People around the world love Captain Haddock and his curses and they write:
I remember looking through my father's old Tintin books from the fifties (the Golden Press issues) and two Captain Haddock-isms stand out in my memory. The first is from Crab With The Golden Claws. When their caravan is ambushed by North-African bandits, Haddock goes into a crazed conniption when one of the sharpshooters hits his beloved bottle (horrors!). While running after them, one of his expletives is "Rug Merchants". Man, could you get away with printing that these days?
The second is from Destination Moon. When Haddock attempts to cure Calculus of his amnesia by scaring him via dressing up as a ghost, he trips on the bedsheet, and as he's struggling to free himself, he screams "Ten Thousand Terrifying Turtles!" Of course, as a nine-year-old, trying to picture what 10,000 terrifying turtles would look like had me on the floor in fits of uncontrolable laughter.
To this day, more than 20 years later, whenever I'm in a sticky situation, I always wonder what Haddock would say under the circumstances.
As for Haddock's curses . . . . In Crab w/ Golden Claws, when the first mate's right-hand man takes Haddock's bottle from him, he goes into another whirling snit, and when the first mate goes in to subdue him, he is promptly thrown out black and blue, along with the insult "Cocoon!"
In Secret of the Unicorn, when the Byrd brothers' henchman, the one who tried desperately to buy Tintin's model of the Unicorn in a bidding battle against Mr. Sakharine, shows up at Tintin's door to blow the cover on the whole affair, he is summarily gunned down in what would today be called a "drive by". Haddock's choice of words seemed tame by his usual standards, but they sound poetic: "Bandits! Bums! Gangsters!"
And, as we can see through his ancestor, Sir Francis, Haddockisms are hereditary. During the pitched battle as the pirates board the Unicorn, Sir Francis goes after a gigantic swordsman, calling him a "centipede" as he runs him through. Later, Sir Francis, during the sword duel, calls Red Rackham a "clown" and a "fresh-water pirate", quite possibly one of the worst insults that one could hurl at a bucaneer during those bygone seafaring days. Interestingly, one of the funniest euphemisms come from Red Rackham himself: he tells Sir Francis that he will make him "Swallow his Beard!" Again, to a nine-year-old, the mental imagery is hysterical.
And in Explorers on the Moon (or was it Destination, I'm not sure) he calls the Thompsons "That pair of Sea Gherkins". (Sadly, our entire Tintin collection was lost in a flood some years ago, hence my sketchy memory) But I do remember him calling Wolff a "two-faced insect" in Explorers, and a "cad". He also calls someone a "cyclotron" in one of these, possibly the result of Herge's meticulous research into the field of Nuclear Science for the story. I wonder how many letters from Nuclear Physicists he received from that!
I am from Iran and I first read Tintin in Farsi translations (Or I better say, I learned how to read before going to school to be able to read Tintin books!!).
Haddock's favorite curse in Farsi, in lieu of 'Mille Sabord' or 'Blistering Barnacles ' is 'La'nat bar Sheytun', which means 'Curse the Satan'. In severe cases, it becomes 'Sad-hezaar La'nat bar Sheytun' which is 'Hundred thousand times cursing the Satan'.
By the way, the Farsi pronounciation of Haddock's name is 'Kapitaan Haadook'.
Anyway, my main reason for writing was to give you some information about "Tintin in Tibet." As you may recall, in this episode, Herge has two scenes involving a character--an Indian counterpart of the hot-tempered Haddock--who speaks a couple lines in Hindi, and Herge has written them in the Hindi script. The first such occurence is on Page 11, Line 2, Frame 1, and the second on Page 14, Line 2, Last Frame. In case no one has ever told you before, I thought you'd like to know the translations of these two outbursts. They are, respectively,
Page 11--"What sir?! Don't you see what's in front of you?"
one of my favourite tintin books is THE LAND OF BLACK GOLD - where the two thom(p)sons play a great role. Another book I love is THE CRAB WITH THE GOLDEN CLAWS. Both books have an Arabian setting. my query is: in each of these books - there appear to be swear words in arabian language. Can anybody tell me the exact meaning of these words - roughly translated?
If you recollect "Tintin in Tibet", you'll note that there is mention of a peak in the Himalayas that resembles Matterhorn in Switzerland. I had the privilege of visiting the base of this peak(called Shivling peak), after a gruelling trek of 24 kilometres. The resemblance is uncanny! Of course, I've only seen pictures of Matterhorn! Shivling peak rises majestically to a height of 6643 metres above M.S.L. and is unconquered as on date. The route is:
Delhi--------------Rishikesh--------------Gangotri---------------Gaumukh--------------Tapovan
My reason for adding the above para is to highlight the painstaking & accurate research Herge must have undertaken in order to collect background material for the adventures.
'Alle hunderttausend heulenden und jaulenden Hoellenhunde!'
which has nothing to do with sailors or storms at all, but is about the hundreds of thousands of wailing and crying hounds of hell. I don't even know if there is such a thing as a 'hellhound' in english, but it seems as if the german translation mainly wanted to go with the high numbers of the original and make the phrase roll smoothly (for german speakers it does!)
just my 2 cents"
(Many thanks to Dominique Bataille from Montpellier, France who confirms that "moule à gaufres" does indeed mean waffle mold (or waffle iron). Dominique also adds two more very interesting pieces of information:
Page 14--"What? You again?"
:-)
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