The below message is on behalf of my friend who has recently started translating. He made a NU account today, but he doesn't seem to have privileges to post a thread yet. ____________________________________________ I have recently started translating a JP web novel. It is my first work and I am only doing it for self-learning, so I have many areas I am unaware about. I had been reading things in JP before, but while reading, my mind can even join broken sentences but while translating, I really need to flesh them out so the reader can understand even without context. There are few problems I have faced where I had a dilemma on deciding what to do about them. 1. This is a very simple beginner problem. I want to know what to do with 兄さん/お兄ちゃん and other similar words. Originally my intention while translating was to minimize the usage of expressions from the language, I am translating from, but I also accept the fact that it can become rigid, translating things literally. In this case, should I translate お兄ちゃん into brother or onii-san? 2. What to do in cases of JP onomatopoeia/sfx? In some cases, where it is applied to something like the sound of wind blowing, I can just exclude them from the sentence itself, since it doesn't hold that importance, but it gets difficult when I don't exactly have a word which can replace it. This problem is further exemplified in case of SFX. How do I translate ふふ? Do I write giggle/fufu? I'd be highly obliged if someone can help sort through these problems.
you could use the original wordings for them, since pretty sure most of the readers here are already familiar with those terms and the feelings can't be really be delivered if you translate them into English. Ex: B-R-O-T-H-E-R who's that girl? compared to O-N-I-I-S-A-N~♪ who's that girl? (see the vibes that you could feel here? *shivers*) same just copy the original ones, like fufufu(sort of plotting laugh hidden intentions), guegue(dunno on where I get this), mwohoho(drill haired oujo laugh), hue hue(fujoshi sort of laugh), buhihihi(buta laugh), hihihi, hehee, haha just made a small note next to it or below the chapter to explain them Edit: Also if you want to change the onomatopoeia try to at least match it with who's the person or what's happening on that onomatopoeia all in all if you can't find a good equivalent word/s for it in English just retain the original form for it, and made references/notes for it that's all. I hope that I could help
1) Oni-san when talking about not biological brother is generally not brother (unless you go into gangster speech, aka if a kid on the street is calling out). Usually it would be "mister". As for whether to translate it or not, that is up to the translator but I wouldn't overdo it with keeping the japanese words. While people who are used to reading get it, it is tougher on new readers and can annoy people. 2) I would not omit them, there are pretty comprehensive lists: http://joannamarple.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Onomatopoeia-Book.pdf you can directly letter translate them too. You can also make up your own if it roughly gets the message through.
1. It's up to you. For me, the only word I didn't translate is Senpai. Or Japanese names and specific terms. 2. Onomatopoeia exist for a reason
1. I would recommend using the onii-san since there are a number of "brother" suffixes and keeping the japanese suffix allows a difference to be shown when a person is referred to using onii-chan, sama, or san. It also helps separate from terms like aniki. 2. Onomatopoeias exist for a reason and can be found in stories in any language, so leave them as is.
onii-san for unknown or slight acquentence...onii-chan for imouto characters....aniki for mob characters
I recommend leaving onomatopoeia and honorifics as romaji. You just can't preserve the nuance in translation; it's too time consuming, you have no clue how other translators treat them, and except for specific circumstances comes out unbelievably awkward. Not to mention honorifics are often the only way tot ell characters apart, and if you interpret you will make mistakes. Maybe add a note explaining the onomatopoeia meaning, but a lot of readers should have a basic understanding of common ones and can look up what they don't. Either way though, you shouldn't worry about it much. One of the most important things to keep in mind is WNs are unedited; the writing is often shitty, so if you are too faithful it will be shitty too, and if you are too faithful it will not come out nice. JP WNs rarely build the characters up; those which do are gems in the rough. Just preserving the character speech quirks in your translation is already labor enough. Have fun digging holes, anonymous friend.
I'm liking your post just for the pdf. If I ever have to write a personal narrative for school again, I hope to remember this post.
As for sfx, i prefer abolishing them. "Crash! The pot fell down" would turn into "The pot fell to the floor with a crash!" English sucks at onomatopoeia. but if you ever need an sfx, consult the link below. http://thejadednetwork.com/sfx/ And I lean towards translating onii-san and stuff into English, if the setting is Western fantasy. any "nuance" from using romaji can be converted with enough literary skill and creativity on the TLer or editors part. ofc, in the end, it just depends on how much effort you wanna put into it.
In the novel I'm tl'ing the mc is 'sort of' reincarnated into a western medieval-ish world, but has met other people who speak Japanese, and when the honorific -San is said by these people it's in katakana, as if to specify it wasn't in the language of that world, but in this foreign language which is Japanese. So in this case I translate most honorifics/terms to English (otousama to Father, or -sama to Sir or Lady, oniisan to brother, for example) except when they don't have a suitable, approximately similar term (I'm looking at you, -chan), and use the Japanese ones when the MC has flashbacks of her Japanese past life (Like when she remembers her talks with her 'oniichan', for example) or when it's clear the author wanted you to know there were actual Japanese words involved in the convo. But this is a very specific setting... As for 2., I'm still newbie enough that I try to translate them all even if they grate on my nerves because sometimes they make the sentences redundant as fuck: -it exploded with a boom! -knock knock, somebody knocked on the door. -it shone with a sparkle (stupid 'KIRAKIRA kagayaku) And so on... Poor sentences.
I couldn't agree more. Using too many Japanese words and onomatopoeia in English sentences makes my skin crawl. Personally, I think you should have the mindset that you need to translate/localize everything as much as possible and using romaji should be your last resort.
I am the above mentioned friend, who was seeking help. Thank you all for your very informative replies. So, I have decided to go with honorifics (I was already adding suffixes anyway) in case of onii-san and the likes where I feel it is necessary. I am translating a normal non-fantasy, JP background work. Regarding okaa-san/otou-san, I am probably still going to use mother/father, since I am not seeing the need to do that yet. At most, I will change them to former only when (and this probably will never happen in the novel I am translating) they are directly calling them. As for sfx/onomatopoeia, I will probably will go case by case basis. I will use them in case of ふふ/あら (oh/huh, doesn't really convey the meaning as well). I am not translating an action novel, so I won't have to do battle scene sfx. I have also been doing this mostly till now and I probably will stick to it until I cannot find a suitable way to do it. Thanks for the help again.
お兄ちゃん = Onii-chan おにいさん = Onii-san Therefore, writing お兄ちゃん as onii-san will be wrong. Similarly, translating it into 'brother' makes it lose its context. There is a difference between: onii-san onii-chan nii-tan onii-sama onii-tama aniki aniue anini niisan nii-chama anigimi-sama By translating it into just that one thing, you're denying the readers the pleasure of reading between the lines. You can tell the characteristics of the characters by what pronouns they use. By removing this unique quirk, you make your translation bland. Of course, if you can find a translation that perfectly captures the essence, context and feel of the word, you should translate it. But simply translating 'onii-chan' as brother will not do. For example, from the above, anigimi-sama means something very different from onii-san, although it refers to 'brother'. Anigimi-sama when broken down becomes 'ani' (big brother), kimi (you, spoken towards your boyfriend or girlfriend) and sama (an honorific pointing towards reverance). When you combine it together, it becomes, "You, my beloved and revered big brother". From this, you can tell that she has romantic feelings towards her big brother and already sees herself as his girlfriend, whether he accepts it or not. As for 'fufu', it's more than a giggle, it's sly giggle. If it's inside a dialogue, then I personally would just write it as fufu. For example "Fufu, you're a cute one, aren't you?" But I would translate it as 'sly giggle' if it's outside of a dialogue. Such as "She looked at me with a giggle (fufu)". If it's a monologue, however, I will keep it as fufu, such as "Fufu, for me to be beaten by this kid."
The diabolical debate of whether to keep Japanese honorifics or not lol. Well it just depends on how americanized you want to make it