omigod, honestly they use "Naive"? Oh dear. And "Tianzhen" is such a great nickname as it is.
but what I want is that nuance. I love hearing WX's uncle call him "Xiao Xie" and the subs don't even mention it, sigh. Yes! I mean, the Lost Tomb thing is probably a subtitler's nightmare because it's all nicknames (I'm afraid to wonder what they do with "Xiazi")--and nicknames of nicknames! Huo Daofu is "Xiao Huo" to Wu Xie and "Dr. Youtiao" to Pangzi (yet another one--"Youtiao Yisheng"? "Dr. Fried Dough"? oy). Pangzi himself gets called Pang-ge and Pang-shu and Pang-ye and si-Pangzi and once in a while Wang Yueban depending on who's talking to him in what context, and Wu Xie is Tianzhen and Xiao Xie and Xiao San-ye (and Pangzi tries to get Xiao Bai to call them er-ge and san-ge, only she doesn't bite), and...a pain to reflect in English but SO WORTH IT.
I like using "Black Cloaked Envoy" because it feels like a title, but when it comes to ZYL's unique variations - well, then I'm back at "Hei Lao-ge" because I see no way to translate that and keep the flavor. Yes, I think I've basically avoided "Hei Lao-ge" because it's so hard that way--"Brother Black" a couple of times, although that sounds like a monk...
I wish English had formal you versus informal you - my own language has that, and I really miss it. It would give so much more intimacy when a character switches from one to the other... you know what, I did not know English wasn't your first language. Now I'm curious about which version of the formal/informal divide you have. (Also I was reminded of something from the Japanese writer I used to study, Chujo Yuriko, writing in 1929 to her Russian-speaking girlfriend: "You know, I hear people in London say “you” to anyone, no matter how intimate they may be, as if they were reciting something by heart; I miss [Russian informal] t’i or [Japanese informal] omae.")
no subject
but what I want is that nuance. I love hearing WX's uncle call him "Xiao Xie" and the subs don't even mention it, sigh.
Yes! I mean, the Lost Tomb thing is probably a subtitler's nightmare because it's all nicknames (I'm afraid to wonder what they do with "Xiazi")--and nicknames of nicknames! Huo Daofu is "Xiao Huo" to Wu Xie and "Dr. Youtiao" to Pangzi (yet another one--"Youtiao Yisheng"? "Dr. Fried Dough"? oy). Pangzi himself gets called Pang-ge and Pang-shu and Pang-ye and si-Pangzi and once in a while Wang Yueban depending on who's talking to him in what context, and Wu Xie is Tianzhen and Xiao Xie and Xiao San-ye (and Pangzi tries to get Xiao Bai to call them er-ge and san-ge, only she doesn't bite), and...a pain to reflect in English but SO WORTH IT.
I like using "Black Cloaked Envoy" because it feels like a title, but when it comes to ZYL's unique variations - well, then I'm back at "Hei Lao-ge" because I see no way to translate that and keep the flavor.
Yes, I think I've basically avoided "Hei Lao-ge" because it's so hard that way--"Brother Black" a couple of times, although that sounds like a monk...
I wish English had formal you versus informal you - my own language has that, and I really miss it. It would give so much more intimacy when a character switches from one to the other...
you know what, I did not know English wasn't your first language. Now I'm curious about which version of the formal/informal divide you have. (Also I was reminded of something from the Japanese writer I used to study, Chujo Yuriko, writing in 1929 to her Russian-speaking girlfriend: "You know, I hear people in London say “you” to anyone, no matter how intimate they may be, as if they were reciting something by heart; I miss [Russian informal] t’i or [Japanese informal] omae.")