Indonesian 'Potter' translator eager for Book 7

Associated Press — Translator Listiani Srisanti brought J.K. Rowling’s magical tales about Harry Potter to life for millions of Indonesians — even after doctors diagnosed her with cancer and told her she had only a few months to live.

Fortunately, they were wrong.


The 53-year-old says she’s beaten back the disease and, like other fans in the world’s fourth most populous nation, is eagerly awaiting publication of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in the series.

Srisanti, who has translated all six other Harry Potter books into Indonesian, will get to work translating immediately, a process that could take months.

“I don’t know how long it will take,” she said, adding even though she is a production manager at PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, the local publisher of the Harry Potter series, she won’t get her hands on a copy before Saturday’s launch.

“It depends on how thick the novel is and its level of difficulty,” said Srisanti, who can hardly wait to find out what happens to the schoolboy wizard.

Srisanti, who was born to a family of book lovers in the Central Java provincial capital of Semarang, thought her life was over when she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2004. Doctors said the cancer cells had spread all over her body and gave her only two months to live. But three years and 24 rounds of chemotherapy later, she’s is in remission.

“I’m grateful to God,” said Srisanti. “I’m also eager to see what happens to Harry.”