I realize this is an ancient thread, but yesterday while looking for old JAL interviews I found the archive of the radio show in question where Editrice was interviewed (and where she also refers back to this thread). Since it wasn't linked at the time (and because I think minor translation issues and cultural differences like this are interesting), here it is for posterity:
https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/71763
Originally broadcast on May 17, 2010. Hosted by Annika Lantz and Anders Carlsson. The segment with Editrice starts at 32:35. Here's a transcript in English:
LANTZ: Elisabeth Watson, you're an editor at the publisher Ordfront. Hello, Elisabeth.
WATSON: Hi, hi.
LANTZ: How much trouble has there really been with translations of the word flakmoppe?
WATSON: I don't think there's been a lot of trouble that's reached me. I know I've gotten a question or two at some point, and then some questions have gone straight to John as well. But it seems to be a little different in different languages. The Nordic ones seem to have managed it pretty well.
LANTZ: What did it become in those?
WATSON: In Norwegian it's called varemoped ["ware moped"].
LANTZ: That's admittedly not too far off.
WATSON: And in Danish it's ladknallert.
LANTZ: No?
CARLSSON: One more time.
WATSON: Ladknallert.
LANTZ: What does that mean?
WATSON: Lad is "to load" and knallert is "moped". So a freight moped.
CARLSSON: God, what a strange language.
LANTZ: A freight moped. There is a logic there. But it's been translated to 30 languages, hasn't it?
WATSON: Well, it's in any case been sold to 30 languages. I haven't gotten 30 translations sent to me. And in about half of those I don't think I can find the translation. Like, Japanese, Taiwanese... I can't manage Finnish either. Or Chinese. So in those I unfortunately can't check what they've translated it to.
LANTZ: But they have translated it? They don't switch out the vehicle and suddenly write that it's a Ford Taurus?
WATSON: No, I don't think they go that far.
CARLSSON: [laughs] What a good example!
WATSON: Yes, exactly, that would be something. The Italians have written motorino.
LANTZ: Motorino, how beautiful.
WATSON: Which means "moped". The Spaniards have settled for moto, "motorcycle".
LANTZ: They ditch the loading rack, in other words.
CARLSSON: So really it would be better with ladknallert.
WATSON: I unfortunately don't dare to try and pronounce Dutch, but as far as I can find they've translated it to "motor tricycle". Motorbakfiets. I don't dare to say how you're supposed to pronounce it.
LANTZ: I thought it sounded good. If you hadn't said anything I would've thought you were from Holland.
CARLSSON: But isn't it better to change the vehicle than to... It must seem like a complete fantasy name to the people reading the books, isn't that so?
LANTZ: Is there anyone who hasn't understood it?
WATSON: I don't know. I've actually sent out a question on... There's a fan forum for John's books, but they're mostly Englishmen, and there they said precisely this [that you mentioned earlier], "trike". But that's not what they've translated it to in the English version. There they've translated it to "moped carrier" one time, "moped trailer" another time, and "delivery moped". They use a couple different ones.
LANTZ: I like "delivery moped"! Can you set that as some kind of standard in some kind of contract, that that's what it should be in Anglo-Saxon translations?
WATSON: I think the biggest problem becomes... In German they've gone with Frachtmoped and Lastmoped.
LANTZ: I must say you're good at the pronunciations.
CARLSSON: Yes, really.
WATSON: That's because I'm cheating, you see.
CARLSSON: We wanted to hear the Dutch too.
WATSON: No, no, I won't go that far. I won't try Hungarian either. But in Let the Right One In they seem to have translated it to "snowmobile".
LANTZ: What, that's completely wrong.
WATSON: But they're out driving in the snow. When it appears in Let the Right One In they're actually out driving in the snow. But I don't really know what they're going to do in the later books when people are out driving on snow-free ground. Then they'll have a problem.
CARLSSON: Short-sighted thinking.
LANTZ: Do you know how John has reacted to the fact that the rack disappears in so many languages?
WATSON: I don't think he... I think he's sympathetic to the fact that the cultures are a bit different. I'm willing to bet that there are worse things that have happened in the translations that we never notice.
LANTZ: I can imagine.
WATSON: But it's actually interesting that he includes the flakmoped in all three of his novels.
CARLSSON: Does he own a flakmoped himself, maybe?
WATSON: I couldn't speak to that. He doesn't ride a flakmoped to the publisher, I can say that much.
CARLSSON: He takes the Bentley instead.
WATSON: Yes, exactly.
LANTZ: But say hello to him for us and tell him that it's very good that he spreads word of the flakmoppe out into the world.
WATSON: That I will!
LANTZ: You could also imagine, like someone on the staff said today, that it's like smörgåsbord. We don't have a translation for it, we just say "smorgasbord". Maybe you could call it "flakmoppe" in English.
WATSON: I don't know if "flack moped" would work so well in every language.
LANTZ: Not all of them, but in very many.
[Watson and Lantz laugh]
WATSON: I'll suggest that if he wants to add a clause to his contract, maybe.
LANTZ: Yes, do that. Say hi to him for us.
WATSON: That I will.
LANTZ: Thanks, Elisabeth.
WATSON: Yes, thank you.
