When I played a bit of the film this morning and heard the honorifics in the dub, I was so surprised I had to have a look online to see whether other people had noticed and what they thought.
I watched a bit of the beginning of the first film, starting with the Japanese with Japanese subtitles as that's how I usually get familiar with media that's been translated. I was surprised to see so many words in the English subtitle track went untranslated. For instance, when Palla-Palla says "Tora-no-me-chan (虎の目ちゃん、lit. Little Tiger's Eye)" or uses the spell "Gyaku-Tama (lit. 逆玉、Reverse Ball)."
I noticed Diana calling Usagi and Mamoru Usagi-sama and Mamoru-sama, respectively, and thought, "Alright, that's a choice" but was pretty surprised to hear the honorific on the English dub track, which was my next stop on my assessment of the localization. Not that there's any reason to do it this way. I'm weird and always take the opportunity to use Japanese media as a study opportunity to keep myself sharp in my language skills. I often ask myself, "How would I have translated that?"
I translate media freelance, mostly from Japanese to English but sometimes also English to Japanese. I can say the standard in fiction, music, film, and poetry is usually what is called 意訳 ("i-yaku," or literally "translation of meaning") as opposed to 直訳 ("choku-yaku," or literally "straight [literal] translation"). The highest compliment I can get as a translator is someone telling me, "If I didn't know, I wouldn't think this was a translation."
Coming from this perspective, the untranslated terms and honorifics were pretty jarring to me. Even in the subtitles, I think my first instinct would have been to translate -sama depending on its context (Queen Nehelenia-sama is kind of redundant, so would probably drop -sama, for instance, but Diana could call Usage "Lady Usagi" to similar effect, for instance).
Same could be said about Tora-no-Me-chan (Little Tiger's Eye or Sweet Tiger's Eye or something like this) or Gyaku-Tama (Reverso Ball or something). If not translating, might be helpful to have translator's notes at the beginning of the film to let people know some of these. People unfamiliar with the honorifics might feel it difficult to understand the dub, especially children (the target audience, after all). So, I thought that was a pity.
How to translate is always a choice, and I wouldn't say there is a wrong philosophy to adopt, just maybe more and less useful ways to go about it. Certainly, mistranslations and errors happen, but when considering how much original terminology or sociolinguistic info to leave untranslated is a choice. I used to, when I was first studying Japanese, err on the side of literal translation. However, studying it in Japan in university, I remember we discussed the older Japanese translations (there are several) of the Salinger novel "Catcher in the Rye" versus the new edition by Haruki Murakami.
The title of the older edition was ライ麦畑で捕まえて (Catch Me in the Rye Field) versus a transliteration used in the Murakami edition, キャッチャーインザーライ (just "Catcher in the Rye" rendered in katakana), and we were having a discussion about the recent propensity for things to go untranslated, instead just transliterated in katakana (phonetically rendered so Japanese people can read the original word). My instructor argued that the very point of translation is to ensure people with little or no knowledge of the foreign language can consume and understand the content. And so, although I was arguing for direct translation as more faithful, I realized that her argument for a translation that was faithful to the spirit, intent, and meaning of the original but unfettered by linguistic constraints was more advantageous in most cases.
So, I guess now I'm firmly in that camp now, and that's my guiding maxim when I translate.
It was interesting to hear that the author, Naoko Takeuchi, might have put this stipulation of leaving the honorifics untranslated, even in the dubbing process, on the properties during localization. Where did this information appear? I feel like that's quite an insider scoop!
I still haven't gotten very far into the film but hope to watch more sometime this weekend. I'm glad people are watching it and also interested in this discussion about the dubs and subtitled releases. Of course, my points of reference are the English and Japanese, but its super interesting to hear about the others, as well.
I watched a bit of the beginning of the first film, starting with the Japanese with Japanese subtitles as that's how I usually get familiar with media that's been translated. I was surprised to see so many words in the English subtitle track went untranslated. For instance, when Palla-Palla says "Tora-no-me-chan (虎の目ちゃん、lit. Little Tiger's Eye)" or uses the spell "Gyaku-Tama (lit. 逆玉、Reverse Ball)."
I noticed Diana calling Usagi and Mamoru Usagi-sama and Mamoru-sama, respectively, and thought, "Alright, that's a choice" but was pretty surprised to hear the honorific on the English dub track, which was my next stop on my assessment of the localization. Not that there's any reason to do it this way. I'm weird and always take the opportunity to use Japanese media as a study opportunity to keep myself sharp in my language skills. I often ask myself, "How would I have translated that?"
I translate media freelance, mostly from Japanese to English but sometimes also English to Japanese. I can say the standard in fiction, music, film, and poetry is usually what is called 意訳 ("i-yaku," or literally "translation of meaning") as opposed to 直訳 ("choku-yaku," or literally "straight [literal] translation"). The highest compliment I can get as a translator is someone telling me, "If I didn't know, I wouldn't think this was a translation."
Coming from this perspective, the untranslated terms and honorifics were pretty jarring to me. Even in the subtitles, I think my first instinct would have been to translate -sama depending on its context (Queen Nehelenia-sama is kind of redundant, so would probably drop -sama, for instance, but Diana could call Usage "Lady Usagi" to similar effect, for instance).
Same could be said about Tora-no-Me-chan (Little Tiger's Eye or Sweet Tiger's Eye or something like this) or Gyaku-Tama (Reverso Ball or something). If not translating, might be helpful to have translator's notes at the beginning of the film to let people know some of these. People unfamiliar with the honorifics might feel it difficult to understand the dub, especially children (the target audience, after all). So, I thought that was a pity.
How to translate is always a choice, and I wouldn't say there is a wrong philosophy to adopt, just maybe more and less useful ways to go about it. Certainly, mistranslations and errors happen, but when considering how much original terminology or sociolinguistic info to leave untranslated is a choice. I used to, when I was first studying Japanese, err on the side of literal translation. However, studying it in Japan in university, I remember we discussed the older Japanese translations (there are several) of the Salinger novel "Catcher in the Rye" versus the new edition by Haruki Murakami.
The title of the older edition was ライ麦畑で捕まえて (Catch Me in the Rye Field) versus a transliteration used in the Murakami edition, キャッチャーインザーライ (just "Catcher in the Rye" rendered in katakana), and we were having a discussion about the recent propensity for things to go untranslated, instead just transliterated in katakana (phonetically rendered so Japanese people can read the original word). My instructor argued that the very point of translation is to ensure people with little or no knowledge of the foreign language can consume and understand the content. And so, although I was arguing for direct translation as more faithful, I realized that her argument for a translation that was faithful to the spirit, intent, and meaning of the original but unfettered by linguistic constraints was more advantageous in most cases.
So, I guess now I'm firmly in that camp now, and that's my guiding maxim when I translate.
It was interesting to hear that the author, Naoko Takeuchi, might have put this stipulation of leaving the honorifics untranslated, even in the dubbing process, on the properties during localization. Where did this information appear? I feel like that's quite an insider scoop!
I still haven't gotten very far into the film but hope to watch more sometime this weekend. I'm glad people are watching it and also interested in this discussion about the dubs and subtitled releases. Of course, my points of reference are the English and Japanese, but its super interesting to hear about the others, as well.