Lingue e Linguaggi Lingue Linguaggi 68 (2025), 37-54 ISSN 2239-0367, e-ISSN 2239-0359 DOI 10.1285/i22390359v68p37 http://siba-ese.unisalento.it, © 2025 Università del Salento This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 A TRANSLATION WITH FOOTNOTES The Czech version of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and the translator’s voice in the paratext EVA SPIŠIAKOVÁ CONSTANTINE THE PHILOSOPHER UNIVERSITY IN NITRA Abstract – One of the many reasons for the lasting popularity of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is the strong presence of an authorial voice in his laconic, ingenious footnotes; it is no coincidence that Pratchett’s posthumous biography is subtitled A Life with Footnotes (Wilkins, 2023). Pratchett’s work, full of wordplay and culture-specific references, also places substantial demands on its translators, many of whom are highly acclaimed for their craft – including the Czech translator of Discworld, Jan Kantůrek. In addition to his skilful and engaging approach to Pratchett’s challenging prose, Kantůrek also added his own footnotes alongside the author’s. These range from explanations of references tied to the original anglophone context, to the translator’s own anecdotes and jokes, going well beyond the traditional device for solving intercultural conundrums. While footnotes as ‘the translator’s shame’ (Mounin 1963, xi) have traditionally been viewed as a necessary evil, recent years have brought research exploring footnotes as a valuable component in a translator’s toolkit (Haroon 2019; Miao and Salem, 2008; Paloposki 2010), as well as a method for showcasing the translator’s agency (Paloposki 2010). This paper reimagines footnotes as an opportunity for exploring the translator’s creativity, and provides an insight into the role of the translator’s voice in speculative fiction. Keywords: paratext; footnotes; translating fantasy; Terry Pratchett 1. Introduction Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, a series of fantasy books published between the years 1983 and 2015, have found readership well beyond the traditional fantasy community and its cult status has not waned even a decade after the author’s untimely death. Nominally written as a humorous subversion of classic fantasy tropes and genre conventions, the series of 41 books is at its core a brilliant social satire that addresses topics from xenophobia and warmongering to capitalism and patriarchy. Uniting these seemingly disparate elements and making them into laughing-out-loud funny narratives is the author’s masterful use of the English language, and his strong and unforgettable authorial presence. This presence is particularly noticeable in the frequent footnotes that became one of the hallmarks of Pratchett’s work.