The long overdue book entry
I think part of the reason I haven't written this earlier, is because the most memorable reading experience was Spinning Silver and I feel like I have already shouted at everybody about it and didn't want to repeat myself over and over again. So I keep it short: If you haven't, go read Spinning Silver! It has great female characters that are more ( Read more... )
In the end, it always boils down to a question of accessibility vs. authenticity? I'm following a JP->E translator, and he's gone into detail about how it's an issue that so many hardcore fans are upset if the honorifics (the -san, -kun, -samas and such) are being cut from a lot of translations and dubs. He said that to someone with no prior knowledge, they are just nonsensical additions, and it's more sensible to try and get the spirit across in changing the phrasing in general. This leads to some purist fans complaining that it makes the result seem too "casual" (when you get a "let's go dig in bro" for a "let's have lunch, Tanaka" for example). Some manga publishers here give a footnote the first time each volume a honorific pops up, but for someone with zero exposure I'm sure trying to translate the spirit is more sensible. (And yet, I've found it tricky myself in some cases writing fanfiction to do that - i.e. with those familial terms. A character is referred to as Kaizuka-otouto, younger brother of Kaizuka, but translations refer to him as Kaizuka Jr. which would put him in relation to his father instead, changing the meaning a lot. What to doooo :'D)
Japanese also has that "address strangers of a certain age as uncle/older brother etc." thing, but that I rarely see translated verbatim? Because yeah, it does sound odd to uninitiated readers and probably would warrant a short Translator's Note (keikaku means plan) in advance if you really insist on keeping it to maintain the cultural integrity of the piece.
One thing I never saw done in the way you're describing though is the pronoun issue, because for languages that just don't have it, it's super strange. A recent crass example was in Your Name, that extremely successful body swap movie. The girl in the boy's body upon meeting his friends behaves really oddly in their eyes by choosing the "wrong" pronoun two times in a row ("How did you get lost on your way to school?" "Well, watashi-" "??" "Boku-" "????" "Ore..?"). The way the translation handled it was just change the bit completely, trying to keep it in the narrative context of the scene ("How did you get lost on your way to school?" "Well I didn't know the way-" "???" "I mean I know..?" "???" "I do know!!"). Again, to purists this is too radical a change of meaning, but it does make it more accessible. Even after years of dealing with pronouns, I'm acutely aware I'll never have the insight of a native speaker/someone with a degree in the language, and it's so changeable depending on context, dialect and era (a pronoun that is is now super dismissive might have been polite in the Edo period, a pronoun that's used as "me" in standard Japanese is used as "I" in the Kansai region etc. pp.).
The way it was handled in the story as you describe it sounds very frustrating to someone who has no experience whatsover with this part of a language, yeah D:
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The way it was handled in the story as you describe it sounds very frustrating to someone who has no experience whatsover with this part of a language, yeah
Yup...I mean for the auntie/sis stuff I would have been happy with some Keikaku-note explaining what exactly it means when non-related people say it to each other. Like is it common or does that imply some special trust? And for some other stuff hamsterwoman is probably right when she said that you have to cut your losses because you can't convey everything in a different language.
(And duh...that one character was always referred to as 'they'. I know about the singular they. The 'and they used a gender-neutral I' was pretty unnecessary BECAUSE THE BOOK ALREADY REFERRED TO THE CHARACTER AS THEY)
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(And duh...that one character was always referred to as 'they'. I know about the singular they. The 'and they used a gender-neutral I' was pretty unnecessary BECAUSE THE BOOK ALREADY REFERRED TO THE CHARACTER AS THEY)
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