What should be prioritized in a translation (Spoilers for If It's For My Daughter... book 8)?
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I put the text in a spoiler in case someone clicked on the link without reading the title. Spoilers for If it's for my daughter... book 8.
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@db0ssman said in What should be prioritized in a translation (Spoilers for If It's For My Daughter... book 8)?:
avoids the landmines of using a word like 'daughter' would be
The series already walked on that landmine a long time ago when they chose the title. The harm is already done and I doubt not using "daughter" here would have much of an impact either way.
On that topics the title really wasn't a good choice, especially since the 2 actually don't have much of an age gap and no real parent-child relationship after vol2.
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Elf Bride started out with a similarly unfortunate title, as Slave Elf Bride. JNC fixed that, and now the title fits the story.
If the title was changed to something else like If it's for my Beloved I'd... that might help .
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@HarmlessDave said in What should be prioritized in a translation (Spoilers for If It's For My Daughter... book 8)?:
If the title was changed to something else like If it's for my Beloved I'd...
You sure that won't be even more creepy with how Latina is 8(iirc) years old at the start of the series? %)
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@Wellwisher said in What should be prioritized in a translation (Spoilers for If It's For My Daughter... book 8)?:
@HarmlessDave said in What should be prioritized in a translation (Spoilers for If It's For My Daughter... book 8)?:
If the title was changed to something else like If it's for my Beloved I'd...
You sure that won't be even more creepy with how Latina is 8(iirc) years old at the start of the series? %)
Beloved just means much loved, and the love can be romantic or familial. So at first it's short for "beloved ward" then later "beloved bride".
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You aren't constantly reading the title of series while you are reading the book, so I think even with that as it is, it doesn't rip you from the story as you are reading like that line did for me.
@Wellwisher said in What should be prioritized in a translation (Spoilers for If It's For My Daughter... book 8)?:
@HarmlessDave said in What should be prioritized in a translation (Spoilers for If It's For My Daughter... book 8)?:
If the title was changed to something else like If it's for my Beloved I'd...
You sure that won't be even more creepy with how Latina is 8(iirc) years old at the start of the series? %)
@Raitoiro She's actually only 7 when the series starts (they say that explicitly many times). I'm not 100% sure of Dale's age though. I thought he was supposed to be around 20 somewhere (19-22ish) at the start, but I can't remember them ever saying directly. I know he left Tislow at 15 and was taught the ropes of being an adventurer by Kenneth and forged a close relationship with the prime minister and Gregor in the time before he met Latina. We also know that he also left Tislow for a few years, returned and was absolutely despondent, and then a few years after that he returned with Latina. A 22 yo could definately be the bilogical father of a 7-yo, let alone an adoptive one.
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As someone learning Japanese, I do literal first and then consider context to decide appropriate meaning.
Not sure if it is the most efficient... But why it takes a month or two to read a book in native. -
I think different people will have different views on this problem, but personally I like keeping the original wording. Understanding the context and the culture behind such wording is part of the fun too. Unless the meaning is lost through a literal translation (like a joke).
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@tgquan67 I understand what you are trying to say, but I'd find the quote I was referencing to be similar to the joke you were talking about. If you are trying to elicit emotion from your reader, you probably don't want them to have to coldly analyze what is written just not to be skeezed out by what you say, let alone empathize with it. I guess I was asking to do more with fringe cases.
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@db0ssman Yeah 13 is starting to get quite big of a gap, I thought Dale was around 17yold but I probably confused his age when he quit his village and when he finds Latina.
Do you like death, war and misery ?
Do you like badass op loli who let nobody got in their way ?
Do you like vengeance story?
If so then then vote for The girl who ate a death god -
@Raitoiro I think that comes from the fact that while trying to decide if he should return Latina's feelings, Dale comes to the realization that he is only 10 years older than her which becomes the impetus for him deciding to return her feelings. But literally a couple of chapters later his brother says that he isn't comfortable with the thought of someone 10 years younger than him as marrying his older brother. So, I think that is more of a crude estimate than an actual number. I'm not inclined to believe he is exactly 10 years older because that means there would only have been 2 years between when he left Tislow and met Latina, which seems like a short time for everything that happened in that gap.
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I thought that it was mentioned somewhere in the story that he left Tislow at the age of 15 and at the beginning of the story he was 18?
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@tgquan67 They said that 18 was the age of majority in laband, even though he started adventuring at 15, and I think they implied he was now older than 18, but don't give an exact number. Not 100% sure on that, though.
Edit: Ok, I just looked it up and it says he just turned 18 when he is first introduced in book 1. So he is 11 years older than Latina. Still he is on the borderline of being old enough to be her father instead of actually old enough to being her father. Not sure it changes much.
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@db0ssman 11 years isn't even really weird in our world, much less a fictional fantasy series. Now him being her literal guardian for a majority of her pre-pubescent and teenage life? That's what is kinda creepy about it. Marriage is supposed to be between two people who are equals, not when one has a position of authority over the other.
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@LegitPancake Sure... Except this is a fantasy world.
Generally speaking, attempting to moralize the story without actually taking in account the story is probably doomed to fail. That's always the problem when this discussion comes up.
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@xdrfiredogx I actually agree with you there, and I very much liked how the author handled that.
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@LegitPancake said in What should be prioritized in a translation (Spoilers for If It's For My Daughter... book 8)?:
@db0ssman 11 years isn't even really weird in our world, much less a fictional fantasy series. Now him being her literal guardian for a majority of her pre-pubescent and teenage life? That's what is kinda creepy about it. Marriage is supposed to be between two people who are equals, not when one has a position of authority over the other.
I agree with you there. If they met when she was 19 and he was 30, there wouldn't be any problem. But if they met at those ages he wouldn't be under the impression that he was her (adopted) father for the majority of their relationship before mairrage, and that is what makes what happens creepy.
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@xdrfiredogx said in What should be prioritized in a translation (Spoilers for If It's For My Daughter... book 8)?:
@LegitPancake Sure... Except this is a fantasy world.
Generally speaking, attempting to moralize the story without actually taking in account the story is probably doomed to fail. That's always the problem when this discussion comes up.
Somehow talking about this story always seems to loop back into just how bad their age gap is. My question is more of a nuts and bolts kind of question. In a scene where the author is trying to drum up positive emotions should it be translated in a way to remind the readers of cultural taboos and elicit the wrong emotional reaction (even if you can go down a long rabbit hole of logic to justify why it is ok, it will still have the initial negative reaction).
On the first point of it being a fantasy world so it is ok; I don't think what he did is entirely accepted there either. Even though a lot of the female characters (i.e. Rita, Granny Wen, Chloe) seem to immediately accept the situation and think it is fine, a lot of the male characters seem not to. Dale's father and brother both have doubts about if Dale should marry her, and Dale is afraid to tell his cousin of the wedding because he doesn't want to be judged for marrying someone that he introduced as his daughter.
