Try making up an English equivalent.
o hai
Any suggestions?
If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.
Do you know if you can write that scene without the pun?
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
It's The Greatest Day.
The first thing that came to mind was "papa" being misheard as "paw-paw", but I guess it's a bit hard to excuse the mishearing in the context you gave.
All I can say is, あきらめないで. Translator's notes are a failure state. I only use them in Liar Game to convert yen values into equivalent dollar amounts (and even then, I just converted yen to dollars in dialogue for Kurifuji's explanation of the "door-in-the-face technique".)
In the event of a firestorm, the salad bar will remain open.
Another casual name for father is pop and he could misinterpret it to mean pop as in soda pop...
edited 3rd May '11 6:07:25 PM by Cresneta
It's The Greatest Day.
...Rereading that, I do kinda like my idea. If everyone else says "otou-san", render that as "dad" or "father", and the odd "toto-chan" as "papa" (which past!kid's father hears as "paw-paw").
In the event of a firestorm, the salad bar will remain open.
o hai
Well...I could...but that would mean changing pretty much every single instance the child refers to his father.
Paw-paw would work if it was a one-time sort of thing but the child calls him that all the time so it seems kind of hard for me to think of a reason as to why he would keep misinterpreting it when there actually is a rather noticeable difference in sound...and I just don't like the word papa.
I think I might just go with the translation note after all, when I read stories in English class for testing and stuff they often just used them and it didn't look too bad to me, and besides most of the characters have Japanese names anyway.
edited 4th May '11 6:09:15 AM by Edmania
If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.
Short Hair
The son could call his father "Pop" or "Pappy," which he mishears as "pup" or "puppy."
Another possibility is calling him "sire" or "father" with an interruption from a burp or hiccup. "Sire" could become "psych" or "circ" or "sick." "Father" could become "further" or "fickle" or even "tickler." If possible, lay the groundwork by having the son be nervous about the meeting and suppress a couple of hiccups.
Under World. It rocks!
Ave Imperator
Edmania: The big thing we need to know is what you're trying to accomplish with the pun. I can't speak for the Japanese, but in America, Canda, and to a lesser extent, in Britain, puns generally aren't considered funny or clever.
edited 4th May '11 8:40:17 AM by Archereon
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Stayin' Alive
The only one I can can come up with is "Papi" -> "Poppy".
Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit Deviantart.
Seconded. Puns are easier to do with Japanese due to their large number of homophones, but in general, using a pun will just get a facepalm out of most English-speaking audiences.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
o hai
- Display of childishness.
- I want to avoid having a 9 year old calling a 7 year old "father" with the 7 year old really believing he's supposed to be the older person's one.
Should I make some pun that vaguely relates to the one I want to translate, or should I just slap on a translation note?
The pun is from when a person's child goes into the past, and the child meets his father in child form, and calls him "toto-chan"(ととちゃん）but the father misinterprets it as 兎兎ちゃん(also read as "toto-chan", but rather than "father" it means something like "bunnies") mainly because he doesn't know that he's supposed to be the time traveling child's father, and because he only ever hears people calling their fathers with more politeness, like using "otou-san" (お父さん) while "toto-chan" is pretty much something like what something you adore that is lower or equal to you in status would be called.
If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.