How would you choose to translate 'Moe'?

[Aorii]

After stumbling across "『オレ、実は巫女さん萌えなんだ』", it brought up a rather interesting conversation, so I would like to poke for thoughts and suggestions from the other project translators...

Now, for a lot of terms, there is a 1-to-1 literal translation so leaving the Japanese term is too 'otaku pandering', whatever. But imo, 'Moe' however is one of those terms that really clouds the boundaries. I have seen many people try to explain this term and fail, since it means somewhat differently to different people.

On one hand, it's comparable with the concept of fetishism -- something specifically seen as a turn on.
On the other hand, moe isn't always classified in a sexual manner, especially the argument that moe is a "pure, protective feeling towards a female character". Some even argue that its an attempt to evoke 'paternal' feelings from males.
So basically something like 'attraction' would cover it, except that 'attraction' doesn't even come close to describing the intensity of 'moe' within the fandom.
There's also the matter that it also differed between fandoms: for example, moe is usually classified by character archetypes; but for fujoshi it's usually classified by relationship types/phases instead.

So yeah... if you had to translate moe in "I find [something] moe", what would you do it as?

Yes, I know this is heavily dependent on the style and literal-ness of the translator. I just wanted to see what everyone else's choice would be with something like this ^^

[EusthEnoptEron]

Personally, I'd go with "moe". Hell, Akihabara is mentioned in this series, so the reader is obliged to know some otaku jargon.

And if some scary entity behind me blocked that option out, I'd simply go with something along the lines of "I'm a sucker for...".

[Kadi]

There are so many other ways to make it work that I wouldn't keep it in an overall serious novel. However, if the novel is moe-focused or moe stuff is one of the central themes, I wouldn't mind leaving it.

And what did you mean with scary entity, Eusth? *menacing smile* I want the novels I edit to be as good as possible, you know that. Who cares if one or two translators kick the bucket along the way...

[Aorii]

(B-T staffers' responses to questions are just so overwhelming, aren't they? ^^;;)

"I'm a sucker for...".

Oh nice, quite a ring to it, and definitely a lot more expressive than the current edit I have for it which is "I have a thing for..."

And what did you mean with scary entity, Eusth? *menacing smile* I want the novels I edit to be as good as possible, you know that. Who cares if one or two translators kick the bucket along the way...

PFTTTT stop applying your mathematical thinking to everything! Neither people nor literature is purely logical =P
I'll happily slap any manager who tries to talk "statistically speaking" (yes I have chewed out my own boss over this).

[rock96]

Kadi, Eusth, so who is slave and who is master in your duo exactly? It's soooo confusing, and I need to clarify it in my notes~.

[Kadi]

Back to topic... how do you get the moe out of

そう、これこそ萌え。妹萌え！
"Right, this is moe! Imouto moe!"

?


Going with the sucker we get...

"Right, this is being a sucker! A sucker for little sisters!"

But... I don't know...

[EusthEnoptEron]

Spoiler! :

Just leave it in there. Seriously.

[Kadi]

Is it wrong to try to make it as English as possible?


And if we allow moe, where do we stop? Is "imouto" okay, too? "Kawaii"? (I could kill people for saying these two) How about stuff like "itadakimasu", "ittekimasu", "okaeri"? "oyasumi"? Do we keep "itadakimasu" when translating into English because there's no equivalent but when translating into German we use "Guten Appetit"? *rantrant*