae - baculum meum paulo commotior est'? One misprint (out of only two that I spotted) suggested to my twisted mind a subliminal criticism, nay demonisation, of the American supermarket chain Walmart - for its harsh treatment of its suppliers and its employees, perhaps. The misprint? The Dark Lord is named Voldemart.
The nit-picking of the last two paragraphs must not obscure the delight of this Latin version. It is a wonderful tour de force, well worth £14.99. You will enjoy reading it. You will be sorely tempted to share passages with your A level Latinists. You will be grateful to J.K. Rowling for subsidising this Latin version, and to Peter Needham for translating it. The only drawback is that it is not going to be out in time for Christmas. Ask for a book token instead!
