Quote:
Originally Posted by kj1980
And let's say if one leaves it as just "kantoku." Then they'll be people like you who complain that why didn't they translate this to English.
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And leaving it as "kantoku" also has the disadvantage of cuing the audience that there is something significant about this word, whereas in the Japanese, it would have just been another word.
Long story short, translators have to make choices and there's never one hard and fast rule about how it should be done.
That said, I try as much as possible to make my translations self-contained. I assume as little as possible about my audience, which means assuming that they don't know what "-sama" or whatever mean. If I have to add a translator's note a month down the line, I believe history will absolve me.