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I have a philosophical question for all the translators out there. It seems that the convention is to retain most or all of the honorifics from the Japanese text (e.g. -san, -sama, -chan, -sensei etc.) in Edited Mangas. I think this is a phenomenon unique to the Edited Manga community, because translations of Japanese literature don't include them as far as I know. The translators of those works must find ways to work around it, although I admit I haven't read too many of them, so I don't know for sure.
My question to all of you is two parts.
First, why has the community decided to keep honorifics in the translations? For my own part, I can think of a couple of reasons.
1) Japanese culture has a much deeper hierarchy of respect than English-speaking cultures. Since these levels of respect are integral to many conversations, they've been retained.
2) The level of intimacy between two people is conveyed quickly and accurately by the honorifics, and the majority of Edited Manga readers will be familiar with how this works to some extent.
If anyone has any history or insight into why this became the convention, please share. Feel free to also share your own reasons why you keep them and what, if any, particular conventions you've developed surrounding them.
Second, has anyone considered dropping the honorifics in their translations (or implemented it)? And if so, why did you do so and how did it work out? For my part, I lean towards keeping them. Let me give you a hypothetical situation in which it would be problematic to omit them.
This is a love story about Boy A and girl B. A meets B at school. B is somewhat tsundere and so she addresses him as A-san at first. As they gradually get closer through various comical and romantic moments, A and B develop feelings for each other, but B still calls him A-san. A is frustrated by B's hesitance. Then, one night after some momentous event in their relationship, B bids A farewell by saying, "Good night A" (omitting -san). This unexpected expression of intimacy causes A to blush.
Had she kissed him, his blushing would have been obvious. However, since their relationship is developing slowly and A is unsurprisingly bad with girls, this difference in address has a lot of meaning. The question is, how on earth do you express this in English? B wasn't necessarily calling him "Mr. A", nor did she suddenly call him "My little A-poo". If one were translating this as it serialized, he'd have no idea that this event were coming and could not therefore develop a convention to work around it.
If anyone has read much Japanese literature translated into English, could you also share how the translators dealt with honorifics there? If you have any ideas about how they could be handled, please share those too. Apologies for the wordy post. I hope it generates a lot of discussion.
My question to all of you is two parts.
First, why has the community decided to keep honorifics in the translations? For my own part, I can think of a couple of reasons.
1) Japanese culture has a much deeper hierarchy of respect than English-speaking cultures. Since these levels of respect are integral to many conversations, they've been retained.
2) The level of intimacy between two people is conveyed quickly and accurately by the honorifics, and the majority of Edited Manga readers will be familiar with how this works to some extent.
If anyone has any history or insight into why this became the convention, please share. Feel free to also share your own reasons why you keep them and what, if any, particular conventions you've developed surrounding them.
Second, has anyone considered dropping the honorifics in their translations (or implemented it)? And if so, why did you do so and how did it work out? For my part, I lean towards keeping them. Let me give you a hypothetical situation in which it would be problematic to omit them.
This is a love story about Boy A and girl B. A meets B at school. B is somewhat tsundere and so she addresses him as A-san at first. As they gradually get closer through various comical and romantic moments, A and B develop feelings for each other, but B still calls him A-san. A is frustrated by B's hesitance. Then, one night after some momentous event in their relationship, B bids A farewell by saying, "Good night A" (omitting -san). This unexpected expression of intimacy causes A to blush.
Had she kissed him, his blushing would have been obvious. However, since their relationship is developing slowly and A is unsurprisingly bad with girls, this difference in address has a lot of meaning. The question is, how on earth do you express this in English? B wasn't necessarily calling him "Mr. A", nor did she suddenly call him "My little A-poo". If one were translating this as it serialized, he'd have no idea that this event were coming and could not therefore develop a convention to work around it.
If anyone has read much Japanese literature translated into English, could you also share how the translators dealt with honorifics there? If you have any ideas about how they could be handled, please share those too. Apologies for the wordy post. I hope it generates a lot of discussion.