Calling You Names in Japanese

After posting on how to translate the word “you” in the Japanese business world, here I am dealing with different expressions for “you” in #personal #communication in Japanese.
 
An intriguing book by Junko Sakai,
“うまれることば、しぬことば” (its title freely translated by me: Words Being Newly Born and Dying) / Publisher: Shueisha
inspired me to write this post.
 
In a nutshell, the author claims that Kimi (君) and Anata (あなた) are the second-person pronouns in vogue nowadays in Japanese pop songs, in which the use of Omae (おまえ) and Anta （あんた） used to be predominant.
 
But if your boss calls you “Kimi” and “Anata” at the office, he or she will mostly likely be seen as committing an abuse of power. It is almost like calling you names.
 
This reminded me of how difficult I found it to translate a love letter for a similar reason. The casual and formal forms of you (“du” vs “Sie” in German) can also be expressed in Japanese by hitting the right linguistic note (the familiarity increases in the order of #敬語 (謙譲語) honorific (humble) < #丁寧語 polite < #口語 colloquial < #ため口 casual).
 
Ultimately, I needed to know how intimate they were but I did not dare to ask as the job came through an agency.
 
I still wonder whether the end client won the heart of his beloved by using my translation.

This is yet another example to prove that translators bear grave responsibility.

#TranslationLoveLetters2Patents #TranslationServiceArai #Japanese #German #English