Unauthorized Kazakh (Partial) Translation of Philosopher’s Stone

Credit for digging this one up goes to @harrypotter_liburuak for this delightful little find. Despite the fact that the translation is only the first four chapters, it is remarkable in the amount of attention it received. The Translator, Assylai Seitenova, who was only in high school at the time, received quite a lot of media attention and even went so far as to do a TEDx talk about it! It’s pretty uncommon to be celebrated as a pirate translator; she might even be the first I’ve seen.

Which may have unfortunately resulted in the translation being scrubbed from the internet: she had made it freely downloadable but no longer. I suspect that she received some sort of cease and desist. I did manage to dig it up—but I’ll leave that as an exercise for intrepid collectors.

What is unfortunate is that the downloadable document does not include the cover art that was created by her friend, Olzhas Yesenbaev, which is by any standards a delightful interpretation! A clear copy of that artwork I was not able to dig up—if anyone knows how to get a hold of it, please let me know!

What the download did include were a few chapter illustrations that are really gorgeous! I am not sure if it’s the same artist, her friend, or not. I would have assumed so; however, the signatures—Sh.RO—on the images aren’t really consistent. It’s hard to say whether the style is consistent with the cover—again, if any one can offer some insight, please do!