Translation
When translating honorific suffixes to other languages, some analogous form of T–V distinction is generally used (which may involve different pronouns—tu/vous or thou/you—or honorifics—see English honorifics), or referring to someone on a first-name basis rather than a family-name basis, or using a nickname or diminutive to indicate intimacy. For example, given a person named HASEGAWA Tarō, one may translate Hasegawa-san as "Mr. Hasegawa", and Hasegawa-kun as "Hasegawa" (slightly formal in English, perhaps appropriate in a school setting) or as "Tarō" (appropriate between friends), the informal Tarō-kun as Tarō, and the diminutive Tarō-chan as Tarry or a similar nickname. Similarly, referring to a child by a respectful term (Hasegawa-sama) as by a company referring to a client might be translated as the somewhat archaic "Master Hasegawa". However, it is not always possible to faithfully reflect the connotations of social status, seniority, or other relationships implied by suffixes.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Honorifics
Famous quotes containing the word translation:
“...it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.”
—Bible: New Testament, 1 Corinthians 7:9.
King James translation reads, “It is better to marry than to burn.”
“Whilst Marx turned the Hegelian dialectic outwards, making it an instrument with which he could interpret the facts of history and so arrive at an objective science which insists on the translation of theory into action, Kierkegaard, on the other hand, turned the same instruments inwards, for the examination of his own soul or psychology, arriving at a subjective philosophy which involved him in the deepest pessimism and despair of action.”
—Sir Herbert Read (1893–1968)
“Any translation which intends to perform a transmitting function cannot transmit anything but information—hence, something inessential. This is the hallmark of bad translations.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)