15:16 Apr 3, 2012
I think this adds a "voice" to the story. I don't know how old this girl is, that she was obviously amused at being called both "Pani" and "Doctor." Perhaps you could say "Madam Doctor." This is a difficult call. I think that the time she is writing about is the 1940s. People were much more formal then and "Ms" hadn't been invented. In the 1940s, people would have made a stricter distinction between Miss and Mrs in English, but you're doing a translation in the year 2012. (I'm assuming you're translating.) That means that you will either choose to make everything sound the way people spoke in the 1940s, or try to give the narrative a slightly more modern voice. As "Miss" is now considered somewhat derogatory and condescending to many women, using an equivalent of "Madam" might be a way a solution as it is a bit archaic and a bit exotic to a young reader these days but it doesn't carry any negative connotations. |