I'm currently translating a webnovel. And here's the case. The protagonist's master uses a term to refer to himself when he speaks. He says “本道爷” or “道爷我” a lot to replace "I". I wonder how I can translate it in a comprehensible way. It's a bit similar to the Japanese word "oresama". My translation is "This Daoist Master". Are there any more authentic ways to translate? Thx.
I like your choice! Illeism is less common in English than in Mandarin so it's hard to tl. "this one" and variants of it (this slave, this illustrious one, etc) are used most frequently imo, so i think your "this daoist master" makes a lot of sense.
Hello! Just joined. One phrase that is sometimes natural in English is 'yours truly', but it's still used much more sparingly in a single conversation than you'd get in Chinese. My thought for more natural dialogue would be to adapt the style of speech to display more arrogance, through vocab and tone. That way a similar effect is delivered to the reader without having to be literal. It's an idea, hope it helps.
I don't think that there's any particularly great way of translating Chinese honorifics. These tend not to have any direct equivalents in English, and they often express a lot of information between the speaker and the person he or she is speaking to. Let's just look at 本道爷 and 道爷我 see what ideas they represent: 1. He is referring to his (self-perceived) status as an Daoist elder. In the real world only actual Daoist monks would refer to themselves like this, but in xianxia novels this applies to just about everyone so only the elder part means much. 2. It's an uncouth way of referring to yourself so it signifies a lack of education or upbringing. 3. It's very arrogant, so he perceives himself as having much higher status than the person he's speaking to. 4. It's disrespectful so it expresses how he much he values the opinion of the person he's speaking to. Or it can be a combination of any of the above. The best way to handle this form of speech is to just pick whichever one of these is suitable and base the translation around that. It's better to keep the term simple than trying to cover everything. Also, note that even when he's using the same term, what the character is expressing can differ so it can make sense to use a different translation at different times even when the Chinese wording stays the same.
Thank you. Your analysis is spot on. This man is an illiterate and cruel sect leader. However, the translation of this word is necessary. It is so closely related to the later plot that if it is not translated, the reading experience of the book will be greatly compromised.