AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION OF
SHIRAISHI’S YOUNG HEROES: THE INDONESIAN FAMILY
IN POLITICS INTO PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA: KELUARGA
INDONESIA DALAM POLITIK BASED ON TRANSLATION
EQUIVALENCE THEORIES
A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Program in English Language Studies
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora (M. Hum) in
English Language Studies
by
YOHANA VENIRANDA
01.6332.007
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2003
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PAGE OF TITLE ……………..……………………………………………..… i
PAGE OF APPROVAL ………...…………………………………………..…. ii
PAGE OF DEFENCE APPROVAL PAGE …………………………………. iii
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ……………………………………….…. iv
LIST OF TABLES ……………………..……………………………………..... v
LIST OF FIGURES …………………….…………………………………..…. vi
ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………...…. vii
ABSTRAK ….…………………………………………………………….….… ix
PREFACE …………………………………………………………………...… xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………...….. xiii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………….. 1
A. Background of Study………………………………………………….…… 1
B. Problem Formulation …………………………………………………..….. 7
C. Objectives of Study ………………………………………………………… 7
D. Problem Limitation ………………………………………………….….…. 8
E. Benefits of the Study ………………………………………………….…… 8
CHAPTER II. THEORETICAL REVIEW …………………………………. 10
A. Definitions of Terms …………………………………………………….…. 10
1. Translation ………………………………………………………………..… 10
2. Source Text (ST) ...…………………………………………………………. 12
3. Target Text (TT) ………………………………………………………....… 12
4. Source Language (SL) …………………………………………………...… 13
5. Target Language (TL) …………………………………………………..…. 13
B. Theories on Translation……………………………………………….…... 13
1. The Processes of Translation ………………………………………….…... 14
2. General Principles of Translation ………………………………………..… 21
3. Approaches to Translation ………………………………………….……… 23
a. The Functional Approach ……………………………………….….…… 24
b. The Variational Approach ……………………………………….……… 25
4. Approaches to Teaching Translation ……………………………….……….27
a. The Process-Oriented Approach ……………………………….……...… 27
b. The Product-Oriented Approach ………………………………….……... 31
5. Equivalence …………………………………………………………..…….. 31
a. Equivalence at Word Level ……………………………………….……... 32
b. Equivalence above Word Level ….……………………………….……... 36
c. Grammatical, Textual, and Pragmatic Equivalence .……………….….… 39
6. Untranslatability ……………………………………………………….….... 46
7. Using Translation as a Resource for the Promotion of Language
Learning …………………………….……………………………………… 48
C. Theories on English to Indonesian Translation ….……………………… 50
1. Simple and Complex Noun Phrases ………………….………………….… 51
2. Conjunctions and Conjuncts ………………………….…………………… 51
3. Relative Pronouns …………………………………….…………………… 53
4. Tense and Aspect …………………………………….……………………. 54
5. Articles ……………………………………………….………….…………. 56
6. Prepositions ………………………………………….………….………….. 57
7. Pronouns …………………………………………….………….…………... 60
8. Singular and Plural ………………………………….……………………… 61
9. Problems in English to Indonesian Translation: Grammatical and
Socio-Political-Cultural Aspects …………………….……………….…….. 63
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY …………………………………………. 69
A. Research Data ………………………….…………………………………. 69.
B. Research Procedures ……………. …………………………………….… 70.
C. Data Analysis ………….………………………….…………………….…. 70
CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ………………..… 74
A. Data ……………………………………………………………………...… 74
B. Analysis …..……………………………………………………………...… 97
C. Discussion …..……………………………………………………………... 130
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS …………….…… 140
A. Conclusions …..….……………………………………………………..… 140
B. Suggestions ……....……………………………………………………….. 144
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………… 147
APPENDIX ….……………………………………………………………….. 151
ABSTRACT
YOHANA VENIRANDA. (2003). AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION OF SHIRAISHI’S YOUNG HEROES: THE INDONESIAN FAMILY IN POLITICS INTO PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA: KELUARGA INDONESIA DALAM POLITIK BASED ON TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE THEORIES. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.
This thesis has aimed at exploring the theories on translation as an overview in general and the theories on English to Indonesian in particular, and presenting the results of a case study on a translation product. There are three questions in this study. The first is what the psychological nature of translation processes is. The second is what the theoretical nature of English to Indonesian translation is. And the third is how the results of the analysis on the phrases and sentences in the translation of Shiraishi’s Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics into Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik are. The answers to questions number one and number two have been derived from the study on the theories on translation. The answer to the third question has been the result of the analysis on the data, that consist of phrases and sentences, of the translation of Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics into Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik.
From several models of translation processes, it can be concluded that the process of translation is the process of information processing. The psychological nature of translation process is the transfer of meaning. The translator needs to discover the meaning of the ST and re-express the meaning in the TL. The process involves syntactic, semantic and pragmatic analyzers, which continues with syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic synthesizers. It is possible for some stages to be passed through very quickly, for example in the Frequent Structure Store and Frequent Lexis Store. The norm for the process is a combination of bottom-up and top-down. The nature of English to Indonesian translation can be concluded as follows: 1. English and Indonesian have some differences in grammatical aspects, among
others are the use tenses and aspects, verb agreement/ concord with the Subject, use of pronouns, relative pronouns, singular and plural markers of noun phrases, use of articles, positions of conjuncts, and meanings of conjunctions
2. Some problems in socio-political-cultural aspects include some daily expressions, idioms, fixed expressions, and use of measurements.
3. Understanding the nature of the differences between the SL and the TL, a translator will be able to anticipate problems that may arise from the differences.
The results of the analysis on the translation product show that the translation of Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics into Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik can be considered good for the following reasons:
1. Meaning or message has been the main focus rather than the forms. The translator is not too much tied up with the literal words and phrases. For a better understanding, many reformulations of the sentences have been done.
2. Easy reading has been tempted by cutting very long sentences into shorter and precise ones. The translator has taken into account the consideration that the TT is a popular reading.
3. Most of the translation losses have been for some purposes such as to avoid lengthy repetition, to make the sentence more precise, to avoid unexpected misinterpretation of some phrases. The translation losses have been mostly for understandable reasons and there are no significant meaning biases that have changed or destroyed the main message of the ST.
4. Machali’s description of good translation can be used to describe the result of the analysis of the data in this study: There is basically no distortion of meaning. There are some inappropriate literal translations, grammatical and idiomatic mistakes but less than 15% of the whole text, and there are one or two uses of non-standard terms and one or two spelling errors.” (Machali, 2000:120)
At the end of the discussion on the theories on translation, it is worthwhile to remind translators that in translation, translators have some missions to accomplish. Benjamin (1968:76) mentions that the task of the translator consists in finding that intended effect (intention) upon the language into which he is translating which produces in it the echo of the original. Siegel (1986:7) emphasizes the responsibility of a translator because translation can sustain a culture as well as stifle it. Sontag (2002:340-341) mentions three variants of the modern idea of translation, i.e. translation as explanation, translation as adaptation, and translation as improvement.
It can be stated as a closing remark that many studies have resulted in many theories on translation and on translators. However, some existing theories of translation should not be seen as the solution to all problems in translation. As Beaugrande (Beaugrande in Bell, 1997:23) said it is inappropriate to expect that a theoretical model of translation should solve all the problems a translator encounters. Instead, according to him, it should formulate a set of strategies for approaching problems and for coordinating the different aspects entailed. In other words, translation theory is reoriented towards description, whether of process or product, and away from prescription.
ABSTRAK
YOHANA VENIRANDA. (2003). AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION OF SHIRAISHI’S YOUNG HEROES: THE INDONESIAN FAMILY IN POLITICS INTO PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA: KELUARGA INDONESIA DALAM POLITIK BASED ON TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE THEORIES. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.
Tesis ini bertujuan mendalami teori terjemahan sebagai tinjauan umum, dan teori terjemahan dari bahasa Inggris ke bahasa Indonesia khususnya, dan melaporkan hasil studi kasus suatu hasil terjemahan. Ada tiga pertanyaan dalam penelitian ini. Pertanyaan pertama tentang hakekat psikologis dari proses terjemahan. Yang kedua tentang hakekat teori terjemahan dari bahasa Inggris ke bahasa Indonesia. Dan yang ketiga, hasil analisa dari frasa dan kalimat dalam terjemahan karya Shiraishi Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics menjadi Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik. Jawaban untuk pertanyaan pertama dan kedua diperoleh dari kajian pustaka tentang teori-teori terjemahan. Jawaban untuk pertanyaan ketiga diperoleh dari hasil analisa data, yang terdiri dari frasa-frasa dan kalimat-kalimat, dari terjemahan Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics menjadi Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik. Dari beberapa model proses terjemahan, dapatlah disimpulkan bahwa proses terjemahan adalah proses pengolahan informasi. Hakekat psikologis dari terjemahan adalah transfer makna. Penerjemah menemukan makna dari naskah sumber dan menyampaikan makna tersebut dalam bahasa yang dituju. Proses itu mencakup analisa sintaksis, semantik, dan pragmatik, yang kemudian dilanjutkan dengan sintesa sintaksis, semantik, dan pragmatik. Beberapa tahap dilalui dengan cepat, seperti di Frequent Structure Store and Frequent Lexis Store. Proses ini merupakan kombinasi proses dari bawah ke atas dan dari atas ke bawah. Hakekat teoritis terjemahan dari bahasa Inggris ke bahasa Indonesia dapat disimpulkan sebagai berikut: 1. Bahasa Inggris dan bahasa Indonesia memiliki perbedaan dari segi tata bahasa,
antara lain penggunaan tenses dan aspek, perubahan kata kerja yang disesuaikan dengan Subyek, penggunaan kata ganti, kata ganti penghubung, penunjuk kata benda tunggal/jamak, penggunaan artikel, posisi kata penghubung kalimat, dan arti kata sambung.
2. Beberapa masalah aspek social, politik, dan budaya mencakup ungkapan sehari-hari, kata kiasan, peribahasa, dan istilah untuk penunjuk ukuran.
3. Dengan memahami hakekat perbedaan antara bahasa sumber dan bahasa yang dituju, seorang penerjemah dapat mengantisipasi masalah yang mungkin muncul dari perbedaan itu.
Hasil analisa terjemahan menunjukkan bahwa terjemahan Young Heroes:
The Indonesian Family in Politics menjadi Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik dapat dikelompokkan ke dalam terjemahan yang baik karena:
1. Makna lebih menjadi pokok perhatian dari pada bentuk. Penerjemah tidak terlalu terikat pada kata dan frasa secara harafiah. Untuk memberikan pemahaman yang lebih baik penataan ulang kalimat telah dilakukan.
2. Untuk menghasilkan karya yang nyaman dibaca, kalimat-kalimat yang terlalu panjang telah dipenggal menjadi lebih pendek. Penerjemah mempertimbangan bahwa naskah terjemahan ditujukan untuk bacaan popular.
3. Sebagian besar dari bagian yang hilang dalam terjemahan memiliki tujuan tertentu seperti untuk menghindari pengulangan yang terlalu banyak, untuk menghasilkan kalimat yang lebih ringkas, dan untuk menghindari penafsiran yang keliru dari beberapa bagian frasa. Terjemahan yang hilang lebih dikarenakan alasan-alasan yang dapat diterima dan tidak ada penyimpangan makna yang signifikan yang mengubah atau merusak makna inti dari naskah sumber.
4. Penjelasan Machali tentang terjemahan yang baik dapat digunakan untuk menjelaskan hasil analisa data dalam penelitian ini: Tidak ada distorsi makna; Ada terjemahan harafiah yang kaku, kesalahan tata bahasa dan idiom tetapi relatif tidak lebih dari 15% dari keseluruhan teks. Ada satu-dua penggunaan istilah yang tidak baku/umum dan satu atau dua kesalahan tata ejaan.” (dari Machali, 2000:120)
Pada akhir pembahasan tentang teori terjemahan, perlulah mengingatkan
penerjemah bahwa dalam menerjemahkan, penerjemah memiliki misi yang perlu dicapai. Benjamin (1968:76) menyebutkan tugas dari penerjemah mencakup penyampaikan makna yang dimaksudkan dengan bahasa yang dituju, yang dapat menghasilkan gaung dari bahasa sumber. Siegel (1986:7) menekankan tanggung jawab penerjemah karena penerjemahan dapat mempertahankan dan juga meniadakan suatu budaya. Sontag (2002:340-341) menyebutkan tiga pemikiran baru tentang terjemahan, yaitu terjemahan sebagai penjelasan, sebagai adaptasi, dan sebagai perbaikan.
Sebagai kata penutup, dapat disampaikan bahwa banyak penelitian yang telah menghasilkan teori-teori penerjemahan dan tentang penerjemah. Akan tetapi, teori-teori terjemahan yang ada, seharusnya tidak dilihat sebagai solusi untuk semua masalah dalam terjemahan. Beaugrande (dalam Bell, 1`997:23) menyatakan bahwa tidak semestinya berharap suatu model teori terjemahan dapat menyelesaikan semua masalah yang dihadapi seorang penerjemah. Menurutnya, teori terjemahan semestinya merumuskan suatu rangkaian strategi untuk menyelesaikan masalah dan untuk mengkoordinasikan berbagai aspek yang terkait. Dengan kata lain, teori terjemahan diarahkan untuk deskripsi, baik untuk proses ataupun produk, dan bukan untuk preskripsi.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Some cases of onomatopoeia, i.e. the use of words, which have been
formed like the noise of the thing that they are describing or representing, can be
interesting to start the discussion of translation. When English people write down
the sound of the cocks in the morning as cock-a-doodle-doo, the sound is ku-ku-
ru-yuk in Indonesian, and it becomes tik-ti-la-ok in the Philippines. The sound of a
gun, for example, in English is usually written down as bang-bang but in
Indonesian, it is dor-dor. To imitate the knock on the door in English, people use
“knock-knock” and in Indonesian it is “tok-tok-tok”.
Cases of idiomatic expressions can be funny jokes. Translating It’s
raining cats and dogs into Indonesian will not mention the two kinds of animals.
It is Hujan lebat sekali. Translating This book costs me a fortune, a student has
confidently related it to a familiar word fortune teller and the result was Saya
membutuhkan seorang peramal untuk memberitahu saya harga buku ini instead of
Buku ini sangat mahal. A Further question is why puppy love is cinta monyet.
And still about animals, let the sleeping dogs lie is Jangan membangunkan macan
tidur.
The examples above can be discussed from the view Saussure proposes,
i.e. about the sign, the signified and the signifier. In a language, the signified is the
concept, the signifier is the acoustic image (which is mental), and the relation
between concept and image is the sign (the word, for instance), which is a
concrete entity (Saussure in Barthes, 1972:113). Starting from the fact that in
human language the choice of sounds is not imposed on us by the meaning itself,
Saussure had spoken of an arbitrary relation between signifier and signified. The
ox does not determine the sound ox, since in any case the sound is different in
other languages (Barthes, 1981:50). A further problem for translators to recognize
is the second set of sign, signifier and signified, which form a myth. The
following figure shows the pattern:
Figure 1.1. The Tri-dimensional Pattern of the Signifier, the Signified and
the Sign in Myth (Barthes, 1972:115) 1. Signifier 2. Signified
3. Sign I SIGNIFIER
II SIGNIFIED
III SIGN
Language MYTH
Barthes (1972:115) calls the first set ‘language-object’ and the second set
‘metalanguage’. When talking about the signs, translators cannot avoid
considering the signified and the signifier of the source language and the target
language, especially in the level of myth. The same sign between the source
language and the target language will not always refer to the same signifier or
signified.
The examples and description above show that translation is not merely a
process of transferring words into their counterpart target language words.
Sometimes, a warning like “Be careful with the dictionary when you translate!”
seems necessary because some students feel that as long as they already base their
translation on the words in the dictionary, they are “safe”, meaning they cannot be
wrong.
Translation can be a complex process that involves many aspects to
consider before we come to a final version of a translation product. Some
teachers consider translation as a separate skill. It implies that translation requires
practice rather than theories. To some extent, translation is a skill because the
more one practices to translate, the better he can do it. However, some students
have complained that they cannot improve themselves well by merely keeping on
translating without understanding any theories on translation.
Some teachers treat translation as a scientific orientation to linguistic
structures, semantic analysis, and information theory. According to Nida and
Taber (1974:vii), translation is far more than a science. It is also a skill, and in the
ultimate analysis, fully satisfactory translation is always an art. The translation of
the Bible into some 800 languages, representing about 80 percent of the world’s
population involved at least 3,000 persons. According to Nida and Taber
(1974:1), in the translation of the Bible, the underlying theory of translation has
not caught up with the development of skills. Despite consecrated talent and
painstaking efforts, a comprehension of the basic principles of translation and
communication in the bible translation has lagged behind the translation in secular
fields. Translators of religious materials have sometimes not been prompted by
the feeling of urgency to make sense (Nida and Taber, 1974:1).
There are people who believe that skill in translation cannot be learned,
and cannot be taught. There is an assumption that some people are born with a gift
of being good translators. In other words, skill in translation is a talent: either you
have got it or you have not. Translation is similar to subjects like mathematics or
physics. Some people are good at it, others find it difficult (Hervey and Higgins,
1992: 13).
Hervey and Higgins (1992:13) argue that when we talk of proficiency in
translation, we are no longer thinking merely of the basis of natural talent an
individual may have, but of the skill and facility that require learning, technique,
practice and experience. The answer to anyone who is skeptical about the formal
teaching of translation is twofold: students with a gift for translation invariably
find it useful in building their native talent into a fully-developed translating
proficiency; students without a gift for translation invariably acquire some degree
of proficiency.
Newmark (1981:38) quotes Savory’s words from The Art of Translation
(1968:54):
A translation must give the words of the original. A translation must give the ideas of the original. A translation should read like an original work. A translation should read like a translation. A translation should reflect the style of the original. A translation should possess the style of the translation. A translation should read as a contemporary of the original. A translation should read as a contemporary of the translation. A translation may add to or omit from the original. A translation may never add to or omit from the original. A translation of verse should be in prose. A translation of verse should be in verse.
Savory’s words above describe how translation is not a single absolute definition.
It does not consist of a single absolute criterion. The debate over how a
translation should be cannot reach a single absolute solution or conclusion.
Belitt (1983:481) describes translation from different groups of people’s
point of view:
“Indeed, Babel is always with us. The moralist will say, for example: Translation is a long discipline of self-denial, a matter of fidelity or betrayal. The vitalist will say: Translation is a matter of life and death, merely: the life of the original or the death of it. The poet will say: Translation is either the composition of a new poem in the language of the translator, or the systematic liquidation of a master-piece from the language of the original. The epistemologist will say: “Translation is an illusion of the original forced upon the translator at every turn because he has begun by substituting his own language and occasion for that of the poet’s and must fabricate his reality as he goes. The sybil sees all and says: Translation is the truth of the original in the only language capable of rendering it “in truth”: the original language untouched by translation.” (Belitt: 1983:481)
The quotation above adds the list of the various descriptions and definitions of
translation with a sense of confusion in it.
A translation class has not been an easy class to handle. The problem lies
on the difficulties to judge a translation of a certain text when we are given a list
of alternatives. We can only say this one is possible and that one is also possible.
Then a decision on which is better between two alternatives or which is the best
among several alternatives is made. Sometimes it takes a long time to decide
which version of translation is better or the best. The decision is usually not a
single absolute choice and it is sometimes still debatable. Going through such a
process of decision-making can sometimes be tiring, but students need to
understand that the process can also be part of learning.
This study is going to explore the theories on translation in general and the
theories on English to Indonesian translation in particular. It is an attempt to look
at translation both as a process and as a product. This study uses the translation
product of Shiraishi’s Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia:Keluarga Indonesia dalam
Politik, which is translated from Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in
Politics, as a case study, for the analysis. Henceforth, in most part of this thesis,
the source text is referred to as Young Heroes and the target text is Pahlawan-
Pahlawan Belia. The source text has been chosen on the ground that it is a
research report, an academic work. As a form of scientific writing, the language
is a formal language. It uses good and standard English. Choosing a novel or
another kind of literary work will require another kind of analysis and it will
involve more cultural implications, rhymes, beauty, style, and some personal
mode.
The writer of Young Heroes, Shiraishi, is a Japanese, who pursued her
further studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. This book is derived
from her dissertation for her doctorate degree. From the point of the content, it is
an interesting book because it depicts a lot of Indonesian family values. The
values are projected and reflected into the political life of the nation. One part of
the book also discusses children in the classroom. This book is worth reading for
teachers and anyone involved in educational field.
Another reason is that it has been translated into Indonesian by Tim
Jakarta Jakarta, with Seno Gumira Ajidarma, who is an artist and a novelist, as
the coordinator. With the English and the Indonesian versions at hand, the
analysis can be done. We may see and learn something from Tim Jakarta
Jakarta, because they are professionals in using Indonesian for popular purposes.
Discussing the audience of the source text and the target text can be
interesting. The audience of the source text (ST), as a research report and a
dissertation, is the professors at Cornell University. In other words, the audience
is mostly non-Indonesians, although they are ‘Indonesianists’, who have involved
a lot in Indonesian studies. The audience of the target text (TT), as a popular
book, is Indonesians, especially the educated, middle-class Indonesians. This
difference may result in some consequences in the translation product. It can be
interesting to find out the consequences of such different audiences for the ST and
TT. Even Shiraishi herself said that she was anxious to wait and see how this
book would be read by Indonesians. In her opinion, Indonesian people like to
introduce themselves as the Javanese, the Sundanese, etc. Shiraishi wants to
convince to readers that the concept of “Indonesian people” does exist. She is
curious how the translators will maintain the nuance of her English text into
Indonesian. In many examples of cases in her book, Indonesian is a language
which often maintains a weird emptiness, a void at its core (Shiraishi, 1997:121).
B. Problem Formulation
This study tries to answer the following questions:
1. What is the psychological nature of translation processes?
2. What is the theoretical nature of English to Indonesian translation?
3. How are the results of the analysis on the phrases and sentences in the
translation of Shiraishi’s Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics
into Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik?
C. Objectives of Study
This study aims at exploring the theories on translation in general and the
theories on English to Indonesian translation in particular, and presenting the
results of a case study on a translation product. By using Shiraishi’s Pahlawan-
Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik, which has been translated
from Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics, this study tries to present
an example of an English to Indonesian translation product. The analysis to
present the strengths and weaknesses of the translation product is done based on
the theories on translation.
D. Problem Limitation
Some theories on translation are applicable to translation in general. It
means that they can be used as the general principles to translate a text of any
languages into any other languages. This study focuses on English to Indonesian
translation. Some general theories on translation are included on the
considerations that they are useful to provide some basic principles of translation
and some general approaches to translation. The discussion on the general theories
on translation is followed by the discussion on the theories English to Indonesian
translation. In this part, more examples of English to Indonesian translation are
given. It is impossible to include all the theories on translation in this study. The
theories presented are chosen on the consideration that they are applicable to
translation in general and relevant to the analysis of English to Indonesian
translation.
E. Benefits of the Study
The theories on translation can help us see the psychological processes of
translation, some basic principles of translation and some general approaches to
translation. The theories on English to Indonesian translation can provide us with
some general principles of translating English to Indonesian texts. The theories
include some discussion on the difference between the two languages in lexical,
syntactic, as well as socio-political-cultural aspects.
The results of the analysis on the translation product will provide us with
some insights about the problems, techniques and considerations in English to
Indonesian translation. Shiraishi’s Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in
Politics is an interesting book. There are a lot of similar books on Indonesian,
which are still written in English. The translation of such books will be useful for
more Indonesian people to reflect on themselves. The analysis on the book in this
study can be as a sample for other translators who are interested in translating
similar books.
Hopefully, with a better understanding of the theories, the difficulties and
the considerations, some suitable exercise models for translation classes can be
developed and students can then improve their skills more.
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Definitions of Terms
1. Translation
According to Webster (1994), translation is an act, process, or instance of
translating as a) a rendering from one language into another, and also the product
of such a rendering, b) a change to a different substance, form, or appearance
(conversion). Webster describes the verb to translate as 1) to turn into one’s own
or another language, 2) to transfer or turn from one set of symbols into another
(transcribe), 3) to express in different terms and especially different words
(paraphrase), 4) to express in more comprehensible terms (explain, interpret).
Nida and Taber (1974:12) define translation as the reproduction in a
receptor language of the closest natural equivalent of the source message, first in
terms of meaning, and secondly in terms of style. Cobuild (1995:1781) defines
translation as a piece of writing or speech that has been translated from a different
language. Hornby (1974:919) defines translation as giving the meaning of
something said or written into another language. However, Hornby differentiates
a translator from an interpreter. He defines a translator as a person who translates,
especially something written, and an interpreter for something spoken. Other
authors have other different opinions.
Martinich (1996:441-442) says that a sentence of English can be
understood or interpreted in English. In contrast, translation requires a second
language. Further, Martinich says that translation is like linguistic understanding
insofar as translation is supposed to preserve the meaning of the original
utterance, and it is unlike interpretation, which aims at going beyond the meaning
of the utterance.
Though some writers differentiate translation from interpretation, many
writers use the two terms interchangeably. According to Quine and Davidson (in
Martinich, 1996:442), the fact that understanding, interpretation, and translation
are conventionally used in different circumstances is not relevant to the fact that
the cognitive activity is the same in each case. In other words, according to them,
the difference between the terms is a matter of usage, not meaning.
Bell (1997:19) discusses translation as bilingual communication. He
describes the communication process in the following figure.
Figure 2.1.
Translation as bilingual communication (Bell, 1997:19) Code 1 Channel Channel SENDER SIG[message]NAL 1 TRANSLATOR Content 1 Code 2 RECEIVER SIG[message]NAL 2 Channel Channel Content 2
Bell describes the figure as follows: translator receives signal 1 containing
message, recognizes code 1, decodes signal 1, retrieves message, comprehends
message, translator selects code 2, encodes message by means of code 2, selects
channel, transmits signal 2 containing message.
Bell (1997:13) also tries to define three distinguishable meanings for the
word translation.
a. Translating: the process (to translate; the activity rather than the tangible
object);
b. A translation: the product of the process of translating (i.e. the translated text);
c. Translation: the abstract concept, which encompasses both the process of
translating and the product of that process.
In this study, translation is defined as bilingual communication that
involves the reproduction in a target language or receptor language of the closest
natural equivalent of the source message, both in meaning and style.
2. Source Text (ST)
A source text or ST is the text that requires translation (Hervey and
Higgins, 1992: 15). The source text is sometimes referred to as the original
version of a text. In this study, the source text (ST) is the English text of
Shiraishi’s Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics.
3. Target Text (TT)
A target text or TT is the text which is a translation of the ST (Hervey and
Higgins, 1992: 15). The target text (TT) is sometimes referred to as the translated
version of a text. In this study, the Indonesian text of Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia:
Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik is the target text (TT).
4. Source Language (SL)
A source language or SL is the language in which the text requiring
translation is couched (Hervey and Higgins, 1992: 14). In this study, Shiraishi’s
Young Heroes, which is the source text (ST), uses English. Therefore, English is
the source language (SL).
5. Target Language (TL)
A target language or TL is the language into which the original text is to
be translated (Hervey and Higgins, 1992:15). Some other writers such as Larson
(1984), Nida and Taber (1974) also use the term a receptor language to refer to
TL. In this study, Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia, which is the target text (TT), uses
Indonesian. Indonesian is the target language (TL).
B. Theories on Translation
“The purpose of translation theory is to reach an understanding of the
process undertaken in the act of translation and not to provide a set of norms for
affecting the perfect translation” (Bassnett-Mcguire in Bell, 1997:22). De
Beaugrande (in Bell, 1997:23) gives a warning that it is inappropriate to expect a
theoretical model of translation to solve all the problems a translator encounters.
Instead, it should formulate a set of strategies for approaching problems and for
coordinating the different aspects entailed. In other words, translation theory is
reoriented towards description, whether of process or product, and away from
prescription.
Given the word translation, three possible theories depending on the focus
of the investigation can be drawn as follows.
The first is a theory of translation as process (i.e. a theory of translating).
This would require a study of information processing and within that, such topics
as perception, memory, the encoding and decoding of messages, and would draw
heavily on psychology and on psycholinguistics.
The second is a theory of translation as product (i.e. a theory of translated
texts). This would require a study of texts not merely by means of the transitional
levels of linguistics (syntax and semantics) but also making use of stylistics and
recent advances in text-linguistics and discourse analysis.
The third is a theory of translation as both process and product (i.e. a
theory of translating and translation). This would require the integrated study of
both and such a general theory is, presumably, the long- term goal for translation
studies (Bell, 1997:26).
1. The Process of Translation
According to Hervey and Higgins (1992:15), a translation process can, in
crude terms, be broken down into two types of activity, i.e. understanding an ST
and formulating a TT. According to Nida and Taber (1974:208), translation,
which aims at dynamic equivalence comprises three stages, namely analysis,
transfer, and restructuring. Larson (1984:3) states that translation consists of
studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation and cultural
context:
“Translation, then, consists of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the source language text, analyzing it in order to determine its meaning and then reconstructing this same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the receptor language and its cultural context.”
Larson’s description of the process of translation is shown in figure 2.2.
Figure 2.2.
The Process of Translation (Larson, 1984:4)
SOURCE LANGUAGE RECEPTOR LANGUAGE Text to be Translation Translated Discovering Re-express the meaning the meaning
MEANING Widdowson (1979:108) thinks of translation in terms of three alternative
processes, which is shown in the following figure.
Figure 2.3.
Three Processes of Translation (Widdowson, 1979:108)
Rhetorical deep structure (pragmatic representations)
SL surface TL surface forms forms
Grammatical deep structure (semantic representations)
If one follows the path through semantic representations one can
demonstrate how sentences in the SL and TL relate to a common deep structure
such as is, for example, partially realized in the common propositions of case
grammar, deliberately grouping together sentences in the two languages which are
structurally distinct at the superficial level of analysis. If one follows the path
through pragmatic representations, one teaches communicative acts and shows
how they may be realized in formally diverse ways in the SL and TL.
Bathgate (in Widyamartaya, 1989:40-41) describes the translation process
into seven steps, namely tuning, analysis, understanding, terminology,
restructuring, checking, and discussion. Tuning means trying to get the feel of the
text to be translated. Each ‘register’ as it is usually called, demands a different
mental approach, a different choice of words or turn of phrase. In the analysis,
after the translator attunes his mind to the framework of the text to be translated,
he will take each sentence in turn and split it up into translatable units - words and
phrases. The syntactic relations between the various elements of the sentence are
also established.
In the next step, i.e. understanding, after having split up the sentence into
its elements, the translator will generally put it together again in a form which he
can understand. Due attention to both form and content is essential. In the next
step called terminology, the translator considers the key words and phrases in the
sentence to make sure they are in line with standardized usage and is neither
misleading, ridiculous, nor offensive for the target-language reader.
In restructuring, when all the bricks needed for the edifice of the target
language text have been gathered or made, the translator will fit them together in
a form which is in accordance with good usage in the TL. This is the phase
where ‘form’, as opposed to ‘content’, comes into its own.
In the next step, checking, the translator will check his draft translation for
typing errors and passages where a second perusal suggests a more elegant, or
more correct, translation. In addition, someone other than the translator can read
through the finished translation and make or suggest changes.
The last step is discussion. A good way to end the translation process is a
discussion between the translator and the expert on the subject matter. It is
inadvisable to have more than two participants – out of this: too many cooks spoil
the broth. On the other hand, it is sometimes necessary to point out to translators
that they should not work in isolation.
It can be inferred from the process above that the translation process is not
a one-punch work. In the restructuring and checking, the translator may need to
go back to the beginning of the process again.
Bell (1997:44-45) describes the process of translation that includes the
process in the memory system. The model can be seen in figure 2.4. He explains
that there are several assumptions that underlie the model. The process of
translating:
a. is a special case of the more general phenomenon of human information
processing;
b. should be modeled in a way which reflects its position within the
psychological domain of information processing;
c. takes place in both short-term and long-term memory through devices for
decoding text in the SL and encoding text into the TL, via a non-language-
specific semantic representation;
d. operates at the linguistic level of clause, irrespective of whether the process is
one of the analysis of incoming signals or the synthesis of outgoing ones
(monolingual, reading and/or writing, or bilingual, i.e. translation);
e. proceeds in both a bottom-up and a top-down manner in processing text and
integrates both approaches by means of a style of operation which is both
cascaded and interactive, i.e. analysis or synthesis at one stage need not be
completed before the next stage is activated and revision is expected and
permitted;
f. requires there to be, for both languages
1) a visual word-recognition system and a writing system
2) a syntactic processor which handles the options of the MOOD system
and contains a
3) Frequent Lexis Stores (FLS), a Lexical Search Mechanism (LSM), a
Frequent Structure Store (FSS), and a parser, through which
information passes to (or from) a
4) semantic processor which handles the options available in the
TRANSITIVITY system and exchanges information with a
5) pragmatic processor which handles the options available in the THEME
system and there is also an
6) idea organizer which follows and organizes the progression of the speech
acts in the text (and, if the text-type is not known, makes inferences on the
basis of the information available) as part of the strategy for carrying out
plans for attaining goals, devised and stored in the
7) planner which is concerned with creating plans for reaching goals of all
kinds. Some of these plans may involve uses of language such as text-
processing. This might include translating a text and this decision might
well have been made even before its first clause had been processed.
The figure contains several important terms. The first is Frequent Lexis
Stores (FLS). This is the mental (psycholinguistic) correlate of the physical
glossary or terminology database, i.e. an instant ‘look-up’ facility for lexical items
both ‘words’ and ‘idioms’ (Crystal in Bell, 1997:47). The second is Frequent
Structure Store (FSS). It is a set of operations that involves the exploitation of
frequently occurring structures, which are stored in memory in their entirety as is
a lexical item with direct access to phrases and sentences, nearly as rapid as it is
for individual words (Steinberg in Bell, 1997:48).
The third is Lexical Search Mechanism (LSM). This has the task of
probing and attempting to ‘make sense’ of any lexical item which cannot be
matched with items already stored in the FLS. The fourth is Parser. Parser has
the task of analyzing any clause for which analysis appears necessary. The
following sample sentence can be used to describe parser:
The smaggly bognats grolled the fimbled ashlars for a vorit.
It is the sequence of phrases NP-VP-NP-PP. Bognats and ashlars are countable,
possess the attributes of being smaggly and fimbled respectively. Bognats are able
to groll ashlars either for a period of time (how long) or for some client (i.e. on
behalf of a vorit). All this information is derived from the reader’s syntactic
knowledge (Bell, 1997:49).
The next term is Tenor of Discourse. The tenor of the discourse is the
relationship with the receiver, which the sender indicates through the choices
made in the text. The tenor consists of a number of overlapping (Bell, 1997:186-
188). The sixth term is Mode of Discourse. The mode of discourse is the
medium selected for realizing the text (Bell, 1997:188-190).
The last one is Domain of Discourse. The domain of discourse is the
‘field’ covered by the text; the role it is playing in the communication activity;
what the clause is for, what the sender intended to convey; and its communicative
value. Domain is connected with function. In a narrow sense, domain is
connected with the use of language to persuade, to inform or some other speech
acts. In a much broader sense, domain can refer to such macro-institutions of
society as the family, friendship, education, and so forth (Bell, 1997:191).
Tenor, mode and domain of discourse are three stylistic parameters. In
sociological variables, tenor refers to the participants, mode refers to the
purposes, and domain refers to the settings (Bell, 1997:9)
2. General Principles of Translation
In 1540, Dolet published a short outline of translation principles, entitled
La manière de bien traduire d’une langue en aultre (How to Translate Well from
One Language into Another) and established five principles for the translator
(Bassnett, 1996:54):
a. the translator must fully understand the sense and meaning of the original
author, although he is at liberty to clarify obscurities;
b. the translator should have a perfect knowledge of both SL and TL;
c. the translator should avoid word-for-word renderings;
d. the translator should use forms of speech in common use;
e. the translator should choose and order words appropriately to produce the
correct tone.
Dolet’s principles stress the importance of understanding the SL text as
primary requisite. According to Dolet, the translator is far more than a competent
linguist, and translation involves both a scholarly and sensitive appraisal of the SL
text and an awareness of the place the translation is intended to occupy in the TL
system.
Nida and Taber (1974:173) try to answer the question “What is a good
translation?” They try to answer it by contrasting a good translation with bad
translations of two kinds:
Table 2.1. A Good Translation Contrasted with Two Kinds of Bad Translations (Nida
and Taber, 1974:173)
BAD GOOD BAD Formal correspondence: the form (syntax and classes of words) is preserved; the meaning is lost or distorted
Dynamic equivalence: the form is restructured (different syntax and lexicon) to preserve the same meaning
Paraphrase by addition, deletion, or skewing of the message.
Further Nida and Taber explain that it is possible to produce a bad
translation, as in column 1, by preserving the form at the expense of the context.
On the other hand, it is possible to produce a bad translation as in column 3, by
paraphrasing loosely and distorting the message to conform to alien cultural
patterns. This is the bad sense of the word “paraphrase”. However, as in column
2, a good translation focuses on the meaning or context as such and aims to
preserve that intact; and in the process it may quite radically restructure the form.
This is paraphrase in the proper sense.
Larson (1984:6) discusses what the best translation should be. According
to Larson, the best translation is the one which
a. uses the normal language form of the receptor language
b. communicates, as much as possible, to the receptor language speakers the
same meaning that was understood by the speakers of the source language, and
c. maintains the dynamics of the original source language text.
Maintaining the “dynamics” of the original source text means that the
translation is presented in such a way that it will, hopefully, evoke the same
response as the source text attempted to evoke.
Hymes (in Bell, 1997:11) describes a good translation to be:
“That in which the merit of the original work is so completely transfused into another language, as to be as distinctly apprehended, and as strongly felt, by a native of the country to which that language belongs, as it is by those who speak the language of the original work.”
From this, Hymes says that three laws. The first is that the translation
should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work. The second is
that the style and manner of writing should be of the same character with that of
the original. And the third is that the translation should have all the ease of
original composition.
3. Approaches to Translation
Translation can be seen from different approaches. A different approach
results in a different method and procedure in conducting the process of
translation
a. The Functional Approach
In the functional approach, the translation strategies should follow a ‘top-
down’ procedure, as shown in figure 2.5.
Figure 2.5. The Top-down Procedure in the Functional Approach
(Nord, 1994:65)
1) Text function in situation
2) Cultural norms and conventions
3) Linguistic structures
4) Context
5) Translator
Nord (1994:66) describes the steps in the procedure as follows:
1) a particular translation problem is analyzed with regard to its function in the
text and in the target situation;
2) the analysis leads to a decision whether the translation has to be adapted to
target-culture norms and conventions or whether it should reproduce source-
culture conventions used in the source text;
3) this decision sets limits to the range of linguistic means to be used;
4) from the linguistic means, the translator chooses the one which fits into
specific context, such as text-type, register, style, etc.;
5) if there is still a choice between various means, the translator may decide
according to individual preferences.
b. The Variational Approach
The approach is not a description of ‘what happens’ when one translate,
but a proposition for a more dynamic approach to translating. As shown in figure
2.6, the two complementary procedures of generation and selection are
productive, and can help the translator to break away from the somewhat
mechanical notion of one-to-one equivalents, which some people tend to work
with.
The separation between the two halves of the model appears rigid in the
figure, but given the speed of operations carried out, it is likely that there may be a
to-and-fro movement within the model, as options are generated, selected, and
then submitted to a regeneration process as certain parameters start to take
precedence (Hewson and Martin, 1991: 182).
Figure 2.6 that shows the articulation of the Variational Approach contains
several abbreviations. They are LC, TO and TI. LC is Language Culture, and
LC1, therefore, goes beyond what is called elsewhere the ‘Source Language’, as it
necessarily brings in the indissociable pair of Language and Culture. The same
applies to LC2, which replaces ‘Target Language.’
TO is Translation Operator, and is used to bring out the fundamental and
active role of a translator. Hewson and Martin (1991:116) say that a TO is
naturally bound first and foremost by the position he occupies in relation to the
languages he operates between.
Figure 2.6. The Articulation of the Variational Approach
(Hewson and Martin, 1991:183)
Production of ST Choice of ST
ST
Production of interlinguistic homologies p G E N E R A T I O N p i a LC1 LC2 i a n r Source Text potential n r t a and its LC1 TT t a r p homological forms e p a h positioning r h l r l r i a i a n s n s g e T H E C U L T U R A L E Q U A T I O N g e s s
filtered
through the TO’s sensibility, motivations, competence
SOCIO-CULTURAL/ECONOMIC PARAMETERS identity/ nature of TO’s socio- LC1 LC2 existing need of translation economic environ- environ- trans- TI order environment ment ment lations
S E L E C T I O N
TT
TT Readers
TI is Translation Initiator. The illustration of the fundamental role of the
TI can be started from the premise that translation does not just ‘happen’.
Translation results from 1) a need, and 2) an order. The need corresponds to a
foreseen or actual breakdown in communication. The order corresponds to the
instructions given by the TI to ensure that communication takes place. Once one
has identified the TI as the driving force behind the translation operation, it
becomes clear that his identity, his ‘position’ in socio-cultural and LC terms, is of
prime importance. The translation will be fashioned to suit his order. That very
order can be determining in itself if it is of a restricted or specific nature (Hewson
and Martin, 1991:113).
4. Approaches to Teaching Translation
Different approaches to teaching translation result in different techniques
of teaching translation, and in assessing translation products.
a. The Process-Oriented Approach
Gile (1994:108) sums up the basic philosophy of a process-oriented
translation training system as follows:
1) during the process-oriented part of the course, trainees are considered as
students of translation methods rather than as procedures of finished products;
2) teachers take a normative attitude as far as the process are concerned. They
ask questions like “Why this choice?” “Did you consider alternatives?” “If
so, what made you choose this solution?” “Are you satisfied with this
solution as far as logic/clarity/language is concerned?”;
3) processes are supported by theoretical models which explain and integrate
them. The most important one is the sequential model of translation, which is
discussed in the following part and shown in Figure 2.7;
4) problem diagnosis can be done partly by analyzing the product and partly by
putting questions to the students as explained above. When handling in
translation assignments, students are also required to report in writing the
problem they encountered while doing the translation – difficulties in
understanding a particular sentence, in reformulating an idea, in finding the
meaning of a source language term, in finding a good target language
equivalent, etc.
The sequential model of translation, as mentioned above as an important
model in process-oriented translation consists of a ‘comprehension phase’ and a
‘reformulation phase’. Translation starts with a ‘translation unit’. It is read. Its
meaning is inferred from the text as a meaning hypothesis. This hypothesis is then
checked for plausibility on the basis of the translator’s existing linguistic and
extra-linguistic knowledge. If the first meaning hypothesis is deemed plausible,
the translator can move to the reformulation phase. If not, the translator must find
another hypothesis and check its plausibility, etc.
In the reformulation phase, the translator formulates a first target language
text for the translation unit. He then tests it for fidelity and for linguistic
acceptability. If results are not satisfactory, he writes a new target language text
for the same unit and tests it again, and so on.
Periodically, fidelity and acceptability tests are conducted for groups of
translation units, as good results at the single translation unit level do not ensure
good results at the text level. At every step of the process, existing linguistic and
extra-linguistic knowledge must be used, and whenever necessary, additional
knowledge must be sought.
When finding a problematic word or statement in a translation, the teacher
asks the student whether this solution sounds logical, plausible, linguistically
acceptable, and consistent with the rest of the text. The teacher can accept the
answer on the grounds that the procedure was correct, even if the student’s
solution is wrong by his standards. The teacher can make a mental (or written)
note of recurrent problems, which will have to be dealt with in the product-
oriented part of the course.
Psychologically, the process-oriented approach seems to generate less
stress than the product-oriented approach. Problem- reporting is a strong
component of the approach.
There are some limitations of the process-oriented approach. One of them
is that it may not be a powerful tool for product fine-tuning because it focuses on
the process. Another is it requires theoretical preparation. Sometimes teachers
are reluctant to learn or develop explicit process rules. The process-oriented
approach may only help students do away with some of the linguistic weaknesses
of their initial output.
Figure 2.7. The Sequential Model of Translation in the Process-Oriented Approach
(Gile, 1994:109) Translation unit
C O M Meaning P Hypothesis R E H E N Plausible? S I O N KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE R BASE ACQUISITION E F O TL R Reformulation M U L A T I O Faithful? N Acceptable? Faithful? Acceptable?
The process-oriented does seem powerful as a methodological guiding
approach in that it reduces product deficiencies attributable to incorrect translation
methodology. However, it is definitely not a sufficient teaching tool for students
whose motivation is weak and for those whose linguistic norms in the target
language are poor, in so far as it does not teach how to write. Similarly, it does
not provide solutions for difficult cases. The approach is very useful in the first
part of the course, but product-oriented teaching must follow (Gile, 1994:112).
b. The Product-Oriented Approach
Machali (2000:156-157) discusses the product-oriented approach in
looking at translation as the step following the process-oriented approach.
Otherwise, learners or translators may consider their work as already good
because the process is already appropriate. The product-oriented approach is
expected to lead to better-quality translation.
In teaching, according to Machali, the activities can involve changing a
target text so that it is suitable for the target readers, and revising a text that
involves re-ordering sentences. Some exercises on collecting terms, analyzing
them, and standardizing them, and putting them in a database that can be retrieved
when needed, can be done.
5. Equivalence
Discussing how a TT and a ST are equivalent, translators are familiar with
the definition of translation that says translation requires equivalence in meaning
and style. Translators may need to question further how equivalence in meaning
and style can be achieved. The following part discusses equivalence at word level
and equivalence above word level, and continued with grammatical, textual, and
pragmatic equivalence. These types of equivalence are part of the attempt to
achieve equivalence in meaning and style.
a. Equivalence at Word Level
A discussion on equivalence can be started with a discussion on non-
equivalence. Larson (1984:89-97) discusses the non-equivalence or mismatching
of lexical systems between languages. Even though the same things, events, and
attributes may exist in the referential world, the systems of reference do not match
one-to-one across languages. Languages arbitrarily divide the meaning
differently. Larson uses examples of various languages to describe the difference
in lexical systems:
English red Mbembe orange okora yellow
green ohina
blue black house oikos numuno
The Greek word oikos is used in the sentence Peter went up to the
housetop to pray. A translation into languages of Papua New Guinea may result
in a very distorted understanding if simply translated with the word numuno. The
round thatched roof would be an inappropriate place to climb up on in order to
pray (Larson,1984:96).
Larson (1984:181-184) classifies the problems in finding lexical
equivalence into several types, i.e. symbolic words, word combinations and
false literal translation, and “False friends”. Symbolic words acquire some
symbolic value and carry figurative or metaphorical meaning as well as the basic
meaning of the word, for example the word cross. It refers to the wooden cross
used for crucifixion during the time of the Roman empire. Symbolically, it means
death and suffering, it can also stands for Christianity. In the translation of
Ephesians 2:16, the word cross is retained and addition has been made in order to
carry the correct meaning:
ST: … might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross thereby bringing hostility to an end…
TT1: …by his death on the cross Christ destroyed the enmity; by means of the cross he united both races into one body and brought them back to God.
TT2: he died on the cross to put an end to the hatred and bring us back to God as one people.
There are problems with word combinations and false literal translation
because some groups of words function in the same way as a single word. The
meaning of the combination as a whole cannot always be determined by the
meaning of the individual constituent parts. For example, a translation from the
French word pomme de terre would be potato in English and not the literal apple
of earth.
“False friends” can be defined as words in the source language, which look
very much like words in the receptor language because they are cognate with
them, but in fact mean very different. An example is the word affair in English
and afair in Indonesian.
Baker (1992:21-26) classifies the problems in word-equivalence into
cultural-specific concepts, the source-language concept is not lexicalized in the
target language, the source-language word is semantically complex, the source
and the target languages make different distinctions in meaning, the target
language lacks a super-ordinate, the target language lacks a specific term
(hyponym), difference in physical or interpersonal perspective, differences in
expressive meaning, differences in form, differences in frequency and purpose of
using specific forms, and the use of loan words in the source text.
Besides listing the types of problems, Baker (1992: 26-42) also suggests
several strategies to cope with the problems. The first is translation by a more
general word (super-ordinate). Translator may need to go up a level in a given
semantic field to find a more general word that covers the core propositional
meaning of the missing hyponym in the target language. For example, the verb
shampoo when translated into Spanish, the back translation is wash. Another
example, translating the word to orbit into Spanish, the back translation is to
revolve (Baker, 1992:27).
The second is translation by a more neutral/less expressive word. For
example, translating an English word mumbles into Italian:
Someone mumbles, “Our competitors do it.” Qualcuno suggerisce: “i nostri concorrenti lo fanno.” Back translation: Someone suggests: Our competitors do it.”
The Italian near equivalent mugugnare tends to suggest dissatisfaction
rather than embarrassment or confusion (Morgan Matroc in Baker, 1992:29).
The third is translation by cultural substitution. For example,
translating the word porca in Italian into bitch in English represents a
straightforward cultural substitution in the following quotation.
…prese a pesterare i piedi sacripantanto porca, porca, porca, porca… finché la non ismise, che non fu molto presto.
…and began to stamp his feet, bellowing bitch, bitch, bitch… until she gave up, which was not very soon.
Porca is literally the female of swine (piglet), when applied to a woman,
indicates unchastity and harlotry (Trevelyan in Baker, 1992:33)
The fourth is translation using a loan word or loan word plus
explanation. This strategy is common in dealing with culture-specific, modern,
and buzz words. Following the loan words with an explanation is very useful
when the word in question is repeated several times in the text. Once explained,
the loan words can then be used on its own.
The fifth is translation by paraphrase using a related word. For
example, translating the word creamy into Arabic, the back translation is that
resembles cream. Another example, translating terraced gardens into French, the
back translation is gardens created in a terrace.
The sixth is translation by paraphrase using unrelated words. For
example, translating a Lonrho affidavit into Arabic, the back translation is a
written communication supported by an oath presented by the Lonrho
organization. Another example, translating the word accessible into Chinese, the
back translation is where human beings enter most easily.
The seventh is translation by omission. This strategy may sound rather
drastic, but in fact it does no harm to omit translating a word expression in some
contexts. If the meaning conveyed by a particular item or expression is not vital
enough to the development of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy
explanations, translators can and often do simply omit the word or expression in
question.
The eighth is translation by illustration. For example, there is no easy
way of translating tagged, as in tagged teabags, into Arabic without going into
lengthy explanations which would clutter the text. An illustration of a tagged
teabag is used instead of a paraphrase (Baker, 1992:42).
b. Equivalence above Word Level
The discussion on equivalence above word level includes the discussion
on first, collocation, and second, idioms and fixed expressions. Collocation refers
to the tendency of certain words to co-occur regularly in a given language. For
example, cheque is more like to occur with bank, pay, money, write than with
moon, butter, playground or repair. Strong tea is literally dense tea in Japanese.
Break the law is an unacceptable collocation in Arabic, the more common is
contradict the law (Baker, 1992:47-54).
Marked collocation or unusual combination of words is sometimes used in
the source text in order to create new images. Ideally, the translation of a marked
collocation will be similarly marked in the target language.
In translating idioms and fixed expressions, there are some main
difficulties:
1) an idiom or fixed expression may have no equivalent in the target language;
2) an idiom or fixed expression may have a similar counterpart in the target
language, but its context of use may be different;
3) an idiom may be used in the source text in both its literal and idiomatic sense
at the same time. Unless the target language idiom corresponds to the source
language idiom both in form and meaning, the play on idiom cannot be
successfully reproduced in the target text;
4) the very convention of using idioms in written discourse, the context in which
they can be used, and their frequency of use may be different in the source and
target languages.
Idiom demands that the translator be not only accurate, but also highly
sensitive to the rhetorical nuances of the language. Some strategies to translate
idioms are proposed by Baker (1992:72-78). The first is using an idiom of
similar meaning and form. The second is using an idiom of similar meaning but
dissimilar form. The third is translation by paraphrase, and the fourth is
translation by omission
Larson (1984:111-117) discusses this kind of equivalence in figurative
senses of lexical items. Besides idioms, some types of uses of figurative senses of
lexical items that require careful treatment are metonymy, synecdoche,
euphemism, and hyperbole.
Metonymy is the use of words in a figurative sense involving association,
for example, The kettle is boiling (water), He has a good head (brain), The
response from the floor was positive (people). In the first example, what is
boiling is not the kettle but the water in the kettle. The kettle is used to refer to the
water in the kettle. In the second example, the head is used to refer to the brain.
In the third example, the floor refers to the people.
Synecdoche is the use of figurative senses based on part-whole
relationships, for example, Only 8 hardy souls showed up for work (persons),
There are a lot of lonely hearts out there (persons), She said to my face (me). In
the examples, the words the souls, the hearts, and the face are used to refer to the
persons as a whole.
Euphemism is the use of one word for another or one expression for
another to avoid offensive expression or one that is socially unacceptable or
unpleasant (Beekman and Callow, 1974 in Larson, 1884:116). All languages have
euphemistic expressions, especially in the areas of sex, death, and the
supernatural. To say die, English uses pass away. Hebrew used gone to the
fathers. In Mangga Buang of Papua New Guinea, your daughter’s eyes are
closed is preferable to your daughter is dead. In the US old people are now
called senior citizens. In Chontal, the devil is called older brother. In Finnish, he
is sitting in his hotel means he is in prison. The important thing is for the
translator to recognize the euphemistic nature of the source language expression
and then translate with an appropriate and acceptable expression of the receptor
language whether euphemistic or direct. The Greek Expression he is sleeping
with his fathers might be translated he went to his village in Twi. Some others
might simply say he died.
A hyperbole is a metonymy or synecdoche with more said than the writer
intended the reader to understand. The exaggeration is deliberately used for
effect, and is not to be understood as if it were a literal description. For example,
they turned the world upside down; I am frozen to death; I am starving; He’s
mad. Such deliberate exaggerations in the source language text may be
understood as untruths if they are translated literally. Much care must be taken to
be sure that the desired effect is retained in the receptor language but that the
correct meaning is also retained.
The goal of translation is not to eliminate all secondary and figurative
senses. It is to use only secondary and figurative senses, which are peculiar to the
receptor language and eliminate any strange collocations or wrong meaning
caused by literal translation of source language secondary and figurative senses
(Larson, 1984:114).
c. Grammatical, Textual, and Pragmatic Equivalence
There is no doubt that translators work with words and phrases as their
raw material. Equivalence, however, cannot be truly established at this level
alone. At the decision-making stage, the appropriateness of particular items can
only be judged in the light of the item’s place within the overall plan of the text
(Hatim and Mason, 1990: 180). With this thought in mind, translators also need
to always consider equivalence above word level.
1) Grammatical Equivalence
It is difficult to find a notional category, which is regularly and uniformly
expressed in all languages. Some major categories in the following discussion,
namely number, gender, person, tense and aspect and voice, can illustrate the
kinds of difficulty that translators often encounter because of differences in the
grammatical structures of source and target languages (Baker, 1992: 82-110).
The first category is number. English recognizes a distinction between
one and more than one. Arabic, Eskimos, and some Slavonic languages formally
distinguish between one, two, and more than two. A small number of languages,
such as Fijian, even distinguish between singular, dual, trial, and plural. A
translator working from a language which has number distinctions into a language
with no category of number has two main options: one, omit the relevant
information on number, and two, encode this information lexically.
The second category is gender. French distinguishes between masculine
and feminine gender in nouns such as fils/fille (son/daughter) and chat/chatte
(male cat/ female cat). In addition, nouns such as magazine and construction are
also classified as masculine and feminine respectively. An Arabic speaker or
writer has to selct between ‘you, masculine’ (anta) and ‘you, feminine (anti) in
the case of the second singular. This type of information must be signaled in the
form of the verb itself. The use of passive voice instead of imperative form of the
verb allows the translator to avoid specifying the subject of the verb altogether
(Baker, 1992:90-94).
The third category is person. A large number of modern European
languages, not including English, have a formality/ politeness dimension in their
person system. For example, French vous as opposed to tu. Some languages also
have different forms of plural pronouns which are used to express different levels
of familiarity or deference in interaction with several addressees (Baker, 1992:94-
98).
The fourth category is tense and aspect. Baker (1992:99) points out that
tense and aspect are grammatical categories in a large number of languages.
However, some languages have no formal category of tense and aspect. The form
of verb in some languages does not change to express temporal or aspectual
distinctions. If necessary, time reference can be indicated by means of various
particles and adverbials.
The fifth is voice. Languages which have a category of voice do not
always use the passive with the same frequency. Nida (in Baker, 1992:106)
explains that in some Nilotic languages the passive forms of verbs are so
preferred that instead of saying ‘he went to town’, it is much more normal to
employ an expression such as ‘the town was gone to by him’.
Baker (1992: 167-172) suggests some strategies for minimizing linear
dislocation, i.e. by voice change, change of verb, nominalization, and extra-
position. Extra-position involves changing the position of the entire clause in the
sentence by, for instance, embedding a simple clause in a complex sentence.
Cleft and pseudo-cleft structures provide good examples.
To sum up, a translator cannot always follow the thematic organization of
the original. A translator should make an effort to present the target text from a
perspective similar to that of the source text. Certain features of syntactic
structure such as restrictions on word order, the principle of end-weight, and the
natural phraseology of the target language often mean that the thematic
organization of the source text has to be abandoned. What matters is that the
target text has some thematic organization of its own, that it reads naturally and
smoothly, does not distort the information structure of the original, and that it
preserves, where possible, any special emphasis signaled by marked structures in
the original and maintains a coherent point of view as a text in its own right
(Baker, 1992:172).
2) Textual Equivalence
The discussion on textual equivalence is the discussion on cohesion.
Baker (1992:180-208) discusses Halliday and Hasan’s five main cohesive devices
in English, namely reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical
cohesion.
Reference is a device, which allows the reader/hearer to trace participants,
entities, events, etc. in a text. Hebrew, unlike English, prefers to use proper
names to trace participants through a discourse. In some languages such as
Japanese and Chinese, pronouns are hardly ever used and a participant is
introduced. Continuity of reference is signaled by omitting the subjects of
following clauses. Different preferences exist across languages for certain general
patterns of reference.
In substitution, an item (or items) is replaced by another item (or items).
For example, My axe is too blunt. I must get a sharper one. (One replaces axe).
Ellipsis involves the omission of an item. In other words, an item is replaced by
nothing. For example, Joan brought some carnations, and Catherine some sweet
peas. (Ellipted item: brought on the second clause). In Arabic, all verbs agree
with their subjects in gender and number, which means that links between the two
are clear even when they are separated by a number of embedded clauses with
their own subjects and verbs. Every language has its own devices for establishing
cohesive links. Language and text-type preferences must both be taken into
consideration in the process of translation (Baker, 1992:189-190).
Conjunction involves the use of formal markers to relate sentences,
clauses, and paragraphs to each other. Conjunction expresses one of a small
number of general relations. The main relations are: additive, adversative, causal,
temporal, and continuatives. Languages vary in the type of conjunctions they
prefer to use as well as the frequency with which they use such items. Some
languages, such as German, tend to express relation through subordination and
complex structures. Chinese and Japanese prefer to use simpler and shorter
structures and to mark the relations between these structures explicitly where
necessary. Arabic prefers to group information into very large grammatical
chunks (Baker, 1992:190-192).
Lexical cohesion refers to the role played by the selection of vocabulary in
organizing relation within a text. A given lexical item cannot be said to have a
cohesive function per se, but any lexical item can enter into a cohesive relation
with other items in a text. An example comes from an advertisement of a
woman’s magazine which shows a woman wearing a large hat, accompanied by
the following caption: ‘If you think Woman’s Realm is old hat… think again’
(Cosmopolitan, October, 1999). Old hat means ‘boringly familiar/uninteresting’,
but the literal meaning of hat is used here to create a lexical/visual chain by tying
in with the actual hat in the photograph. This type of chain often has to be
sacrificed in translation because interweaving idiom-controlled chains can only
be reproduced if the target language has an idiom which is identical to the source
idiom in both form and meaning.
The translator must always avoid is the extreme case of producing what
appears to be a random collection of items which do not add up to recognizable
lexical chains that make sense in a given text (Baker, 1992:207).
3) Pragmatic Equivalence
The discussion on pragmatic equivalence is the discussion on the question
of ‘making sense” and the areas of difficulty in cross-cultural communication.
Two useful topics are coherence and implicature (Baker, 1992: 218). To discuss
coherence, implicature and translation strategies, Baker underlines the importance
of some considerations on some of the following aspects. The first is the
conventional meanings of words and structures and the identity of reference.
Knowledge of the language system may not be sufficient but it is essential if one
is to understand what is going on in any kind of verbal communication. The
ability to identify references to participants and entities is essential for drawing
inferences and for maintaining coherence of a text.
The second consideration is on the co-operative Principle and its maxims:
Grice suggests that co-operative principle and its maxims are not arbitrary but are
a feature of any rational behaviour. Bible translators who regularly work with
languages and cultures considerably different from those in the center of
linguistic and academic enquiry are quicker to voice their suspicion and to
consider the possibility the co-operative principle and its maxims are not
universal. Thomson (1982, in Baker 1992:233) considers the possibility that “a
certain type of implicature, say quality implicature, is never used by speakers of a
particular language, or that the context in which a type of implicature will be used
will differ from one language community to the next.” Grice himself concedes
that the four maxims do not represent an exhaustive list and suggests that other
maxims such as “Be polite” may be added. In some translation contexts, being
polite can be far more important than being accurate. A translator may decide to
omit or replace whole stretches of text which violate the reader’s expectations of
how a taboo subject should be handled – if at all - in order to avoid giving
offence.
The third is the context, linguistic or otherwise, of the utterance. Apart
from the actual setting and the participants involved in an exchange, the context
also includes co-text and the linguistic conventions of a community in general.
The fourth consideration is on the items of background knowledge: text-
presented information can only make sense if it can be related to other
information we already know. A text may confirm, contradict, modify, or extend
what we know about the world, as long as it relates to it in some way. It is
important to note that in translation, as in any act of communication, a text does
not necessarily have to conform to the expectations of its readership. Readers’
versions of reality, their expectations, and their preferences can be challenged
without affecting the coherence of a text, provided the challenge is motivated and
the reader is prepared for it.
The last consideration is on the availability of all relevant items falling
under the previous headings. In order to convey an intended meaning, the
speaker/writer must be able to assume that the hearer/reader has access to all the
necessary background information, features of context, etc., that is items listed
above, and that it is well within his/her competence to work out any intended
implicatures. In attempting to fill gaps in their readers’ knowledge and fulfill
their expectations of what is normal or acceptable, translators should not ‘overdo’
things by explaining too much and leaving the reader with nothing to do.
Bell’s (1997:54) discussion on pragmatic analysis in the translation process,
include theme and register. Theme deals with the distribution of information and
question on whether this is a marked or unmarked order. Register deals with
stylistic characteristics including purpose, and takes into account the three
stylistic parameters, i.e. the tenor, the mode, and the domain of discourse.
6. Untranslatability
Catford (1974:98-99) distinguishes two types of untranslatability, i.e.
linguistic and cultural untranslatability. Linguistic untranslatability is due to
differences in the SL and the TL, whereas cultural untranslatability is due to the
absence in TL culture of a relevant situational feature for the SL.
One of the difficulties mentioned above in the difficulties at word level
is the cultural-specific concept. Most cultural-specific concepts are
untranslatable. Shiraishi keeps the word bapak-anak relationship in her book
because the literal translation father-child cannot match the concept.
Many translators also admit that some jokes and fixed expressions are
untranslatable. Suryawinata (1989:37) says that figurative expressions, idioms,
abbreviations, and acronyms are mostly untranslatable. Some terms of science
and technology, which have a universal nature can be directly used, for
example, in English to Indonesian translation: DNA, radar, laser, data,
sample, populasi, reliabilitas, AIDS, and others. When translating Indonesian
to English, acronyms like Kapolri, kakanwil, Depdikbud, Menaker, and so on
are mostly given as the original.
About the untranslatability of jokes, Hervey and Higgins (1992:23) say,
“Humour itself is a highly culture-bound phenomenon, which means that the
cross-cultural equivalence of laughter itself is questionable.” There was an
experience translating a book that consists of many funny jokes, which play on
English words. Most readers of the English text can laugh but the translation
cannot maintain the funny parts in Indonesian. They are not funny in
Indonesian.
Rafael (1988: 110-111) uses the example of the people listening to the
priest’s sermon in Rizal’s Noli me tangere to show the failure of the Spanish
notion of translation. Tagalog responses seem to have been at odds with Spanish
intentions. The discussion goes as follows:
Their conversion to Christianity, like their learning of Castilian, occurred
in ways that were not fully accountable in Spanish-Christian terms. It was as if the
Tagalogs, in confronting the discourse of clerical-colonial authority, always had
something else in mind, which the procedures of missionary translation and
conversion were unable to circumscribe. Something in Tagalog culture could not
be unequivocally restated in Spanish-Christian terms, just as some aspects of the
vernacular exceeded the limits that the missionaries sought to set for it. One of the
examples is the use of the word nono. The explanation is as follows:
“The attempts to put the word at the apex of a hierarchy of tutelary deities become a case of wishful mistranslation that spawns a multitude of other mistranslations. The tagalogs understood the word in various ways that had little to do with the theological and historical implications of the category “paganism,” in which the missionary sought to situate it. Nono always referred to something more than could be spoken of: spirits in nature and ghosts of dead ancestors.” (Rafael, 1988: 113-114)
Benjamin (1968: 81) says that untranslatability may be caused by the loose
ness of meaning of the ST. Benjamin discusses untranslatability as follows:
“Translations prove to be untranslatable not because of any inherent difficulty, but
because of the looseness with which meaning attaches to them.”
According to Hervey and Higgins (1992: 24) and James (2002:7), the
transfer of meaning from Source Text (ST) to Target Text (TT) necessarily
involves a certain degree of translation loss; that is, a TT will always lack certain
culturally relevant features that are present in the ST. They also mention that the
translator can concentrate on the realistic aim of cutting down on translation loss,
rather than the unrealistic one of seeking the ultimate translation of the ST.
Untranslatibility results in translation loss. About this, Hervey and Higgins
add the following opinion:
The challenge to the translator is thus not to eliminate translation loss altogether, but to reduce it by deciding which of the relevant features in the ST it is most important to preserve, and which can most legitimately be sacrificed in preserving them. The translator is striving to reduce translation loss, to minimize difference rather than to maximize sameness (Hervey and Higgins, 1992: 25). In the sub-title to describe how translators should deal with
untranslatability, Hervey and Higgins (1992:34-35) use the phrase
“Compromise and Compensation”.
“Compromise in translation means reconciling oneself to the fact that while one would like to do full justice to the ‘richness’ of the ST, one’s final TT inevitably suffers from various translation loss. Compensation refers to the techniques of making up for the loss of important ST features through replicating ST effects approximately in the TT by means other than those used in the ST.”
7. Using Translation as a Resource for the Promotion of Language Learning
Widdowson (1979:101) says that the use of translation has long been
viewed with suspicion by language teachers and many proscribe it altogether as a
matter of principle. Widdowson argues that translation, conceived of in a certain
way, can be a very useful pedagogic device and in some circumstances, notably
those where a foreign language is being learnt for special purposes as a service
subject, translation of a kind may provide the most effective means of learning.
Further Widdowson (1979:107) describes the reasons why there are objections to
the use of translation and he also makes some suggestions about the use
translation as a teaching technique. He points out that the objections to the use of
translation are based on the assumption that it must involve establishing structural
equivalence. It is said that translation leads the learner to suppose that there is a
direct one- to-one correspondence of meaning between the sentences in the TL
and those in the SL. Another objection is that it draws the attention of the learner
to the formal properties of the TL sentences and distracts him from the search for
contextual meaning, i.e. meaning which is a function of a relationship between
sentences and appropriate situations.
According to Widdowson, if translation is carried out with reference to
grammatical deep structure, as an exercise is establishing semantic equivalence, it
is not open to the first objection; and if it is carried out with reference to rhetorical
deep structure, as an exercise in establishing pragmatic equivalence, it is not open
to the second objection.
Newmark (1981:183) also agrees with the opinion that translation can be a
superb academic exercise, particularly when it is combined with translation
criticism, and discussion. It offers a particular insight into the nature of language
as well as contrastive linguistic and cultural studies.
Duff (1992:5-7) lists the reasons why translation has been avoided by
teachers and the reasons why translation can be a useful activity in the classroom.
According to Duff, translation has been avoided by teachers because of some
main reasons such as: It is confined to only two skills – reading and writing; it is
not a communicative activity because it involves no oral interaction; it is time-
consuming; the use of the mother tongue is required and it is not desirable; it is
boring, both to do and to correct.
C. Theories on English to Indonesian Translation
In book-stores or libraries, it is easy to find novels, popular books,
scientific books, comics, magazines and many other types of readings, which have
been translated from English into Indonesian. Tou (1997:4) mentions that despite
the practical and ‘theoretical’ activities of translation, the field remains
problematic. Many writers have tried to look at translation from different angles.
In this part of discussion, grammar is taken as the focus of the theories on English
to Indonesian translation. Some problems of the socio-political-cultural aspects
are also reviewed. .
The discussion deals with most differences in grammar between English
and Indonesian. Nida and Taber (1974:34) say that grammar has meanings. It
means that different language grammar may express different meanings. Each
language has their own patterns to express certain meanings. This can be one of
the reasons why learners need to understand the difference between I chased the
dog and I was chased by the dog. Or the difference between I am bored and I am
boring. For this part, the discussion is mostly taken from books written by
Indonesian authors.
1. Simple and Complex Noun Phrases
A noun cluster or a noun phrase or a noun group consists of a noun that
functions as the head -word and a modifier or modifiers. Modifiers can be pre-
modifiers (before the head) or post-modifiers (after the head). Pre-modifiers can
be: article, adjective, noun, numeral, adverb, conjunction, or pronoun. Post-
modifiers can be a preposition phrase, or a relative clause. Noun clusters usually
occupy the positions of Subject, Object, or Subject Complement. The ability to
translate noun clusters correctly is a prerequisite to translate the whole sentence
well (Soge, 1989:10-23).
Soge (1989:23) describes the general principle to translate complex noun
phrases as follows: When translating noun clusters, we can use a general
principle, i.e. start from the head- word, and then translate the pre-modifiers.
Begin with the closest pre-modifier to the head , and then move to the furthest
pre-modifier from the head. Next will be the post-modifier(s), which can be in the
form of a prepositional group or a relative clause. When there is a numeral, the
numeral is translated before the head.
In the application of the general principle above, some adjustment should
be done to produce a noun phrase that is equal in meaning to the source text.
Identifying which word that functions as the head of the noun phrase can be useful
to make sure that it is also the head in the translation.
2. Conjunctions and Conjuncts
Widyamartaya writes that lengthy sentences can be cut down into some
shorter sentences (1989:106). Sakri (1985:69) also suggests the same alternative
way to translate long sentences that contain several conjunctions.
Some relations between sentences are implied. The relation is not shown
by a conjunction or a conjunct. Translating such sentences requires the ability to
identify the relation. The sentences below are taken from Azar (1989: 311-318):
1) Lacking the necessary qualifications, he was not considered for the job. (Karena …)
2) Not wanting to hurt her feelings, he didn’t tell her the bad news. (Karena …) 3) Watching the children’s energetic play, I felt like an old man even though I am
only forty. (Ketika …) 4) Pointing to the sentences on the board, the teacher explained the meaning of
modifying phrases. (Ketika …) The first two sentences express “cause and effect”, and the last two
sentences express “during the same time”. Translating the sentences into
Indonesian will require conjunctions because Indonesian does not have such non-
finite clauses.
Another difference in showing the relations between sentences is the use
of sentence connectors or conjuncts like however, nevertheless, nonetheless,
therefore, consequently, and otherwise. The positions of these words can be in
the initial position, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence in English. The
following sentences are taken from Azar (1989:306)
1) Al didn’t study. Therefore, he failed the test. Al tidak belajar. Oleh karena itu, dia tidak lulus ujian. 2) Al didn’t study. He, therefore, failed the test. Al tidak belajar. Oleh karena itu, dia tidak lulus ujian. 3) Al didn’t study. He failed the test, therefore. Al tidak belajar. Oleh karena itu, dia tidak lulus ujian. The alternative positions for the connectors do not exist in Indonesian. In
Indonesian, only the initial position is acceptable. The there sentences will be
translated in the same way, i.e. with the connector in the initial position in
Indonesian.
Difficulties may also arise from some conjunctions or conjuncts that have
alternative meanings. For example, while may express time or opposition, so it
may mean ketika or pada saat, or sedangkan. Translators need to make sure which
meaning is conveyed by the context.
3. Relative Pronouns
The construction with relative clauses in English usually results in
constructions with yang in Indonesian. For example, the girl who is holding a
dictionary is gadis yang sedang membawa kamus. Whose can be translated as
yang …-nya. The blank is usually filled in with an NP. For example, whose
father is yang ayahnya, whose left eye is yang mata kirinya, whose cover is yang
sampulnya.
Translating constructions like to whom, from whom, with whom, in whom,
to which, from which, with which, and other similar relative pronouns with a
fronted preposition can usually be confusing. According to Widyawamtaya
(1989:104), we have to avoid using phrases like yang mana, hal mana, di atas
mana, dari mana, dari siapa, dengan siapa and so on, as a result of literal
translation that consists of a preposition and the relative pronoun.
Widyamartaya (1989:105-106) suggests some alternative constructions to
avoid using the phrases above:
a. When in which, on which, etc. express a place, the relative clause can be
started with tempat; for example, “The new world in which we all work together
to build it up…” (Dunia baru tempat kita bekerja bersama-sama untuk
membangunnya…)
b. When in which, on which, at which, etc express time, expressions like saat,
waktu, ketika, hari, minggu, bulan, tahun, masa, abad can be used. Other
possible constructions are tahun terjadinya, minggu kedatangannya, etc.; for
example, “The year, in which that important event occurred …” (Tahun, waktu
peristiwa itu terjadi … or Tahun terjadinya peristiwa yang penting itu …)
c. With whom, who … with, etc. can be translated using teman or lawan. The
result is a sentence like Orang temannya bercakap-cakap itu kawannya sekuliah.
Translators need to consider the context where teman or lawan is not appropriate
because the person to whom someone is speaking is a stranger and he or she is
neither a friend nor an enemy.
d. Phrases like in which, in whom, etc. can be translated using yang and a passive
construction; for example, “… a genre in which posterity was no longer
interested …” (… jenis sastra yang oleh angkatan berikut tidak lagi diminati …)
e. Phrases like from whom, from which, etc. can be translated using yang and an
active construction; for example, The upper-deity from whom all other deities
descernded … (Maha-dewa yang menurunkan semua dewa lainnya …)
f. A relative clause in English can become an independent clause in Indonesian.
In other words, a complex sentence in English can become a compound sentence
in Indonesian, or it can become two or more simple sentences in Indonesian.
4. Tense and Aspect
Tense and aspect are not grammatical categories in Indonesian.
Indonesian does have concepts of past, present, and future, and concepts of
perfective and progressive, but Indonesian does not have verb changes like
English when there is a change of time reference or aspects. The time reference is
usually expressed by adverbials. The verb pergi does not have alternative forms
like go, which has went, goes, and gone.
He went to the dentist last night. (Dia pergi ke dokter gigi tadi malam.) He goes to the dentist every six months. (Dia pergi ke dokter gigi setiap enam bulan sekali.) He will go to the dentist tonight. (Dia akan pergi ke dokter gigi malam ini) He has gone to the dentist twice this month. (Dia telah pergi ke dokter gigi dua kali dalam satu bulan ini.)
One note to remember about translating tenses is that it should not result in
awkward phrases like sudah sedang, akan sedang, akan sudah, akan sudah
sedang, or telah sedang (Widyamartaya, 1989: 57). When the context is clear,
sudah, telah, atau sedang are not necessarily included. To refer to some past
action, event, or condition, sometimes the adverbial dulu or dahulu can be used.
To emphasize a present time reference, sekarang, saat ini, or sampai sekarang can
be used. For example, Hartono is a successful and loveable English teacher. He
was once a notorious street burglar, Hartono sekarang menjadi guru bahasa
Inggris yang sukses dan disukai. Dia dulu seorang perampok jalanan yang
terkenal.
Translating conditional clauses type II or type III, Widayamartaya
(1989:58) suggests the use of andaikata, seandainya, andaikan, or andaikan saja.
These words are effective to express unreal conditions. The word jika is mostly
used for type I. For example, conditional clause type III: Had I been told earlier,
I would have called you, Seandainya saya diberitahu lebih awal, saya pasti
menelpon kamu.
5. Articles
Articles in English and Indonesian are different in the way that in English,
whenever a noun is used, the considerations involve whether the noun is
countable or uncountable, if countable, then singular or plural, and then definite
or indefinite. The use of articles is part of the grammatical requirement, and it
does not matter even though it will result in a lot of articles in a text. In
Indonesian, articles are used when some emphasis is intended. Articles are
applied mostly optionally in Indonesian.
a. Indefinite articles: a, an
A and an are not always translated. For example, A dog is an intelligent
animal is translated as Anjing binatang yang cerdas. In English, a and an are
used to imply that a noun is singular (hanya satu, sebuah, seorang, sebutir, dsb).
The two articles are also used to refer to general concepts.
1) “A dog is an intelligent animal” is a concept. It is enough to translate it as
Anjing binatang yang cerdas. It is not necessary to add seekor.
2) “There is a dog in the garden” is not a concept about a dog. It is translated as
seekor anjing. There is a possibility when the context is clear, Ada anjing di
kebun is acceptable. If not, it is better to translate it as Ada seekor anjing di
kebun.
b. Definite article: the
Like a and an, the is not always translated. When translated, the can be
translated as –nya, itu, tersebut, tadi. See the example “There is a dog in the
garden.” Another example,
“Some of the men work in the prison factory, where they make mail-bags. But Coke often works in the field outside.” is translated as Beberapa dari orang-orang itu ada yang bekerja di pabrik penjara, tempat mereka membuat kantung-kantung surat. Tetapi, Coke kerap kali bekerja di ladang di luar. 1) “Some of the men” can also be translated as Dari orang-orang itu, ada yang…
or Dari mereka, ada yang... or Beberapa dari mereka, ada yang…
2) “In the prison factory”: the is not translated because it is definite from the
context.
3) “In the field”: the is also not translated because it is definite from the context.
In Indonesian, articles are not as important as in English. In English, we have
to use the whenever the noun is definite, even though it may result in a lot of the
in the sentences. In Indonesian, articles are avoided if the context is clear. Too
many –nya or itu will result in an awkward language (Widyamartaya, 1989:46-
48).
6. Prepositions
There are more prepositions in English than in Indonesian. The following
list of examples, some of which are taken from Quirk (1972) and Echols and
Shadily (1995), can show us how English makes more distinctions on the use of
prepositions than in Indonesian:
at seven o’clock: pada jam on Saturday: pada hari in July 4, 1999: pada tanggal in September: pada bulan
in 1970: pada tahun in the rainy season: pada musim in the afternoon: pada at night: pada.
In Indonesian, another word is usually added to the time expressions, i.e. jam,
hari, tanggal, bulan, tahun, or musim. The Indonesian preposition di is used for the
for the following expressions of place. An optional addition of words can be used:
on the table: di (atas) in Texas: di (kota) in the closet: di (dalam) at Sanata Dharma University: di at the airport: di.
The following expressions of place are less variable in Indonesian.
over the mountains: di atas above the sink: di atas under the tree: di bawah underneath the rug: di bawah beneath a tree: di bawah below us: di bawah
English makes a distinction between di antara dua and di antara banyak.
The distinction can be done in Indonesian by adding the word dua for between in
the following case:
between his sons: di antara dua orang putranya among his grandchildren: di antara cucu-cucunya. However, when the objects of the preposition are mentioned, dua is not
needed:
between Zita and Dodit: di antara Zita dan Dodit between love and hatred: antara cinta dan benci.
The case with for may be different because for can be translated into variable
Indonesian words:
for one hour: selama satu jam for Judith: untuk Judith or bagi Judith for money: demi uang
Some expressions using for are fixed expressions.
for good: untuk selama-lamanya for goodness’ sake: aduh or astaga
The following prepositions may not cause too much difficulty because they
are mostly one-to-one correspondence.
by next Monday: sebelum during the holiday: selama in five minutes: dalam (waktu) near the university: (di) dekat next to the post office: di sebelah beside his wife: di samping
without you: tanpa opposite the theatre: di seberang around the island: di sekeliling through that street: melalui with great care: dengan
The discussion on the translation of the preposition of can be interesting. It is
sometimes not translated and it is sometimes expressed in various words
(Widyamartaya, 1989:58-60).
The father of the bride: ayah mempelai wanita The car of my uncle: mobil (milik) paman saya The title of the book: judul buku itu The influence of Sanskrit: pengaruh bahasa Sansekerta The holy places of Buddhism: tempat suci orang beragama Budha The language of the Indonesian people: bahasa orang Indonesia The interpretation of the relevant sources: penafsiran (terhadap) sumber-
sumber yang relevan The happiness of gathering together: kebahagiaan berkumpul bersama The clarity of explanation: kejelasan (dalam) menerangkan A substance of great benefit: zat yang sangat bermanfaat A gem of great value: permata yang sangat berharga An effort of no use: usaha yang sia-sia
From the examples, the preposition of may result in words like milik,
terhadap, dalam, and yang. When the meaning is dari (or daripada), it is usually
optionally expressed. Widyamartaya suggests that dari or daripada should be
avoided.
Some prepositions are in the form of a group of words. For example, In case
of rain, the picnic will be canceled: Kalau hujan, piknik akan dibatalkan. In case
of has nothing to do with a case, kasus). Another example, As a result of the
engineer’s carelessness, many people were injured: Karena kecerobohan insinyur
itu, banyak orang yang terluka. The word gara-gara can also be a good choice in
this context. The literal translation of result as hasil is not appropriate.
Other prepositions are because of, regardless of, and in spite of. For
example, Because of his selfishness, he has very few friends: Karena
keegoisannnya, dia memiliki sedikit teman. He went ahead regardless of all
warnings about the danger of his mission: Dia tetap meneruskan rencananya
meskipun banyak yang mengingatkan dia akan bahaya misinya itu. She
succeeded in her life in spite of her physical handicaps: Dia berhasil dalam
hidupnya walaupun dia cacat fisik. The translation of some prepositions can
result in conjunctions in Indonesian.
A preposition like instead of can be translated as follows.
Instead of watching TV, we’d better go playing outside (Daripada menonton TV, kita lebih baik bermain di luar) Instead of helping the old woman, the crowd of teens laughed at her. (Bukannya membantu, sekelompok anak muda itu malah menertawakan wanita tua itu.)
7. Pronouns
Catford (in Baker, 1992:95) explains that Indonesian has a nine-term
pronoun system where English has only seven. The gender dimension is absent
from Indonesian, but two other dimensions are of relevance:
a. the inclusive/exclusive dimension: English we has two translations kami and
kita, depending on whether the addressee is included or excluded;
b. the familiar/non-familiar dimension aku and saya for English I, depending on
the relationship pertaining between speaker and hearer.
Widyamartaya (1989: 48-49) uses the following examples to discuss the
translation of pronouns.
1) My older brother is married to an English girl. He loves her very much. Kakak laki-laki saya menikah dengan (seorang) gadis Inggris. Ia sangat mencintai istrinya.
2) There is a big mango tree in my garden. It bears plenty of fruits each year. Di kebun saya ada (sebuah) pohon mangga yang besar. Pohon itu berbuah banyak sekali tiap tahun. Di kebun saya ada (sebuah) pohon mangga yang besar. Tiap tahun berbuah banyak.
There are several notes about the translation of English to Indonesian
pronouns:
a. in Indonesian, the pronouns for the third singular cannot make a difference
between the genders (a male or a female);
b. he, his, him, she, hers, her, it, its, they, theirs, them have wider scope of
meaning than ia, -nya, dia, mereka. In Indonesian, Ia, dia, -nya, mereka
generally refer to a person/persons. In English those pronouns may also refer
to an animal/animals or even some un-living things;
c. the translation of English pronouns into Indonesian is often done by the
repetition of the reference;
d. it, a pronoun of mango tree in the second example cannot be merely translated
by itu or ini. In the example, it can be repeated or omitted.
8. Singular and Plural
In general, English has -s/-es as the suffixes for plural forms. There are
other irregular forms of plural in English like phenomenon-phenomena, man-men,
goose-geese, mouse-mice, and others. In general, Indonesian uses repetition to
signify plurals, such as buku becomes buku-buku, wajah becomes wajah-wajah,
and so on.
In translation, there are several considerations about singular and plural
forms: Not all plural forms in Indonesian require repetition. Some nouns can be
awkward when repeated because the singular form is a repeated form already. For
example, words like kura-kura, kupu-kupu, mata-mata (a spy), biri-biri, and
others.
Repeated forms are not necessary when there is another word that signifies
plural, such as a numeral, either a definite or an indefinite numeral, that signifies
plural. Widyamartaya (1989:46) lists the following words: tiga, lima, seratus,
seribu, banyak, sedikit, beberapa, para, semua, kaum, himpunan, sekelompok,
sejumlah, and rombongan. Therefore, a group of tourists can be translated as
sekelompok turis.
Some vocabulary is viewed differently. Some words are always used in
plurals in English but they are singular in Indonesian. For example, for words
like trousers, pants, scissors, glasses, and lips, repetition in Indonesian will
sometimes result in not only awkward but also funny phrases. Although English
and Indonesian people understand upper and lower lips, but to translate He kissed
her lips into Dia mencium bibir-bibirnya is awkward and funny. Translating He
was wearing dark-blue trousers as Dia memakai celana-celana biru tua may raise
a question how he looked like.
Machali (2000:64) says that the change of plural nouns in English into
singular nouns in Indonesian should be noticed by translators. She listed the
following examples with the word a pair.
A pair of trousers is sebuah celana A pair of glasses is sebuah kacamata A pair of scissors is sebuah gunting
9. Problems in English to Indonesian Translation: Grammatical Aspects
and Socio-Political-Cultural Aspects.
Many recent studies have contributed new insights to the development of
translation. A look at the post-colonial theories on the difficulties on translation
can give some insights about translation. Gandhi (1998: viii) says that in the last
decade, post-colonialism has taken its place with theories such post-structuralism,
psychoanalysis, and feminism as a major critical discourse in the humanities. The
aim of postcolonial criticism can be quoted from Lo and Gilbert (1998:6):
The aim of postcolonial criticism is to expose gaps, absences and ambivalences in historical representations, to identify moments of rupture where the exercise of imperial power is incomplete and/or compromised by colonial resistance, to elicit suppressed or forgotten (subaltern) histories, and to problematise the very modes through which ‘history’ has accrued its authority as ‘truth’.
An article by Zabus (1995:314) in the Postcolonial Reader discusses
translation from another different point of view. It deals mostly with the
translation of African languages into English. Zabus uses the term relexification.
He says that this term has been used by other writers, such as Todd (1982).
According to Zabus, Todd’s formulation – the relexification of one’s mother
tongue, using English vocabulary but indigenous structures and rhythms – best
describes the process at work when the African language is simulated in the
European text. Relexification is the making of a new register of communication
out of an alien lexicon. The adjectives ‘new’ and ‘alien’ are particularly relevant
in a post-colonial context in which the European language remains alien or
irreducibly ‘other’ to a large majority of the West African population. When
relexified, it is not ‘metropolitan’ English or French that appears on the page, but
an unfamiliar European language that constantly suggests another tongue.
Relexification is tied to the notion ‘approximation’, and of ‘transparence’.
It also encompasses those of ‘transposition’, ‘paraphrase’, ‘translation’ (even
‘psychic’), ‘transliteration’, ‘transference’, and ‘transmutation’. Unlike
interpretive translation or the activity of transcodage, which both take place
between two texts – the original and the translated version – relexification is
characterized by the absence of an original. It does not operate from the language
of one text to the other but from one language to the other within the same text.
On the methodological level, relexification stems from a need to solve an
immediate artistic problem in rendering African concepts, thought-patterns and
linguistic features in the European language. On the strategic level, relexification
seeks to subvert the linguistically codified, to decolonize the language of early,
colonial literature and to affirm a revised, non-atavistic orality via the imposed
medium.
An example of relexification from the books in this study is the use of
bapak by Shiraishi in her English version. Shiraishi tries to translate the word
bapak in Indonesian into English, but the English words father or mister cannot
provide the intended meaning of bapak. Therefore, in the English text, bapak
remains bapak. By the postcolonial theories, the difficulties in translating a term
like bapak can be explained. A further study is required to look into translation
and relexification.
The discussion on the previous parts has shown that there are grammatical
differences between English and Indonesian. Some of the grammatical problems
mentioned above include the use tenses and aspects, verb agreement/ concord
with the Subject, use of pronouns, relative pronouns, singular and plural markers
of noun phrases, use of articles, positions of conjuncts, and meanings of
conjunctions.
Hanafi (1986:35-39) uses Newman’s (1977) categories of problems in
equivalence: words, sentence structure, terms, grammar and allusion. Words
usually have different meanings in different contexts, for example,
George gets home before midnight: George tiba di rumah sebelum tengah malam. He gets lots of mails: Dia menerima banyak surat. Get the doctor! : Panggilkan dokter! Get my towel: Ambilkan handukku. I have to get a new shirt: Saya harus membeli kemeja baru. Please get the window: Tolong bukakan jendelanya. Get the boys before he leaves!: Tangkap bocah itu sebelum dia kabur! Ali has got the chicken pox: Ali terkena sakit cacar.
The examples of problems in sentence structure and grammar can be seen
in the previous discussion. Some additional examples are as follows.
He does not believe in you: Dia tidak mempercayai dalam kamu (It should be Dia tidak mempercayaimu). Susy broke her legs: Susi telah mematahkan kaki-kakinya (It should be: Kedua kaki Susi patah).
Hanafi suggests some alternative solutions in dealing with the problems in
finding Indonesian terms for many English terms. The first is by underlining the
words in translation and provide some notes on it. The second is by adopting the
words using Indonesian system (EYD), for example, Oenology – enologi,
scenography – senografi, scyphistoma – sifistoma. The third is by finding
another term in the TL which is similar to the term in the SL. The fourth is by
defining the term as the SL defines it. The last is by using some sketch or picture
if necessary.
Besides grammatical differences, translators also need to anticipate the
problems that arise from socio-cultural differences. Kamil (1993:32) mentions a
simple example that requires socio-cultural understanding, i.e. the translation of
“How are you?” This sentence cannot be literally translated. The common
expression for Indonesians will be “Apa kabar?” instead of “Bagaimana
keadaanmu?” Some other English expression such as “…, you know, …” cannot
be always translated as “Anda tahu.”. Another similar expression is “How do you
do?”
Another problem may arise from terms like sisters or daughters.
Translators need to consider translating sisters as kakak perempuan or adik
perempuan and translating daughters as anak perempuan or putri. (Simatupang
(1999:86).
The problem with allusion in Newman’s category is similar to the use of
figurative language. Kamil (1993) mentions a sample expression like “He kicked
the bucket,” which means “He died.” Idioms and fixed expressions are included
as one of the main problems in translation, not only from English to Indonesian.
The first step to treat them appropriately is to realize that literal translation usually
does not work. In other words, translators need to first realize and recognize the
expression as an idiom or fixed expression.
The problems that are related to socio-cultural aspects include the
difference in some concepts. Nababan (1999:59) gives an example of difficulties
in translating abstract concepts, which may be different, for example the concept
“rich”. Indonesians’ and Americans’ concept of “rich” are different. In Indonesia,
having a car can be considered rich. In America, it is a common means of
transportation that people own.
Another difference of preference between English and Indonesian is the
expression of measurement for weight and height. Sakri (1985:69) mentions the
need to express measurement in the measurement that is commonly used by
Indonesians. It can be understood how this need to be done to provide a better
understanding by the target readers or listeners.
Listening to the words and looking at the expression shown by a reporter,
people in Indonesia in general can only understand that a woman has lost a great
amount of body weight, but it is not clear how many kilos it is. “This woman has
lost 50 pounds in one year. Look at the picture, this is before and that is after.”
People in Indonesia are not used to using pounds. When watching such news,
people may only comment “Wow, the big fat woman is now slim. It is a great
lost. How many kilos is it 50 pounds?” The 50 pounds is translated as 50 pon.
Not many people in Indonesia understand that 1 pound is equal to 0.45 kilogram.
The same problem also occurs with height, when it is in inches and
translated as inci. In Indonesia, it is more common to mention height in meters or
centimeters. One inch is equal to 2.54 centimeters. Other kinds of measurement
are feet and yard. When they are translated into Indonesian as kaki and yard, they
are not commonly used measurements, so they often invite questions like “How
many meters is that?” or “How wide is this?”
Considering using a more common kind of measurement in the TL can
provide a better understanding of the intended description. In Indonesia, people
usually express the measurement in the metric system, i.e. a decimal system of
weights and measures based on the meter and on the kilogram. Therefore,
translators of English to Indonesian are recommended to translate the
measurement using the metric system.
An example of the influence of the political aspect in translation can be
taken from the Australian Geography, published by Australia-Indonesia Institute,
1999 (in Machali, 2000:134).
ST: When Indonesia annexed the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in 1975, many Australian understood this as part of the process of decolonization. 1) Ketika Indonesia mencaplok Timor Timur, bekas koloni Portugis di tahun 1975 banyak orang Australia yang melihatnya sebagai proses dekolonisasi. 2) Ketika Timor Timur, sebagai bekas daerah jajahan Portugis, berintegrasi dengan Indonesia pada tahun 1975, banyak orang Australia yang menganggapnya sebagai proses dekolonisasi.
The version that is allowed to be quoted in the junior and senior high
school text- books by the Indonesian government is the second version. This is an
example how translation can be influenced by politics.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Research Data
To answer the first and the second question in the problem formulation,
i.e. about the psychological nature of translation processes and the theoretical
nature of English to Indonesian translation, the theories from various translation
books and articles were collected. The theories on English to Indonesian
translation were taken from the books written by mostly Indonesian writers.
The answer to the third problem is the result of the analysis of the phrases
and sentences from the book Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia
dalam Politik and its ST Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics. The
two books, as the source data for the analysis, have the following description:
1. Young Heroes was written by Saya S. Shiraishi. The book is of a quarto size.
It consists of seven chapters, 183 pages. It was published in 1997 in New
York by SEAP (Souteast Asia Program Publications) of Cornell University.
2. Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia, the translated version of Young Heroes, was
translated by Tim Jakarta-Jakarta, which consisted of Agni Amorita AMD.,
FX. Rudi Gunawan, Frans Sartono, and Seno Gumira Ajidarma as the
coordinator. This book is of half of a quarto size. The width and the length
are more or less half of the original version. It consists of 290 pages.
Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia was published in 2001 in Jakarta by KPG
(Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia) in cooperation with Yayasan Adikarya
IKAPI and the Ford Foundation.
To collect the data, the Indonesian and the English version were put side
by side, and then sentence by sentence in the English version were compared with
the Indonesian version. Phrases and terms were also compared. At the time the
two texts were put side by side and the comparison was done, the examples of
good translation of simple or complex noun phrases and sentences, the examples
of the application of certain translation techniques, and the examples of
questionable or inappropriate parts were marked.
B. Research Procedures
The procedures of this study were done as follows:
1. Collect and study the theories on translation
2. Collect the phrases and sentences from Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia and their
counterparts from the original version Young Heroes.
3. Analyze the translation product based on the theories on translation.
4. Present the strengths and weaknesses of the translation product.
5. Draw some conclusions on the theories on translation in general, and on the
theories on English to Indonesian in particular, and on the results of the analysis
of the translation product.
C. Data Analysis
The analysis was done on the phrases and sentences in Shiraishi’s
Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia and its original version Young Heroes. The analysis
covers both the phrase and sentence levels. Since the study tries to present the
analysis on English to Indonesian translation, the way the analysis is carried out is
from the English text to the Indonesian one.
The following paragraphs describe the steps of how the study was
conducted and describe some examples of how the data were collected. The data
are divided into five main categories:
1. Phrases considered as good translation
2. Sentences considered as good translation
3. Phrases considered as inappropriate translation
4. Sentences considered as inappropriate translation
5. Phrases and sentences lost or partly translated
The criteria for the selection of the phrases and sentences in the data are
described as follows.
1. The criteria for the phrases and sentences to be listed as the examples of good
translation are based on Larson’s description (1984:6) of what he terms as “the
best translation”, i.e. the one which uses the normal language form of the
receptor language, communicates, as mush as possible, to the receptor
language speakers the same meaning that was understood by the speakers of
the source language, and maintains the dynamics of the original source
language text.
2. The phrases listed in the data as good or inappropriate translation are mainly
complex noun phrases, i.e. noun phrases with a pre-modifier or pre-modifiers
and/ or with a post modifier or post-modifiers.
3. The sentences listed in the data as good translation are selected on the ground
that they apply some translation technique or techniques.
4. The sentences listed in the data as inappropriate translation include sentences
that have been partly mistranslated or completely mistranslated. The list
includes some sentences in the target text (TT) that have an opposite meaning
from the original or source text (ST).
It is not easy to put a sentence under one criterion - either as good or
inappropriate - because in one sentence, certain part as the focus of discussion can
be considered as good, but in the same sentence, some other parts can also be
debatable as appropriate. For such difficulty, the discussion of a sentence
considered as good translation is focused on the part that applies certain
translation technique or techniques. For the other parts in the same sentence that
are debatable as appropriate translation, the discussion is done on the third part of
Chapter IV under the sub-heading of “Discussion”.
The steps and some examples of the data collection and data analysis are
described in the following paragraphs:
The translation of “the political coming-age of the Indonesian nation” as
“merekahnya fajar politik bangsa Indonesia” is underlined and given a tick. This
is an example of a good translation of a complex noun phrase (NP). The page
number of the original text is given, so rechecking can be easier. This phrase in
on page 7 in the Indonesian version, but we can find it on page 12 in the English
version.
The use of “Soeharto“ to translate “he” is circled as an example of the
application of a translation technique, i.e. the repetition of a pronoun to avoid
ambiguity. “The AMONG SYSTEM” is translated as “SISTEM AMONG“
(ngemong atau asuh -Pent). Such part is also circled for it applies another
translation technique, i.e. a note provided by the translator. “Pent” stands for
penterjemah, the translator.
Certain parts which have been mistranslated are circled or put in a box and
marked with a cross. For example, “Is it the Javanese family, the Minangkabau,
the Acehnese, the Balinese, or what?” is translated as “Ini keluarga Jawa,
Minangkabau…”. As a question, “is it” should be translated as “apakah“ not
“ini“ as for “it is”. Another alternative is to use neither ini nor apakah. In
Indonesian, it is possible to make a question using a statement with a rising
intonation. Therefore, the translation can be: “Keluarga Jawa, Minangkabau,
Aceh, Bali, atau apa?”
Another part, for example, which is questionable, is circled or put in a box
and marked with a question mark. There is a possibility that the part has been
mistranslated. For example, “The exposition is more detailed in the English
version of the autobiography, obviously because non-Indonesians are not expected
to be graced with Javanese wisdom” is translated as “Penjelasan yang lebih rinci
dimuat dalam bahasa Inggris, tak pelak lagi karena para pembaca yang bukan
orang Indonesia tidak diharapkan terbuai oleh kearifan Jawa.”
The positive tone in the original version has been changed into a negative
tone in the Indonesian version. An alternative version for such part can be
“…karena para pembaca yang bukan orang Indonesia diperkirakan tidak tahu
banyak tentang ajaran atau kata-kata arif adat budaya Jawa.” Such analysis and
alternative version are listed in Chapter IV, in the Data Analysis and Discussion.
CHAPTER IV
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
A. Data
The data consist of phrases and sentences quoted from Young Heroes: The
Indonesian Family in Politics and the counter-parts phrases and sentences quoted
from Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia: Keluarge Indonesia dalam Politik. The phrases
and sentences are categorized into different groups. As mentioned in the
methodology, there are phrases and sentences which are considered as good
examples of translation. There are also phrases and sentences which are
considered as inappropriate. The phrases and sentences of different categories are
put in different tables. Table 4.5. lists the phrases and sentences from Young
Heroes which are “lost”, meaning they are not translated or they are partly
translated. The Indonesian words are typed in italics. The parts being focused in
the good or inappropriate translation are italicized and underlined. The parts being
focused in the English version are italicized.
The criteria for the selection of the phrases and sentences are described in
the previous chapter, in the Methodology. The results of the data collection can be
seen in the following tables.
Table 4.1. Phrases Considered as Good Translation
No. YOUNG HEROES PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
the political coming-age of the
Indonesian nation (p.12)
the glaring sunset-red soil (p.15)
The Red Land (p.15)
this four-feet wide space (p.16)
object of anticipation (p.16)
went independent (p.40)
one of the best residential areas in
Jakarta, with large, spacious
houses shielded under the deep
eaves of rosy-red tiled roofs and a
canopy of stately trees (p.43)
Aidit’s movement that day (p.46)
reports of unknown military
maneuvers (p.50)
by the evening of October 1
(p.50)
on that fateful day of revolution,
Indonesian style (p.51)
his hot-headed revolutionary –
kidnappers – anak buah (p.51)
To put it in a different way (p.53)
standard cultural answer (p.64)
Roni’s baby sister (p.66)
the respect language (p.65)
a sleeveless undershirt and white
under-shorts (.78)
merekahnya fajar politik bangsa
Indonesia (p.7)
tanah liat berwarna merah senja (p.12)
Lemah Abang (p.12)
lorong selebar 1,2 meter (p.12)
obyek yang mereka antisipasi (p.14)
meraih kemerdekaan (p.55)
wilayah pemukiman terbaik di Jakarta,
dengan rumah-rumah yang besar dan
berhalaman luas, terlindung di bawah
atap genteng kemerah-merahan dan
tirai pohon-pohon yang megah (p.61)
apa yang dilakukan Aidit pada hari itu
(p.66)
laporan adanya gerakan militer tak
dikenal (p.72)
pada 1 Oktobe malam (p.71)
pada hari yang menentukan revolusi
gaya Indonesia itu (p.75)
anak buah- penculik- revolusioner yang
pemarah (p.75)
dengan kata lain (p.77)
jawaban cultural yang baku (p.94)
adik perempuan Roni (p.97)
bahasa krama (p.96)
kaus singlet dan celana kolor putih
(p.116)
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
the intimacy very deep and thick
(p.78)
since his elementary school days
under the Dutch (p.79)
a continuing theme (p.81)
from Java to the “outer islands”
(p.82)
an already well-developed
formulation of family-ism (p.82)
in the late 1910s (p.82)
contemporary children’s literature
(p.85)
learn self-control and self sacrifice
(p.85)
Soeharto’s reactionary Father-
knows-best model (p.86)
into Malay-Indonesian (p.86)
“Pak So-and-So”, “Bu So-and-So”
(p.93)
“Pak So-and-So”, “Bu So-and-So”
(p.95)
shiny new glass and steel high rise
building in Jakarta (p.95)
bapak as a caring father for his
children/subordinates who meets
their endless expectations (p.97)
unconditional pampering (p.97)
keakraban yang sangat dekat (p.117)
sejak dia masih duduk di bangku
Sekolah Rakyat di zaman Belanda
(p.119)
tema yang terus berlanjut (p.122)
baik di Jawa maupun di luar Jawa
(p.123)
rumusan famili-isme yang telah
dikembangkan dengan baik (p.124)
pada akhir era 1910-an (p.124)
cerita anak-anak Indonesia
kontemporer (p.128)
belajar menguasai diri dan berkorban
diri (p.129)
model Soeharto, bapak-tahu-segala
(Father-knows-best) yang reaksioner
(p.131)
dalam bahasa Melayu-Indonesia(p.131)
“Pak ini, Pak itu” atau "Bu ini, Bu itu”
(p.144)
“Pak A atau Pak B”, "Bu A atau Bu B”
(p.147)
gedung kaca bertingkat di Jakarta
(p.147)
bapak sebagai seorang ayah yang
penuh perhatian sekaligus mampu
memenuhi harapan tanpa batas anak-
anak atau bawahannya (p.147)
memanjakan tanpa syarat (p.147)
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
a posh high rise building in Jakarta
(97)
the family spirit of mutual help
(p.100)
passengers-robbers (p.105)
this informal but systematic
reliance on personal tolerance
(p.105)
the bapak’s it-can-be-taken-care-
of generosity (p.105)
the source of arbitrary power and
its remedy (p.173)
a huge, air-conditioned, cozy,
extended family courtyard (p.112)
the rising star in banking business
(p.113)
the foundation stones of the
regime (p.116)
unsheathed bayonets (p.120)
Commander of the Jakarta
Regional Military Command
Major General Amir Machmud
(p.120)
In Indonesia (p.123)
the white-and-red uniformed
children (p.125)
this immensely fat, heavily made-
up, impeccably dressed woman in
lacy green dress (p.125)
sebuah gedung bertingkat di Jakarta
(p.147)
semangat tolong-menolong dalam
keluarga (p.155)
penumpangnya yang perampok (p.164)
toleransi pribadi itu, yang berjalan
secara informal namun sistematis
(p.165)
sikap dermawan itu-bisa-diatur-nya
bapak (p.165)
sumber sekaligus penawar kesewenang-
wenangan kekuasaan (p.110)
rumah besar yang nyaman ber-AC
milik keluarga (p.177)
bintang yang melejit di bisnis bank
(p.179)
batu fondasi rejim (p.183)
sangkur terhunus (p.191)
Panglima Daerah Militer Jakarta
Mayjen Amir Machmud (p.192)
di bumi Indonesia (p.195)
anak-anak yang berseragam merah-
putih (p.199)
Ibu gemuk itu, yang berbedak tebal dan
bergaun hijau (p.200)
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
many different social, economic,
religious, and ethnic backgrounds
(p.127)
the tolerance expected of a person
with power and authority (p.128)
their short intimate names (p.129)
their long official names in
alphabetical order (p.129)
Pramoedya’s angry teacher (p.134)
the vinyl string attached to her
light blue plastic holding bottle
(p.140)
a life line in a sea (p.140)
students’ school life (p.143)
the parent-teacher (p.143)
during the late 1980s and early
1990s (p.149)
the wonder child of Indonesian
journalism (p.149)
from ethnic, religious, and racial
matters (p.153)
weh-weh-weh (p.156)
on the polished marble floor of a
spacious mosque (p.157)
berbagai latar belakang social,
ekonomi, agama, dan suku yang
berbeda-beda (p.203)
toleransi yang diharapkan dari
seseorang yang memiliki kekuasaan
dan wewenang (p.206)
nama panggilan masing-masing yang
pendek (p.207)
nama panjang mereka sesuai urutan
abjad (p,.207)
sosok guru marah yang ditampilkan
Pramudya (p.215)
tali plastik botol minum bekalnya dari
rumah (p.225)
sekoci penyelamat di laut lepas (p.225)
kehidupan sekolah (p.230)
guru sekaligus bertindak bak orangtua
(p.231)
selama akhir 80-an dan awal 90-an
(p.237)
anak ajaib dunia jurnalistik Indonesia
(p.238)
masalah SARA (suku, agama, ras, dan
antargolongan) (p.244)
wek wek wek (p.250)
di atas lantai marmer sebuah mesjid
yang megah (p.251)
Table 4.2. Sentences Considered as Good Translation
No. YOUNG HEROES PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
They form a silent shadowy mass,
which, nonetheless, is not bound
together…(p.16)
He is the grandpa to this sweet little
girl. There can be no doubt about it.
(p.16)
It is warm, soft, and comforting
beyond anything else. (p.18)
All the other strangers around them
or in front of them just do not exist
in their eyes, or appear to be mere
faceless obstructions. (p.18)
One has to pay for not being awaited
or for not arriving in the way one
should. (p.18)
Yet to this day, there are disputes
over whom, or what party, was
ultimately responsible for initiating
the coup, and several scenarios,
ranging from possible to probable,
have been proposed. (p.37)
Kerumunan itu membentuk
kumpulan bayang-bayang bisu, yang
meskipun berkumpul, tidak terikat
dalam kebersamaan…(p.13)
Tak disangsikan lagi, dialah kakek
dari si gadis cilik yang manis. (p.16)
Suatu kehangatan, kelembutan, dan
kenyamanan berada di atas segala-
galanya. (p.16)
Semua orang tak dikenal di sekitar
atau di depan mereka sama sekali
tidak nampak di mata mereka.
Kalaupun kelihatan, paling-paling
hanya berupa penghalang yang tak
berwajah. (p.18)
Tidak ditunggu atau tiba dengan
cara yang tidak lazim membuat
seseorang harus membayar mahal.
(p.18)
Hingga kini orang masih berdebat
tentang siapa atau pihak mana yang
mendalangi kudeta tersebut.
Berbagai skenario mengenal hal itu
juga telah diajukan. (p.49)
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
While the different versions of the
coup scenarios have been subjected
to debates, these accounts seem to
have been accepted without much
controversy. (p.37)
For the older word kedaulatan
[sovereignty or authority], so often,
in this time of revolution, married to
rakjat [the people], gave birth to the
new word mendaulat, which
acquired rapid currency all over
Java, and which meant the
deposition, humiliation, kidnapping,
or murder of hated officials or other
representatives of authority, usually
carried out by groups of armed
pemuda. (p.37)
This was the very moment of
revolution, Indonesian style. (p.39)
Had Untung been at the house of
General Suprapto, Second Deputy to
the Minister/ Commander of the
Army, to witness his mean men
carrying out the raid, he would have
been fully satisfied. (p.42)
The visitors acted not as those who
were acquainted with the generals.
(p.43)
Meskipun berbagai versi skenario
kudeta masih diperdebatkan,
laporan koran-koran itu tampaknya
diterima tanpa banyak kontroversi.
(p.49)
Kata kedaulatan yang muncul lebih
dahulu, pada masa revolusi
seringkali dipadukan dengan rakyat,
sehingga melahirkan kata baru
mendaulat. Kata tersebut, yang
beredar dengan cepat di seluruh
Jawa, bermakna penggulingan,
penghujatan, penculikan, dan
pembunuhan para pejabat atau
wakil penguagalain yang dibenci.
Berbagai tindakan tersebut
umumnya dilakukan oleh kelompok-
kelompok pemuda bersenjata. (p.50)
Inilah saat-saat puncak revolusi
gaya Indonesia. (p.52)
Jika Untung berada di rumah
Jendral Suprapto, Deputi Dua
Menteri/ Kastaf Angkatan Darat,
untuk menyaksikan orang-orangnya
menyergap, ia mungkin akan sangat
puas. (p.58)
Para pendatang tersebut bertindak
tidak hormat terhadap para
jenderal. (p.60)
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
It still is one of the best residential
areas in Jakarta. (p.43)
His adjutant was mistaken for him.
(p.44)
Sukarno’s voice could have changed
the course of the coup and, hence,
history. (p.45)
Many conflicting interpretations of
the abortive coup have been offered
in large part, it seems, because the
movement of key figures can be
interpreted differently. (p.45)
I have no means at this point of
knowing whether the letter is
authentic or not. (p.46)
Note the difference in the tone of
two words, antar and bawa, through
which the two identical acts of
taking someone somewhere are
differentiated. (p.49)
The statement could be well-
intentioned. (p.49)
The feeling of warmth can be
shared, but not the pain of pinching
(p.65)
Sampai sekarang, kawasan itu masih
merupakan wilayah pemukiman
terbaik di Jakarta. (p.61)
Ajudannya dikira dirinya (p.62)
Suara Sukarno bisa mengubah
jalannya kudeta, dan juga sejarah.
(p.64)
Keberadaan tokoh-tokoh kunci
kudeta gagal tersebut, yang dapat
ditafsirkan secara berlainan
menyebabkan munculnya banyak
interpretasi yang saling
bertentangan atas peristiwa
tersebut. (p.64)
Saya tidak tahu, apakah surat itu
otentik atau tidak. (p.66)
Perhatikan perbedaan makna kata
antar dan bawa. Kata-kata tersebut
digunakan untuk dua tindakan yang
identik, membawa seseorang ke
suatu tempat, namun maknanya
berbeda. (p.70)
Pernyataan ini bisa jadi bermaksud
baik. (p.71)
Rasa sakit sebuah cubitan tidak bisa
dibagi seperti orang berbagi rasa
hangat. (p.95)
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
It is thanks to the mother, ever wise
and attentive, that Roni overcomes
the crisis. (p.66)
Without self-control and self-
sacrifice, she is immature. (p.71)
What is the difference between Rina,
the mature eldest daughter, and
Roni, the mature eldest son? (p.71)
I am proud of having your wife as
my daughter-in-law. (p.72)
But evidently it was a very
important matter for the
rector.(p.75)
They are officially named as New
Order “Revolutionary Heroes”, less
because of their achievements or
courage than because of their deaths
and sacrifices. (p.77)
Harold Crouch estimates the number
of victims at 250,000 to 500,000.
(p.77)
The pounding increased in strength
and were repeated. (p.78)
Bu Har felt compassion seeing Pak
Har. (p.78)
It was as if to say that the targets of
the coup were the ideal husbands
and fathers of the family rather than
high-ranking army generals. (p.80)
Ternyata ibulah yang menjadi juru
selamat. (p.96)
Tanpa itu semua, seorang
perempuan belumlah matang(p.104)
Apa beda antara Rina dan Roni?
(p.105)
Aku bangga mempunyai menantu
seperti istrimu. (p.106)
Tapi peristiwa itu sangat penting
bagi Ibu Rektor. (p.112)
Mereka secara resmi dijuluki
“Pahlawan Revolusi” Orde Baru,
lebih disebabkan karena kematian
dan pengorbanan mereka
dibandingkan dengan prestasi atau
keberanian mereka. (p.115)
Harold Crouch memperkirakan
jumlah korban sekitar 250.000
sampai 500.000 orang. (p.115)
Gedoran makin mengeras dan
beruntun. (p.116)
Bu Har merasa iba melihat
kenyenyakan Pak Har. (p.117)
Itulah sebabnya seolah-olah bisa
dikatakan, target kudeta itu adalah
suami dan ayah ideal dalam sebuah
keluarga, bukan seorang jendral
terkemuka. (p.120)
30.
31.
32.
33.
This is from Soeharto’s
autobiography, where he explains
what it means that he gives
guidance, petunjuk, to his assistants,
that is: cabinet ministers. (p.81)
The committee for Javanese
Nationalism was a youthful
vanguard of the Boedi Oetomo, a
culturally proud but politically timid,
progressive, Javanese association,
and was joined and supported by
Dutch-educated young Javanese
aristocrats in Yogyakarta and
Surakarta. (p.83)
No society is possible (p.84)
He equates democracy with equal
rights, no duties, and he simply
cannot imagine such democracy
creating the solidarity (which he
calls “unity”) on which society is
built. (p.85)
Kutipan di atas telah diambil dari
otobiografi Soehart. Dalam kutipan
tersebut Soeharto menjelaskan apa
yang dimaksudnya dengan memberi
petunjuk kepada para pembantunya,
yakni para menteri kabinet. (p.121)
Komite untuk Nasionalisme Jawa
merupakan barisan depan pemuda
Boedi Oetomo, sebuah perkumpulan
orang-orang Jawa yang progresif.
Mereka mengagung-agungkan
budaya Jawa, tapi masih takut-takut
untuk urusan politik. Perkumpulan
ini di dukung dan diikuti oleh kaum
bangsawan Jawa yang
berpendidikan Belanda di
Yogyakarta dan Solo. (p.125)
Masyarakat tak mungkin terbentuk
(p.128)
Ia menyamakan demokrasi dengan
persamaan hak, tanpa kewajiban,
dan ia tak bisa membayangkan
demokrasi seperti itu mampu
menciptakan rasa senasib
sepenanggungan atau solidaritas
(disebut Soetatmo sebagai
“kesatuan”) tempat masyarakat itu
dibentuk. (p.128)
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
The parental love, above all the
mother’s love, gives warmth to the
family, but it is Roni who lets the
parental love circulate in the family
sphere. (p.85)
What a question, Stella, dear. (p.87)
It did. (p.94)
He climbed the army hierarchy and
eventually reached the rank of
lieutenant general (p.99)
Money is raised in many different
and creative ways (p.100)
And indeed, it is tough, to say the
least, to live in Jakarta without the
protective “family” network to fall
back on. (p.104)
The article continues: (p.108)
The implication, however, was clear
enough. (p.109)
Money-mad directors who have
neglected the lot of their men and
who above the accumulated
sufferings of their men have lived in
luxury, led a gay life, insulted our
women, and wasted government
funds, must be kicked out of the
Bank and punished accordingly.
(p.113)
Kasih sayang orang tua, terutama
ibu, menghangatkan keluarga. Tapi
Ronilah yang menyebarkan kasih
orangtua itu dalam lingkup
keluarga. (p.129)
Ini pertanyaan menarik, Stella
sahabatku. (p.132)
Mereka mempunyai berbagai
perangkat itu. (p.146)
Kariernya dalam militer terus
menanjak dan pensiun dengan
pangkat Letnan Jendral. (p.153)
Uang dicari dengan berbagai cara
yang kreatif (p.154)
Dan sungguh, hidup di Jakarta
memang keras tanpa jaringan
keluarga yang protektif untuk
menyandarkan diri. (p162)
Berikut lanjutan laporan di atas:
(p.170)
Meski begitu, implikasinya cukup
jelas. (p.171)
Direktur yang gila uang yang
menelantarkan nasib dan menambah
kesengsaraan karyawan. Mereka
hidup dalam kemewahan, menghina
wanita, dan menghamburkan dana
pemerintah. Mereka harus
ditendang dari bank dan dihukum
setimpal. (p.178)
43.
44.
45.
46.
All of this pretty much made one’s
hair stand on end (p.118)
In 1987, 24,931,000 out of
25,689,000 children aged seven to
twelve years of (which is the
primary school age in Indonesia)
attended schools; that is 97 percent.
In the same year, 8,825,000 out of
12,268,000 children aged thirteen to
fifteen attended secondary schools:
72 percent. Out of 2,956,100
government employees in 1987,
1,646,000 or 55 percent were school
teachers. (p.124)
Schooling is a huge national project
run by the state, and today, school
childhood constitutes a fundamental
national experience in which
children learn Indonesian and
become Indonesians. (p.124)
“Oh, here is your friend si Anu, why
don’t you sit next to her?” (p.128)
Ini semua membuat bulu kuduk
berdiri (p.187)
Pada 1987, ada 24.931.000 dari
25.689.000 (97 persen) anak umur
tujuh hingga dua belas tahun (yang
merupakan umur untuk
mendapatkan pendidikan dasar di
sekolahdasar Indonesia) masuk
sekolah. Pada tahun yang sama,
8.825.000 dari 12.268.000 (72
persen) anak umur 13 hingga 15
tahun memasuki sekolah menengah
pertama. Sebanyak 1.646.000 dari
2.956.100 pegawai pemerintah pada
tahun 1987 (55 persen) adalah guru
sekolah. (p.197)
Pendidikan sekolah merupakan
proyek nasional raksasa yang
dijalankan negara. Kini masa
sekolah mengandung makna sebagai
pengalaman nasional yang
mendasar, yang di dalamnya anak-
anak belajar bahasa Indonesia dan
menjadi orang Indonesia (p.197)
Oh itu dia temanmu si Anu, kenapa
kamu nggak duduk sebelah dia
saja?” (p.205)
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
The anger of today’s teacher cannot
be as intimidating or terrifying as
the anger of Pramoedya’s teacher’s.
(p.134)
They may not draw the line free
hand. (p.142)
But hopefully we can get some sense
of its rebelliousness from the lyric.
(p.158)
Nor is the classroom immune to this
duality. (p. 164)
The interchangeability of parent-
child with king-subject is, again,
striking. (p.165)
Kemarahan guru masa kini tidak
bisa semenakutkan kemarahan
gurunya Pramoedya. (p.216)
Mereka tidak boleh begitu saja
membuat garis “cakar ayam”.
(p.228)
Namun semoga semangat tersebut
tetap dapat ditangkap dari liriknya
yang memberontak. (p.254)
Ruang kelas pun tidak kebal dari
sifat mendua tersebut. (p.263)
Lagi-lagi, kemampuan
menjungkirbalikkan posisi orangtua-
anak dan penguasa-rakyat
menyodok. (p.265)
Table 4.3. Phrases Considered as Inappropriate
No. YOUNG HEROES PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
over his shoulder (p.18)
just to be here with his mother (p.18)
of course (p.19)
whose amorous adventures never
cease to delight the Javanese (p.19)
Sukarno’s “as-told-to”
autobiography (p.41)
young raiders (p.44)
as early as October 15 (p.53)
unconcerned and unmoved (p.57)
sensation of happiness (p.57)
a young research assistant at a
techers’ training college (p.62)
her daughter’s oral hygiene (p.63)
the Javanese ideals (p.83)
a hopelessly broken family (p.84)
thirty-three persons (p.91)
thirteen regional stations (p.91)
six thousand employees (p.91)
dibalik punggungnya (p.17)
seolah hanya ada dia dengan ibunya
di sana (p.17)
meski demikian (p.19)
yang petualangan cintanya tak
kunjung memuaskan orang Jawa
(p.19)
otobiogafi “seperti-dituturkan-
kepada” Sukarno (p.57)
seorang penyerang muda (p.62)
segera setelah 15 Oktober (p.78)
tidak terpusat dan tidak bergerak
(p.82)
sensasi kebahagiaan (p.82)
seorang peneliti muda kolega saya
di IKIP (p.90)
kebiasaan makan anaknya yang
buruk (p.92)
Jawa yang ideal (p.125)
keluarga berantakan yang tak lagi
punya harapan (p.128)
dua puluh tiga orang (p.141)
dua puluh tiga stasiun regional
(p.141)
enam ratus ribu karyawan (p. 141)
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
no moral power and authority
(p.108)
sixty-five years old in 1990 (p.113)
a lot of white holes and rough spots
filled with white chalk powder
(p.128)
the structure of the daily roll call
(p.130)
intelligible human language (p.136)
to kill the time (p.142)
a prolific, highly successful writer-
poet-playwright-editor in Jakarta in
1980s (p.149)
dirty glasses, spoons, and forks
(p.153)
dirty plates, spoons, and forks
(p.157)
tak ada moral, kekuasaan, dan
kewibawaan (p.169)
47 tahun pada 1990 (p.178)
banyak lobang-lobang putih dan
kasar yang penuh dengan bubuk
kapur tulis (p.204)
aturan presensi keseharian (p.208)
bahasa manusia yang cerdas (p.220)
membunuh waktu (p.229)
seorang pengarang yang produktif
dan sukses, penulis puisi, drama,
dan redaktur di Jakarta pada 1980-
an (p.238)
gelas bekas pakai, sendok dan garpu
(p.243)
piring kotor, sendok dan garpu
(p.250)
Table 4.4. Sentences Considered as Inappropriate
No. YOUNG HEROES PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA
1.
2
3.
4.
The exposition is more detailed in
the English version of the
autobiography, obviously because
non-Indonesians are not expected to
be graced with Javanese wisdom.
(p.10)
In order to achieve this, it is not
possible for this system to be
authoritative which makes use of
power and coercion. (p.10)
What kind of family is it then that
singularly represents this multi-
ethnic nation as a family? Is it the
Javanese family, the Minangkabau,
the Acehnese, the Balinese, or what?
(p.11)
In spite of the commotion of the ebb
and flow of people arriving and
departing, a peculiar stony silence
seems to lie among the people who
are standing behind the railing with
their hands holding onto it. (p.16)
Penjelasan yang lebih rinci dimuat
dalam bahasa Inggris, tak pelak lagi
karena para pembaca yang bukan
orang Indonesia tidak diharapkan
terbuai oleh kearifan Jawa. (p.3)
Sistem pendidikan ini tidak mungkin
dapat dicapai dan dipatuhi dengan
menggunakan kekuasaan dan
paksaan. (p.3)
Keluarga macam apakah kiranya
yang menjadi wakil satu-satunya
bangsa multi-etnik ini sebagai
sebuah keluarga? Ini keluarga
Jawa, Minangkabau, Aceh, Bali,
atau apa? (p.6)
Kendati orang-orang yang datang
dan pergi lalu-lalang dengan
perasaan galau, sikap bisu yang
kaku mencekam semua orang yang
berdiri di balik pagar sambil
memeganginya. (p.13)
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Considering all the arrangement
that need to be made before a car
can take to the road, it is not
uncommon for the dedicated
penjemput (person who comes to
pick up someone) to fail to appear
on time. (p.18)
Instead of making himself a general,
Lieutenant Colonel Untung decided
to remain a lieutenant colonel …
(p.52)
This is equivalent to the
Rengasdengklok kidnapping. (p.53)
To put it in a different way, the
movement was an attempt to
restructure the army, approximating
its inner structure to the bapak-anak
buah relationship, simplifying its
rank hierarchy and reducing its
structure to bapak and anak buah.
(p.53)
The more arbitrarily he acts, the
more amusing he becomes. (p.57)
Tidaklah biasa penjemput yang setia
datang tidak tepat waktu.(p.18)
Daripada mengangkat dirinya jadi
jenderal, Letnan Kolonel Untung
memutuskan tetap berpangkat letnan
kolonel…(p.77)
Keputusan ini sama halnya dengan
penculikan Rengasdengklok (p.77)
Dengan kata lain, gerakan itu
adalah usaha restrukturisasi
angkatan bersenjata. Dengan
perkiraan bahwa struktur dalamnya
adalah hubungan bapak-anak buah,
gerakan itu menyederhanakan
hierarki dan struktur kepangkatan
menjadi Bapak dan anak-buah.
(p.77)
Semakin menarik tingkahnya,
semakin mengagumkanlah anak itu.
(p.81)
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
He would often be sighted, a half
hour later, still squatting at the foot
of the black iron gate at the house of
his neighbour-friend, who usually is
either washing, polishing, or
admiring the new Mitsubishi family
van parked just inside the gate.
(p.57)
We were covered with her love
(kasih sayang) like layers of
blankets. (p.69)
The historical origins of family-ism
go back to the colonial period. (p.83)
Bank Duta grew fast from 1978 to
1985, and in 1984 was ranked third
to fourth among the national private
banks. (p.113)
Nonetheless, the system works,
whether it looks beautiful or shady,
less because of the beautifying
empty language than because of the
programmed silence that renders the
national language powerless to
name, articulate, and prosecute the
guilty. (p.116)
Nevertheless, they were sure that
pak guru was as clever as one can
ever be in this world. (p.133)
Sampai setengah jam kemudian, dia
sering masih terlihat berdiri di
depan pintu gerbang hitam
tetangganya yang sedang mencuci
mobil, sambil mengagumi kilap
mobil Mitsubishi van barunya.
(p.82)
Dengan penuh kasih sayang kami
diselimutinya berlapis-lapis (p.100)
Sejarah asal usul famili-isme
terlentang hingga ke masa kolonial
(p.123)
Bank Duta berkembang pesat dari
tahun 1978-1985. Pada tahun 1984,
bank ini menduduki peringkat ketiga
di antara empat bank swasta
nasional. (p.179)
Meski demikian sistem tersebut tetap
berjalan, dan ini lebih karena
bahasa kosong yang diperindah,
ketimbang karena kebisuan yang
diprogramkan, yang membuat
bahasa nasional tak berdaya untuk
menyebut, menyuarakan, dan
menghukum yang bersalah. (p.183)
Namun, mereka yakin, pak guru
adalah sepandai-pandainya orang di
dunia ini. (p.214)
Table 4.5. Phrases and Sentences Lost or Partly Translated
No. YOUNG HEROES PAHLAWAN-PAHLAWAN BELIA
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
…Soeharto does refer to his
ministers as children,…(p.9)
Antar means to escort someone
somewhere, and jemput to come to
meet someone in order to escort
her/him somewhere else. (p.15)
hundreds of naked staring eyes
(p.15-16)
in this particular place and at this
specific moment (p.16)
the thick and high imposing walls
(p.43)
If we fully consider the wide range
of possible interpretation of this
kindly act in Indonesia, however, we
may well think twice before
gratefully being picked up at the
airport (p.47)
The more details are “revealed”,
however, the more contradictions
and unanswerable questions seem to
surface. (p.47)
in a recently published, controversial
book (p.47)
…, Soeharto menganggap para
menterinya sebagai anak,… (p.1)
- (p.15)
ditatap ratusan pasang mata (p.12)
di tempat itu pada waktu itu (p13)
tembok tebal dan tinggi (p.61)
Jika kita benar-benar menyadari,
kemungkinan penafsiran atas
tindakan yang murah hati ini begitu
beragam di Indonesia, tentu kita
akan berpikir dua kali sebelum
berterima kasih karena dijemput di
bandara (p.68)
Makin rinci “penjelasannya”, makin
bertentangan dan tak mungkin
terjawablah pertanyaan-pertanyaan
yang muncul. (p.68)
dalam sebuah buku controversial
(p.68)
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
The more dangerous and hostile the
outside world looms, the more
secure and warm that small, once
lost and now recalled, sanctuary
becomes. (p.62)
The last illustration in the book
describes Roni’s father and mother
watching and caressing him with
affection, while Roni is pointing his
finger at his baby sister as if
redirecting the flow of parental
attention from him to his sister. He
is giving away to his sister the
parental love once he monopolized.
(p.66)
The family, which otherwise would
have remained a biological accident,
becomes a lasting social and cultural
institution. (p.68)
This way, her mother is dissociated
from her milieu that has
automatically accommodated all her
needs, and becomes, for the first
time, separate from herself. (p.69)
a qualified wife-to-be (p.71)
The advertisement, playing with the
word bunga, which means both
flower and interest, equates interest
with the flower which signifies love
of the mother/land. (p.72)
- (p.90)
Ilustrasi terakhir dalam buku itu
menggambarkan ayah dan ibu
memperhatikan Roni yang tengah
bermain bersama adiknya dengan
penuh kasih sayang. (p.97)
Dengan kata lain, keluarga akan
menjadi institusi social dan budaya
yang kekal. (p.99)
- (p.102)
seorang istri yang baik (p.105)
Iklan tersebut bermain-main dengan
kata bunga, maksudnya
menyamakan bunga bank dengan
bunga sebagai tanda cinta dari
seorang ibu maupun ibu pertiwi.
(p.107)
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
Both gifts come from BungHari,
Brother Hari/ Flower of the day/
Daily Interest, that is not only from
the bank but also from the land and
the mother. (p,.72)
The basic “civilized” response to
such culturally defined “childish”
behaviors is to manage the situation
nonchalantly, as if nothing that
matters has happened. (p.74)
He was the red candy she desired to
have. Her parents did not approve
her marriage with him less because
of who he was than because of her
making the choice herself. Her
parents, however, did not provide
her with another young man of their
choice, or the green candy, and thus
failed to impose their choice on her.
(p.75)
There follows Mother Haryono’s
unhurried flashback, … (p.78)
The intimacy very deep and thick
(p.78)
“Let us have a share, you know,
pap.” (p.78)
…, and he simply cannot imagine
such democracy …(p.85)
Kedua hadiah tersebut berasal dari
“BungHari”, yaitu bunga harian
bank yang tidak hanya dimaksudkan
sebagai pemberian bank saja tapi
juga pemberian dari bumi dan
seorang ibu. (p.108)
- (p.110)
- (p.112)
Lalu diikuti kilas balik dari ingatan
Bu Haryono, …(p.117)
Keakraban yang sangat dekat
(p.117)
“Bagi-bagi dong, pap.” (p.118)
… dan ia tak bisa membayangkan
demokrasi seperti itu … (p.128)
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
Benedict Anderson writes about the
historical significance of this
vacuous Malay- Indonesian for the
making of Indonesia. (p.87)
…, and it was subsequently used in
army barracks, judicial courts,
hospitals, offices, schools, and
media during the colonial period.
(p.87)
A new social model was presented
in practice for peoples with many
different languages, histories, and
cultures to see, understand, and
emulate. (p.89)
Ibu Tien (the First Lady, or rather
the first Mother), …(p.98)
They have entered many fields,
starting from commerce, fishery,
food, livestock, finance,
construction, pharmacy, to the paper
industry. (p.99)
…penyelewengan, irregularity or
deviation, … (p.107)
… was nevertheless alive, not dead.
(p.109)
In fact, the family system asserted
itself in rescuing the bapak trapped
in this scandal. (p.115)
As in the early morning of October
1, 1965, …(p.115)
Benedict Anderson menulis tentang
peran penting sejarah bahasa
Melayu-Indonesia dalam membentuk
Indonesia. (p.132)
Bahasa itu digunakan di barak
tentara, pengadilan, rumahsakit,
kantor, sekolah, dan media massa
pada masa penjajahan. (p,.133)
Sebuah model social baru
diperkenalkan dalam praktek untuk
masyarakat yang berbeda bahasa,
sejarah dan kultur. (p.136)
Ibu Tien, …(p.152)
Mereka masuk ke banyak bidang,
mulai dari perdagangan, perikanan,
makanan, kebutuhan pokok,
konstruksi, farmasi, sampai industri
kertas. (p.153)
penyelewengan …(p.168)
… masih hidup, tidak mati. (p.172)
Sistem tersebut juga tampil
menyelamatkan bapak yang
terperangkap skandal. (p.182)
Seperti pagi hari pada Oktober
1965, …(p.182)
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
His classmates, drawn to the sight of
an enormous body trying to
accommodate itself into the narrow
aisle, did not notice his silent
singing. (p.125)
The Indonesian family is constructed
in the textbook through a process
that appears to involve mere
translation that simply exchanges
exchangeable words between the
national language and ethnic mother
tongues. (p.133)
Rp 18,000 (about US$10 then)
(p.141)
In one corner a small quarrel started
between a boy and a girl who sat
next to each other. She has picked
up his ruler. Unlike other children,
the boy protested. (p.142)
piles of old women’s magazines
(p.153)
Sementara itu seisi kelas terbawa
untuk tidak mempedulikan nyanyian
lirih tersebut. (p.200)
Keluarga Indonesia dibanguan
dalam buku pelajaran melalui
proses, yang tampaknya
mengikutsertakan terjemahan yang
secara sederhana mengganti kata-
kata yang dapat ditukar antara
bahasa nasional dan bahasa ibu.
(p.213)
Rp 18.000,- (p.227)
Di salah satu pojok, perselisihan
kecil terjadi antara seorang bocah
lelaki dan perempuan yang duduk
bersebelahan. Tak seperti murid
lainnya, si bocah lelaki ini protes.
(p.229)
tumpukan majalah lama (p.244)
B. Analysis
The analysis is given to each table in general, and to the items in each of
the tables. Through the analysis, the reasons why the phrases and sentences are
considered as good or inappropriate will be shown. Table 4.5, which shows the
parts lost or partly translated, will be analyzed based on the theory of translation
loss. The items in this table can be examples of either good or inappropriate
translation. Some types of translation loss are unavoidable, so they are acceptable
because there are no equivalent words in the target language. Some of the loss in
table 4.5 could have been avoidable and there will be some alternatives of
translation for them.
Table 4.1. Phrases Considered as Good Translation
This table lists the phrases which are considered as good translation.
The theory on English to Indonesian translation provides some basic steps in
translating complex noun phrases. In general, a tanslator starts with identifying
the head. The phrases included in this table can be discussed based on different
criteria.
Some phrases have been included in this table because of the selection of
words, which are poetic sounding:
1) the political coming-age of the Indonesian nation (p.12): merekahnya fajar politik bangsa Indonesia (p.7)
2) the glaring sunset-red soil (p.15): tanah liat berwarna merah senja (p.12)
42) unsheathed bayonets (p.120): sangkur terhunus (p.191) 44) In Indonesia (p.123): di bumi Indonesia (p.195) 47) many different social, economic, religious, and ethnic backgrounds
(p.127): berbagai latar belakang social, ekonomi, agama, dan suku yang berbeda-beda (p.203)
53) a life line in a sea (p.140): sekoci penyelamat di laut lepas (p.225)
Some phrases have been translated using names and terms which are
commonly used in the target language, Indonesian. Item number 3, for example,
has been translated based on the name, which is used by the people in Jakarta.
Since the translator has some background knowledge about it, the Red Land is not
translated as Tanah Merah, an Indonesian phrase, but as Lemah Abang, a
Javanese term.
3) The Red Land (p.15): Lemah Abang (p.12) 13) To put it in a different way (p.53): dengan kata lain (p.77) 16) the respect language (p.65): bahasa krama (p.96) 17) a sleeveless undershirt and white under-shorts (.78): kaus singlet dan
celana kolor putih (p.116) 19) since his elementary school days under the Dutch (p.79): sejak dia
masih duduk di bangku Sekolah Rakyat di zaman Belanda (p.119) 21) from Java to the “outer islands” (p.82): baik di Jawa maupun di luar
Jawa (p.123) 43) Commander of the Jakarta Regional Military Command Major
General Amir Machmud (p.120): Panglima Daerah Militer Jakarta Mayjen Amir Machmud (p.192)
49) their short intimate names (p.129): nama panggilan masing-masing yang pendek (p.207)
50) their long official names in alphabetical order (p.129): nama panjang mereka sesuai urutan abjad (p,.207)
58) from ethnic, religious, and racial matters (p.153): masalah SARA (suku, agama, ras, dan antargolongan) (p.244)
Like the translation of sentences, some of the phrases are made precise
without loosing their significant details:
15) Roni’s baby sister (p.66):adik perempuan Roni (p.97) 18) the intimacy very deep and thick (p.78): keakraban yang sangat dekat
(p.117) 30) shiny new glass and steel high rise building in Jakarta (p.95): gedung
kaca bertingkat di Jakarta (p.147) 33) a posh high rise building in Jakarta (97): sebuah gedung bertingkat di
Jakarta (p.147) 39) a huge, air-conditioned, cozy, extended family courtyard (p.112):
rumah besar yang nyaman ber-AC milik keluarga (p.177) 46) this immensely fat, heavily made-up, impeccably dressed woman in
lacy green dress (p.125): Ibu gemuk itu, yang berbedak tebal dan bergaun hijau (p.200)
54) students’ school life (p.143): kehidupan sekolah (p.230)
Translating a sentence that functions as a modifier in an NP can be seen in
items number 26 and 37:
26) Soeharto’s reactionary Father-knows-best model (p.86): model Seoharto, bapak-tahu-segala (Father-knows-best) yang reaksioner (p.131)
37) the bapak’s it-can-be-taken-care-of generosity (p.105): sikap dermawan itu-bisa-diatur-nya bapak (p.165)
Translation of measurement, dates, and years can be seen in items number
4, 10, 23, and 56. In item number 4, the translator converts the measurement into
meter because in Indonesia feet is not commonly used. The phrase 1,2 meter is
better understood than 4 kaki. Such changes of measurement may require another
consideration such as how detail the expression is given in the ST and in the TT.
Discussing item number 4, for example, four-feet wide is a rough estimate, but 1,2
meter gives an impression of an exact figure, a very detail and careful
measurement, not a rough estimate. Such difference of effect may be reduced by
saying satu meter lebih sedikit, to keep the rough estimate as a rough estimate.
4) this four-feet wide space (p.16): lorong selebar 1,2 meter (p.12) 10) by the evening of October 1 (p.50): pada 1 Oktober malam (p.71) 23) in the late 1910s (p.82): pada akhir era 1910-an (p.124) 56) during the late 1980s and early 1990s (p.149): selama akhir 80-an dan
awal 90-an (p.237)
Sometimes a translator needs to give the meaning of a phrase instead of
literally translating it. Some examples can be seen in number 27, 31, 35, 51, and
55. In item number 27, the word bahasa is added to the language. In item number
31, there is a repositioning of the post-modifiers.
27) into Malay-Indonesian (p.86): dalam bahasa Melayu-Indonesia (p.131)
31) bapak as a caring father for his children/subordinates who meets their endless expectations (p.97): bapak sebagai seorang ayah yang penuh perhatian sekaligus mampu memenuhi harapan tanpa batas anak-anak atau bawahannya (p.147)
35) passengers-robbers (p.105): penumpangnya yang perampok (p.164) 51) Pramoedya’s angry teacher (p.134): sosok guru marah yang
ditampilkan Pramudya (p.215) 52) the vinyl string attached to her light blue plastic holding bottle (p.140):
tali plastik botol minum bekalnya dari rumah (p.225) 55) the parent-teacher (p.143): guru sekaligus bertindak bak orangtua
(p.231)
Some examples of present participle (V-ing) and past participle (V-en) in
NPs can be seen in the following items:
20) a continuing theme (p.81): tema yang terus berlanjut (p.122) 22) an already well-developed formulation of family-ism (p.82): rumusan
famili-isme yang telah dikembangkan dengan baik (p.124) 40) the rising star in banking business (p.113): bintang yang melejit di
bisnis bank (p.179) 45) the white-and-red uniformed children (p.125): anak-anak yang
berseragam merah-putih (p.199) 48) the tolerance expected of a person with power and authority (p.128):
toleransi yang diharapkan dari seseorang yang memiliki kekuasaan dan wewenang (p.206)
Grammatical categories are sometimes changed in NPs and VPs. About
this, Larson (1984: 205) uses the term skewing. Larson says that the reason why
literal translations do not communicate is that they keep the source language
skewing. He also says that it is helpful to think of the semantic structure (the
meaning) rather than the grammar (forms) as one translates. A noun in the ST may
not be necessarily maintained as a noun in the TT. In item number 5, the noun
phrase anticipation has been changed into a verb phrase, antisipasi. Independent
as an adjective becomes kemerdekaan, a noun.
5) object of anticipation (p.16): obyek yang mereka antisipasi (p.14) 6) went independent (p.40): meraih kemerdekaan (p.55) 8) Aidit’s movement that day (p.46): apa yang dilakukan Aidit pada hari
itu (p.66)
11) on that fateful day of revolution, Indonesian style (p.51): pada hari yang menentukan revolusi gaya Indonesia itu (p.75)
25) learn self-control and self sacrifice (p.85): belajar menguasai diri dan berkorban diri (p.129)
32) unconditional pampering (p.97): memanjakan tanpa syarat (p.147)
Translating NPs by starting with the head, and then the pre-modifier/s, and
followed by the post-modifier/s can be noticed in the following examples:
7) one of the best residential areas in Jakarta, with large, spacious houses shielded under the deep eaves of rosy-red tiled roofs and a canopy of stately trees (p.43): wilayah pemukiman terbaik di Jakarta, dengan rumah-rumah yang besar dan berhalaman luas, terlindung di bawah atap genteng kemerah-merahan dan tirai pohon-pohon yang megah (p.61)
9) reports of unknown military maneuvers (p.50): laporan adanya gerakan militer tak dikenal (p.72)
12) his hot-headed revolutionary – kidnappers – anak buah (p.51): anak buah- penculik- revolusioner yang pemarah (p.75)
14) standard cultural answer (p.64): jawaban cultural yang baku (p.94) 24) contemporary children’s literature (p.85): cerita anak-anak Indonesia
kontemporer (p.128) 41) the foundation stones of the regime (p.116): batu fondasi rejim (p.183) 57) the wonder child of Indonesian journalism (p.149): anak ajaib dunia
jurnalistik Indonesia (p.238) 60) on the polished marble floor of a spacious mosque (p.157): di atas
lantai marmer sebuah mesjid yang megah (p.251)
Item number 34 is a different case, because spirit of mutual help is
translated first and the pre-modifier family is added using a preposition dalam.
However, it is still possible to apply the steps in translating a complex NP and the
alternative result is semangat kekeluargaan saling tolong menolong:
34) the family spirit of mutual help (p.100): semangat tolong-menolong dalam keluarga (p.155)
The use of coordination in NPs with and and but can be seen in the
following items:
36) this informal but systematic reliance on personal tolerance (p.105): toleransi pribadi itu, yang berjalan secara informal namun sistematis (p.165)
38) the source of arbitrary power and its remedy (p.173): sumber sekaligus penawar kesewenang-wenangan kekuasaan (p.110)
Translating an indefinite pronoun like so and so can be done using the
following alternative expressions:
28) “Pak So-and-So”, “Bu So-and-So” (p.93): “Pak ini, Pak itu” atau "Bu ini, Bu itu” (p.144)
29) “Pak So-and-So”, “Bu So-and-So” (p.95): “Pak A atau Pak B”, "Bu A atau Bu B” (p.147)
Translating sounds needs adjustment. For the quacking of ducks, the
translator uses wek instead of weh. There is another more common kwek to imitate
the quacking of ducks.
59) weh-weh-weh (p.156): wek wek wek (p.250)
Table 4.2. Sentences Considered as Good Translation
In translation, translators need not always maintain the grammatical
category of a word in an ST into the same category in the TT (Simatupang
2000:77). It may sometimes sound more natural to change an adjective, for
example, into a noun, or others. Some examples of changes of word categories
can be seen in the data in table 4.2, they are sentences in items number 3, 7, 27,
and 49:
3) It is warm, soft, and comforting beyond anything else. (p.18) Suatu kehangatan, kelembutan, dan kenyamanan berada di atas segala-galanya. (p.16)) ( Adj. N.)
In this sentence, the adjectives in the ST (warm, soft, and comforting)
become nouns in the TT (kehangatan, kelembutan, dan kenyamanan).
7) While the different versions of the coup scenarios have been subjected to debates, these accounts seem to have been accepted without much controversy. (p.37)
Meskipun berbagai versi skenario kudeta masih diperdebatkan, laporan koran-koran itu tampaknya diterima tanpa banyak kontroversi. (p.49)) (N. V.)
In this sentence, debates as a noun is translated as diperdebatkan, which is
a verb.
27) The poundings increased in strength and were repeated. (p.78) Gedoran makin mengeras dan beruntun. (p.116)) (N. V.)
In this sentence, strength is a noun and it is translated as mengeras, a verb.
49) But hopefully we can get some sense of its rebelliousness from the lyric. (p.158)
Namun semoga semangat tersebut tetap dapat ditangkap dari liriknya yang memberontak. (p.254) (N. V.)
In this sentence, the noun rebelliousness is translated as memberontak, a
verb.
As stated in the theory of English to Indonesian translation, long sentences
may need to be cut down into shorter sentences. Sentence number 2 is different.
It combines short English sentences into one Indonesian sentence. Such case is
not as many as cutting down long sentences into shorter ones. Some examples of
cutting down long sentences can be seen in sentences number 6, 8, 17, 30, 31, 42,
and 45.
6) Yet to this day, there are disputes over whom, or what party, was ultimately responsible for initiating the coup, and several scenarios, ranging from possible to probable, have been proposed. (p.37)
Hingga kini orang masih berdebat tentang siapa atau pihak mana yang mendalangi kudeta tersebut. Berbagai skenario mengenal hal itu juga telah diajukan. (p.49)
8) For the older word kedaulatan [sovereignty or authority], so often, in
this time of revolution, married to rakjat [the people], gave birth to the new word mendaulat, which acquired rapid currency all over Java, and which meant the deposition, humiliation, kidnapping, or murder of
hated officials or other representatives of authority, usually carried out by groups of armed pemuda. (p.37)
Kata kedaulatan yang muncul lebih dahulu, pada masa revolusi seringkali dipadukan dengan rakyat, sehingga melahirkan kata baru mendaulat. Kata tersebut, yang beredar dengan cepat di seluruh Jawa, bermakna penggulingan, penghujatan, penculikan, dan pembunuhan para pejabat atau wakil penguagalain yang dibenci. Berbagai tindakan tersebut umumnya dilakukan oleh kelompok-kelompok pemuda bersenjata. (p.50)
17) Note the difference in the tone of two words, antar and bawa, through
which the two identical acts of taking someone somewhere are differentiated. (p.49)
Perhatikan perbedaan makna kata antar dan bawa. Kata-kata tersebut digunakan untuk dua tindakan yang identik, membawa seseorang ke suatu tempat, namun maknanya berbeda. (p.70)
30) This is from Soeharto’s autobiography, where he explains what it
means that he gives guidance, petunjuk, to his assistants, that is: cabinet ministers. (p.81)
Kutipan di atas telah diambil dari otobiografi Soehart. Dalam kutipan tersebut Soeharto menjelaskan apa yang dimaksudnya dengan memberi petunjuk kepada para pembantunya, yakni para menteri kabinet. (p.121)
31) The committee for Javanese Nationalism was a youthful vanguard of
the Boedi Oetomo, a culturally proud but politically timid, progressive, Javanese association, and was joined and supported by Dutch-educated young Javanese aristocrats in Yogyakarta and Surakarta. (p.83)
Komite untuk Nasionalisme Jawa merupakan barisan depan pemuda Boedi Oetomo, sebuah perkumpulan orang-orang Jawa yang progresif. Mereka mengagung-agungkan budaya Jawa, tapi masih takut-takut untuk urusan politik. Perkumpulan ini di dukung dan diikuti oleh kaum bangsawan Jawa yang berpendidikan Belanda di Yogyakarta dan Solo. (p.125)
42) Money-mad directors who have neglected the lot of their men and who
above the accumulated sufferings of their men have lived in luxury, led a gay life, insulted our women, and wasted government funds, must be kicked out of the Bank and punished accordingly. (p.113)
Direktur yang gila uang yang menelantarkan nasib dan menambah kesengsaraan karyawan. Mereka hidup dalam kemewahan, menghina wanita, dan menghamburkan dana pemerintah. Mereka harus ditendang dari bank dan dihukum setimpal. (p.178)
45) Schooling is a huge national project run by the state, and today, school childhood constitutes a fundamental national experience in which children learn Indonesian and become Indonesians. (p.124)
Pendidikan sekolah merupakan proyek nasional raksasa yang dijalankan negara. Kini masa sekolah mengandung makna sebagai pengalaman nasional yang mendasar, yang di dalamnya anak-anak belajar bahasa Indonesia dan menjadi orang Indonesia (p.197)
Sentences that need to be cut down usually involve the use of relative
pronouns in English.
The translation of conjunctions, whose meaning need to be adjusted with
the context, or some inversion with omitted if, can be seen in items number 1, 4,
and 10.
1) They form a silent shadowy mass, which, nonetheless, is not bound together…(p.16)
Kerumunan itu membentuk kumpulan bayang-bayang bisu, yang meskipun berkumpul, tidak terikat dalam kebersamaan…(p.13)
In this sentence, the idea of the word nonetheless is made clear by the
words meskipun berkumpul. Literally, nonetheless means meskipun demikian.
4) All the other strangers around them or in front of them just do not exist in their eyes, or appear to be mere faceless obstructions. (p.18)
Semua orang tak dikenal di sekitar atau di depan mereka sama sekali tidak nampak di mata mereka. Kalaupun kelihatan, paling-paling hanya berupa penghalang yang tak berwajah. (p.18)
In the theory of translating coordinators, coordinators may not always
signify one absolute meaning. In item number 4, the word or in the sentence
cannot be expressed merely by atau. The translators chose to cut the original one
sentence into two sentences. The word or is translated as kalaupun kelihatan
(even if they are seen). Larson (1984: 318) says it is important that a translator
realizes that words in grammar, which have a primary meaning such as sequential,
reason, alternation, etc., may have secondary senses just like other words have
secondary senses. They may have other functions than the primary usage, which
first comes to the mind of the mother-tongue speaker.
10) Had Untung been at the house of General Suprapto, Second Deputy to the Minister/ Commander of the Army, to witness his mean men carrying out the raid, he would have been fully satisfied. (p.42)
Jika Untung berada di rumah Jendral Suprapto, Deputi Dua Menteri/ Kastaf Angkatan Darat, untuk menyaksikan orang-orangnya menyergap, ia mungkin akan sangat puas. (p.58)
Fronted conjuncts can be seen in item number 41 and 51:
41) The implication, however, was clear enough. (p.109) Meski begitu, implikasinya cukup jelas. (p.171)
51) The interchangeability of parent-child with king-subject is, again, striking. (p.165)
Lagi-lagi, kemampuan menjungkirbalikkan posisi orangtua-anak dan penguasa-rakyat menyodok. (p.265)
In sentences number 41 and 51, the words however and again, which are
not in the initial position, are fronted in the translation. However, some fronted
negative adverbials may not occupy the initial position in the translation. For
example, item number 50. Nor has the meaning of pun tidak after the S.
50) Nor is the classroom immune to this duality. (p. 164) Ruang kelas pun tidak kebal dari sifat mendua tersebut. (p.263)
No in the initial position of a sentence can be translated as sentence
number 32:
32) No society is possible (p.84) Masyarakat tak mungkin terbentuk (p.128)
Some examples of the translation of tenses can be seen in items number 12
and 14.
12) It still is one of the best residential areas in Jakarta. (p.43) Sampai sekarang, kawasan itu masih merupakan wilayah pemukiman
terbaik di Jakarta. (p.61)
This sentences uses additional adverb sampai sekarang to emphasize the
present tense.
14) Sukarno’s voice could have changed the course of the coup and, hence, history. (p.45)
Suara Sukarno bisa mengubah jalannya kudeta, dan juga sejarah. (p.64)
Perfective could have, has been simplified as bisa mengubah, because the
context about Sukarno, which is in the past, is clear and it need not be phrased as
telah bisa mengubah.
Translators sometimes change a passive sentence in the ST into an active
sentence in the TT or vice versa to produce a more natural sentences in the TT,
like in 18 and 49:
18) The statement could be well-intentioned. (p.49) Pernyataan ini bisa jadi bermaksud baik. (p.71) 49) But hopefully we can get some sense of its rebelliousness from the
lyric. (p.158) Namun semoga semangat tersebut tetap dapat ditangkap dari liriknya
yang memberontak. (p.254)
Translating pronouns may sometimes require the translator to use the
reference or certain proper names, certain nouns or certain events instead of
translating the pronoun as a pronoun. “He”, for example, may need to be the
name of the person instead of just dia. Some cases of translating pronouns can be
seen in items number 7, 33, and 36.
7) It did. (p.94) Mereka mempunyai berbagai perangkat itu. (p.146) A sentence like number 7 can invite interesting discussion. A sentence
with a subject and an operator will be translated based on the previous context. It
did here and It did in another context may result in different meaning.
33) He equates democracy with equal rights, no duties, and he simply cannot imagine such democracy creating the solidarity (which he calls “unity”) on which society is built. (p.85)
Ia menyamakan demokrasi dengan persamaan hak, tanpa kewajiban, dan ia tak bisa membayangkan demokrasi seperti itu mampu menciptakan rasa senasib sepenanggungan atau solidaritas (disebut Soetatmo sebagai “kesatuan”) tempat masyarakat itu dibentuk. (p.128)
When a pronoun is far from the reference, the translator may consider
repeating the noun or the name to avoid obscurity. In the sentence above,
Soetatmo is restated.
36) While the different versions of the coup scenarios have been subjected
to debates, these accounts seem to have been accepted without much controversy. (p.37)
Meskipun berbagai versi skenario kudeta masih diperdebatkan, laporan koran-koran itu tampaknya diterima tanpa banyak kontroversi. (p.49)
In 36, these accounts is translated as laporan koran-koran itu. The
translator chose to use the phrase because these accounts refer to the reports in
newspapers. Literally, these accounts may mean hal-hal ini, or pertimbangan-
pertimbangan ini, or rincian ini, or possibly others.
Item number 21 is the opposite case of the three items above. The nouns,
self-control and self-sacrifice, have been made precise as itu semua. When the
context is clear, the translator may choose to avoid repetition of the same words:
21) Without self-control and self-sacrifice, she is immature. (p.71) Tanpa itu semua, seorang perempuan belumlah matang (p.104)
The context with the preceding sentence is “Ukuran kematangan itu adalah
kemampuan mengendalikan diri dan kesediaan untuk berkorban. Tanpa itu
semua, ... “ The translator considers repetition of the words can be avoided by
using the words itu semua.
Two examples of translating prepositions can be seen in items number 13
and 26. In item number 13, the preposition for need not be translated as a
preposition in Indonesian. It is not translated as bagi or untuk. The translation of
at and to in item number 26 is influenced by the verb estimates. The two
prepositions, combined with the verb memperkirakan, are translated as sekitar and
sampai respectively.
13) His adjutant was mistaken for him. (p.44) Ajudannya dikira dirinya (p.62) 26) Harold Crouch estimates the number of victims at 250,000 to 500,000.
(p.77) Harold Crouch memperkirakan jumlah korban sekitar 250.000 sampai
500.000 orang. (p.115)
Translators sometimes need to reformulate the sentences that have certain
grammatical patterns to achieve the intended meaning. The grammatical patterns
that are used in items number 19, 25, 29, 39, 44 are as follows:
19) but not
25) less… than
29) rather than
39) construction with it + adjective + to-infinitive
44) the position of %
Each of the patterns has been translated and reformulated so that the
meaning of the sentence is appropriately expressed:
19) The feeling of warmth can be shared, but not the pain of pinching (p.65)
Rasa sakit sebuah cubitan tidak bisa dibagi seperti orang berbagi rasa hangat. (p.95)
25) They are officially named as New Order “Revolutionary Heroes”, less because of their achievements or courage than because of their deaths and sacrifices. (p.77)
Mereka secara resmi dijuluki “Pahlawan Revolusi” Orde Baru, lebih disebabkan karena kematian dan pengorbanan mereka dibandingkan dengan prestasi atau keberanian mereka. (p.115)
29) It was as if to say that the targets of the coup were the ideal husbands
and fathers of the family rather than high ranking army generals. (p.80)
Itulah sebabnya seolah-olah bisa dikatakan, target kudeta itu adalah suami dan ayah ideal dalam sebuah keluarga, bukan seorang jendral terkemuka. (p.120)
39) And indeed, it is tough, to say the least, to live in Jakarta without the
protective “family” network to fall back on. (p.104) Dan sungguh, hidup di Jakarta memang keras tanpa jaringan keluarga
yang protektif untuk menyandarkan diri. (p162) 44) In 1987, 24,931,000 out of 25,689,000 children aged seven to twelve
years of (which is the primary school age in Indonesia) attended schools; that is 97 percent. In the same year, 8,825,000 out of 12,268,000 children aged thirteen to fifteen attended secondary schools: 72 percent. Out of 2,956,100 government employees in 1987, 1,646,000 or 55 percent were school teachers. (p.124)
Pada 1987, ada 24.931.000 dari 25.689.000 (97 persen) anak umur tujuh hingga dua belas tahun (yang merupakan umur untuk mendapatkan pendidikan dasar di sekolahdasar Indonesia) masuk sekolah. Pada tahun yang sama, 8.825.000 dari 12.268.000 (72 persen) anak umur 13 hingga 15 tahun memasuki sekolah menengah pertama. Sebanyak 1.646.000 dari 2.956.100 pegawai pemerintah pada tahun 1987 (55 persen) adalah guru sekolah. (p.197)
A note on the figures in 44 is on the use of dots and commas in English as
commas and dots in Indonesian. The position of the % is put near to the numbers
and they are in brackets. By doing this, the information can all be included and
the sentence is made more precise.
Item number 15 is also an example of reformulation. The position of the
cause and effect is reformulated by the translator:
15) Many conflicting interpretations of the abortive coup have been offered in large part, it seems, because the movement of key figures can be interpreted differently. (p.45)
Keberadaan tokoh-tokoh kunci kudeta gagal tersebut, yang dapat ditafsirkan secara berlainan menyebabkan munculnya banyak interpretasi yang saling bertentangan atas peristiwa tersebut. (p.64)
The construction with it in number 39 is combined with to-infinitive. In
translation, the reformulation results in the to-infinitive as the Subject of the
sentence. The construction with it in a cleft sentence is usually translated by lah
to emphasize the word. Item number 34 is an example:
34) The parental love, above all the mother’s love, gives warmth to the family, but it is Roni who lets the parental love circulate in the family sphere. (p.85)
Kasih sayang orang tua, terutama ibu, menghangatkan keluarga. Tapi Ronilah yang menyebarkan kasih orangtua itu dalam lingkup keluarga. (p.129)
In the sentence above, It is Roni … is translated as Ronilah…. Sometimes,
a translator adds a word or words to make the meaning clear or to make the
sentence complete. In item number 5, translating the clause one has to pay
literally into seseorang harus membayar will raise a question “Membayar apa?”
The clause is made complete by the addition of the word mahal. Though this may
not be really the best way to describe the amount of money one has to pay in the
context. An alternative to translate this clause can be seseorang harus
mengeluarkan uang tambahan.
In item number 24, the translator adds the word ibu to form ibu rektor.
From the context, the rector is a woman. In item number 28, the word
kenyenyakan is added. In item number 45, to translate Indonesian, the translator
has to decide whether it refers to the language or the people. Then, the translator
can use bahasa Indonesia or orang Indonesia in the translation.
In item number 11, the translator uses bertindak tidak hormat terhadap
para jenderal to translate acted not as those who were acquainted with the
generals. People who are acquainted with the generals will behave respectfully
towards the generals. In the context, the young raiders behaved rudely and
unrespectfully. They acted not as those who were acquainted with the generals –
unrespectfully.
In item number 35, what a question is translated as Ini pertanyaan yang
menarik. Translating an exclamation can be done if the translator understands the
context. Exclamation is discussed further in the next part, part C. In item number
37, the translator provides the meaning of the word eventually with pensiun.
Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia is translated for popular reading. The
translator tries to express the ideas in a precise way. It can be seen from some of
the sentences in the data. Synonymous words which can be expressed in one
word is given in one word. Items number 16, 20, 22, 38, and 47 can show the
effort:
16) I have no means at this point of knowing whether the letter is authentic or not. (p.46)
Saya tidak tahu, apakah surat itu otentik atau tidak. (p.66) 20) It is thanks to the mother, ever wise and attentive, that Roni overcomes
the crisis. (p.66) Ternyata ibulah yang menjadi juru selamat. (p.96) 22) What is the difference between Rina, the mature eldest daughter, and
Roni, the mature eldest son? (p.71) Apa beda antara Rina dan Roni? (p.105) 38) Money is raised in many different and creative ways (p.100) Uang dicari dengan berbagai cara yang kreatif (p.154) 47) The anger of today’s teacher cannot be as intimidating or terrifying as
the anger of Pramoedya’s teacher’s. (p.134)
Kemarahan guru masa kini tidak bisa semenakutkan kemarahan gurunya Pramoedya. (p.216)
Translation involves the ability to express the idea of the ST using a
common, idiomatic, not just literal, expressions in the TT. English phrases or
sentences with the word very, if not carefully understood, may result in a phrase
or a sentence that contains the literal meaning sangat.
9) This was the very moment of revolution, Indonesian style. (p.39) Inilah saat-saat puncak revolusi gaya Indonesia. (p.52)
In number 23, instead of using istrimu sebagai menantuku, it is more
common to say menantu seperti istrimu. The idiomatic expressions to make one’s
hair stand on end and to draw the line free hand are translated as follows:
43) All of this pretty much made one’s hair stand on end (p.118) Ini semua membuat bulu kuduk berdiri (p.187) 48) They may not draw the line free hand. (p.142) Mereka tidak boleh begitu saja membuat garis “cakar ayam”. (p.228)
Adjucting the tone and the style is also an important aspect in translation.
In item number 46, the use of kamu and nggak can keep the informal tone. This
means the translator pays attention to the tenor of the discourse, i.e. the informal
tenor.
46) “Oh, here is your friend si Anu, why don’t you sit next to her?” (p.128) Oh itu dia temanmu si Anu, kenapa kamu nggak duduk sebelah dia
saja?” (p.205)
If item number 46 shows an informal tenor, item number 40 show a formal
tenor: The translator maintains the formal tenor by using a sentence like a news
reporter.
40) The article continues: (p.108) Berikut lanjutan laporan di atas: (p.170)
Table 4.3. Phrases Considered as Inappropriate
It is true that sometimes a translator may need to change an expression into
a more common expression in the TT. But the phrase over his shoulder in this
context need not be changed into di balik punggungnya (behind his back). Di atas
bahunya is appropriate.
I once saw an old mother being embraced and kissed by her son after months of separation. Over his shoulder, she gazed out through the lenses of her standing tears at the dark contained air of the front room in her house. (p.18) Suatu ketika saya melihat seorang ibu tua yang dipeluk dan dicium oleh anaknya setelah berpisah berbulan-bulan. Di atas bahu (instead of di balik punggung) anaknya, ibu itu menatap keluar dengan mata menitikkan air mata di tengah kegelapan ruang depan rumahnya. (p.14)
The second phrase can be translated as hanya ingin di sana bersama
ibunya. For item number 3, meski demikian is used to link sentences with
contradictory meanings or unexpected result of something. The word of course in
the ST is used for emphasis. Therefore, it can be expressed by tentu saja.
For item number 4, the phrases in the ST and the TT have opposite
meanings. Never cease to delight means tak kunjung henti memuaskan. Missing
henti in the TT results in the opposite meaning. The word memuaskan can be
replaced by menghibur. So the sentence becomes yang petualangan cintanya tak
kunjung henti menghibur orang Jawa.
For item number 5, the literal translation results in an inappropriate phrase
that means “told to Sukarno”, i.e. “seperti-dituturkan-kepada” Sukarno. This can
be avoided by omitting kepada. It becomes otobiografi “seperti-dituturkan”
Sukarno, or otobiografi Sukarno “seperti-dituturkan”. People who understand
that this autobiography refers to the book written by Cindy Adams, that is “as told
to Cindy Adams”, it becomes otobiografi Sukarno seperti-dituturkan-kepada
Cindy Adams. This can only be done when the translator has the background
knowledge about two well-known books about Sukarno’s autobiography. One is
Sukarno: An Autobiography as Told to Cindy Adams (1965) and the other is
Sukarno my friend (1971).
The problem on item number 6 lies on the use of singular and plural that
has to be treated carefully because it may change the fact. To describe the plural
young raiders, the word para can be used. The phrase young raiders can be
translated as para penyerbu muda.
For item number 7, as early as October 15 should be pada 15 Oktober, not
segera setelah 15 Oktober.
Item number 8 is about a tree which is unconcerned and unmoved. It is
not tidak terpusat dan tidak bergerak, but tidak dipedulikan dan tidak bergerak.
To discuss item number 9, sensation of happiness, which has been
translated as sensasi kebahagiaan, a look at Echols and Shadily can be useful:
Sensation kb. 1. sensasi. The actor is a s. Aktor itu benar-benar merupakan sensasi. to cause/produce a s. mengadakan sensasi. 2. kegemparan, kegegeran. That book created quite a s. Buku itu benar-benar menimbulkan banyak kegemparan. 3. perasaan. to feel a queer s. memperoleh perasaan yang aneh. He had a s. of falling. Ia merasa seakan-akan hendak jatuh. (Echols and Shadily, 1995:513) Sensasi sensation, sensational news. (Echols and Shadily, 1989:502)
The word sensasi can be better be replaced by perasaan (meaning number
3 in Echols and Shadily, 1995). Therefore, sensation of happiness is perasaan
bahagia. This is also applicable to similar phrases used in the book like sensation
of loss, which has been translated as sensasi kehilangan. It is better to replace it
with rasa kehilangan.
For item number 10, a young research assistant at a teachers’ training
college has been translated as seorang peneliti muda kolega saya di IKIP. For
item number 11, her daughter’s oral hygiene has been translated as kebiasaan
makan anaknya yang buruk. At a glance, for item number 10, kolega saya has
been added in the translation. For item number 11, her daughter’s oral hygiene
should be kebersihan mulut anaknya.
Item number 12 is an example of “false friends”. Ideal in English has a
different meaning with ideal in Indonesian in this context. A phrase like an ideal
wife can be translated as istri yang ideal. But the Javanese ideals is cita-cita
orang Jawa instead of orang Jawa yang ideal. Ideal functions as a noun not as an
adjective.
For item number 13, the word “hopelessly” has been misplaced as the
modifier of family. It is not. It should be the modifier of broken. Hopelessly in
this position is similar to:
1) The story is hopelessly confusing.
2) They were on the other side of Berlin and Harry was hopelessly lost.
3) By October 1990, when arrested, he was hopelessly in debt.
“Hopelessly” in this use is to emphasize how bad or inadequate something or
someone is (Cobuild, 1995:813). Therefore a hopelessly broken family is
keluarga yang sungguh berantakan.
I include the phrases on items number 14, 15, and 16, and 18 on the
purpose to show how translating numbers can be crucial. I myself wonder why
the translators translated all the numbers incorrectly.
14) thirty-three persons (p.91): dua puluh tiga orang (p.141) 15) thirteen regional stations (p.91): dua puluh tiga stasiun regional
(p.141) 16) six thousand employees (p.91): enam ratus ribu karyawan (p. 141) 18) sixty-five years old in 1990 (p.113): 47 tahun pada 1990 (p.178) Item number 17 has the problem that is commonly faced by translators
when they have to decide the modifier is to modify which word or words. Item
number 17 can be analyzed together with items number 23, 24, and 25:
17) no moral power and authority (p.108): tak ada moral, kekuasaan, dan kewibawaan (p.169)
23) a prolific, highly successful writer-poet-playwright-editor in Jakarta
in 1980s (p.149): seorang pengarang yang produktif dan sukses, penulis puisi, drama, dan redaktur di Jakarta pada 1980-an (p.238)
24) dirty glasses, spoons, and forks (p.153): gelas bekas pakai, sendok
dan garpu (p.243) 25) dirty plates, spoons, and forks (p.157): piring kotor, sendok dan
garpu (p.250)
The NPs can be drawn as follows:
17) no moral power and authority
23) a prolific, highly successful writer-poet-playwright-editor in Jakarta
in 1980s
24) dirty glasses, spoons, and forks
25) dirty plates, spoons, and forks
By classifying the words above, the translation should start from the
quantifier for number 17 and the article for number 23. They should be followed
by the heads and the adjectives, and the last is the post-modifier for number 23.
The adjectives moral, prolific, highly successful and dirty are to be used to modify
the heads. For items number 24 and 25, the adjectives can be identified as the
modifiers of the head because they are parts of a list that puts “and” to show the
last item in the group of NP, and there is another “and” to show the last item in
the list. The positions of the two NPs in the sentences are as follows:
24) Their rooms are crammed with their modest possessions – clothes, textbooks, a small desk and a cheap vinyl stool, an old manual typewriter, a pin-up calendar of pop singers and film stars, a guitar, a mirror, make-up kits, a bag or two, a pair of shoes, some accessories, souvenir wood carvings, seashells, left-over snacks and dirty glasses, spoons, and forks. (p.153)
25) Their voice is confused and wild, because that is what they are; they
resemble and can be metaphorically represented by their own rooms: crammed with textbooks, a small desk, a manual typewriter, dirty plates, spoons, and forks, obscene pictures, make-up kits, seashells, and so on. (p.157)
By the analysis, then the translation of the NPs will be:
17) tak ada kekuasaan dan kewibawaan moral (instead of tak ada moral, kekuasaan, dan kewibawaan) (p.169) 23) seorang pengarang, penulis puisi, penulis drama, dan redaktur yang
produktif dan sukses di Jakarta pada 1980-an (instead of seorang pengarang yang produktif dan sukses, penulis
puisi, drama, dan redaktur di Jakarta pada 1980-an) (p.238) 24) gelas, sendok dan garpu bekas pakai (instead of gelas bekas pakai, sendok dan garpu) (p.243) 25) piring, sendok dan garpu kotor (instead of piring kotor, sendok dan garpu) (p.250)
For item number 19, the problem lies on the Indonesian banyak lobang-
lobang. In the theory on plural nouns in Indonesian, words need not be repeated
when there is an expression of quantity in front of it. So, it should be banyak
lobang.
For item number 20, the problem lies on the Indonesian keseharian. It is
sufficient to say harian. The phrase the structure of the daily roll call should be
aturan presensi harian.
Item number 21, intelligible human language (p.136) is translated as
bahasa manusia yang cerdas (p.220). There is a possibility that the translator has
mixed it up with the word intelligent. Intelligent is cerdas, but intelligible is
dapat dimengerti. Intelligible human language should be bahasa manusia yang
dapat dimengerti. In the context, it is the opposite of “the quacking of ducks”,
which is not understandable.
The problem in item number 22 is that the translation is too literal for an
idiomatic expression. To kill the time is menghabiskan waktu instead of
membunuh waktu.
Table 4.4. Sentences Considered as Inappropriate
For item number 1, “The exposition is more detailed in the English version
of the autobiography, obviously because non-Indonesians are not expected to be
graced with Javanese wisdom” is translated as “Penjelasan yang lebih rinci
dimuat dalam bahasa Inggris, tak pelak lagi karena para pembaca yang bukan
orang Indonesia tidak diharapkan terbuai oleh kearifan Jawa.”
The positive tone in the original version has been changed into a negative
tone in the Indonesian version. An alternative version for such part can be
“…karena para pembaca yang bukan orang Indonesia diperkirakan tidak tahu
banyak tentang ajaran kata-kata arif adat budaya Jawa.”
For item number 2, there is a mixed up reference of pronouns. To achieve
this, this refers to the purpose, not to the education system. In the TT, this has
been used to refer to system, and the sentence becomes awkward. An alternative
translation can be: “Untuk mencapai tujuan ini, tidaklah mungkin menggunakan
sistem pendidikan yang…”
For item number 3, “Is it the Javanese family, the Minangkabau, the
Acehnese, the Balinese, or what?” is translated as “Ini keluarga Jawa,
Minangkabau…”. As a question, “is it” should be translated as “apakah“ not
“ini“ as for “it is”. Another alternative is to use neither ini nor apakah. In
Indonesian, it is possible to make a question using a statement with a rising
intonation. Therefore, the translation can be: “Keluarga Jawa, Minangkabau,…?”
For item number 4, the problem lies of the result of the translation, which
is not a sentence but a long phrase. The problem can be overcome by omitting the
first and the second yang. The last word memeganginya sounds awkward. It can
be rephrased as memegang pagar. The sentence then becomes: Kendati orang-
orang datang dan pergi lalu-lalang dengan perasaan galau, sikap bisu kaku
mencekam semua orang yang berdiri di balik pagar sambil memegangi pagar.
For item number 5, the first part of this sentence has been lost. The main
clause “It is not uncommon”, which literally means tidaklah tidak biasa, should
result in sudah biasa. The sentence then becomes: Sudah biasa penjemput yang
setia datang tidak tepat waktu.
For item number 6, there is a confusion of the way to translate “instead
of”. From the theory, there can be two different ways to translate this phrase:
1) daripada…lebih baik…
2) bukannya … malah…
To translate item number 6, alternative 2) should be used. The result is: Bukannya
mengangkat dirinya menjadi jenderal, Letnan Kolonel Untung malah memutuskan
untuk tetap berpangkat letnan kolonel.
For item number 7, the problem lies on the translation of the pronoun
“this”. It is true that for such a pronoun, the translator should try to find the
reference, and does not translate it merely as ini. However, this in this sentence
does not refer to a decision (keputusan ini). Rather, it refers to a more general
case: hal ini.
The problem on item number 8 is on the translation of “approximating…
to…”. Approximating here is not as adverb “approximately” (diperkirakan or
perkiraan). It functions as a verb and it is used in its non-finite present participle
form. As a verb, “to approximate… to …” means menyamakan … dengan ….
Therefore, the sentence should be: Dengan kata lain, gerakan itu adalah usaha
restrukturisasi angkatan bersenjata. Dengan menyamakan struktur dalamnya
dengan hubungan bapak-anak buah, gerakan itu menyederhanakan hierarki dan
struktur kepangkatan menjadi Bapak dan anak-buah.
For item number 9, the word arbitrarily that is used to refer to a child’s
acts, should be translated as suka-suka. The sentence then becomes: Semakin
suka-suka ia bertingkah, semakin lucu orang-orang menganggapnya.
In item number 10, the subject of the verb “washing, polishing, and
admiring” has been confused. The subject of the three verbs should be his
neighbour-friend. The translation puts the man, not his neighbour-friend, as the
subject of admiring. To keep the subject of the three verbs his neighrbour-friend,
the sentence can be rewritten as follows: Sampai setengah jam kemudian, dia
sering masih terlihat berdiri di depan pintu gerbang hitam tetangganya yang
biasanya sedang mencuci, melap, atau mengagumi kilap mobil Mitsubishi van
barunya.
Item number 11 is a simile: We were covered with her love (kasih
sayang) like layers of blankets. It has been translated as Dengan penuh kasih
sayang kami diselimutinya berlapis-lapis. There is a misinterpretation of the
phrase in the simile like layers of blankets as the main verb of the sentence.
Literally, the sentences can be translated as Kami dipenuhi kasih saying bagaikan
berlapis-lapis selimut. A better way to express the meaning of the simile can be
Kasih sayangnya selalu menyelimuti kami or Kami dilimpahi kasih sayangnya
yang berlimpah.
For item number 12, the English expression “go back to the colonial
period” implies that it starts in the colonial period. A more common expression to
discuss the historical origins of a word is Sejarah asal-usul famili-isme dimulai
pada masa kolonial, instead of Sejarah asal usul famili-isme terlentang hingga ke
masa kolonial.
For item number 13, the problem lies on the ordinal number, fourth, which
has turned to a cardinal number, four. Third to fourth refers to the rank of the
bank in 1984. Moreover, it is questionable to say that there were only four
national private banks in 1984. There should have been much more than four.
Therefore, the sentences should be: Bank Duta berkembang pesat dari tahun
1978-1985. Pada tahun 1984, bank ini menduduki peringkat ketiga dan keempat
di antara bank-bank swasta nasional.
The problem on item number 14 lies on the difficulty to translate “less…
than …”. When there is a discussion about the cause of something, less A than B,
it means that B becomes the stronger cause than A. What the writer implies, it
should be the other way around. Therefore, the sentence should be Meski
demikian, sistem tersebut tetap berjalan, dan ini bukan karena bahasa kosong
yang diperindah, tetapi lebih karena kebisuan yang diprogramkan, yang membuat
bahasa nasional tak berdaya untuk menyebut, menyuarakan, dan menghukum
yang bersalah.
Item number 15 has an awkward result of translation Namun, mereka
yakin, pak guru adalah sepandai-pandainya orang di dunia ini. In Indonesian,
when there is a phrase sepandai-pandainya orang di dunia ini, something is
expected to follow the phrase. There is a proverb saying Sepandai-pandainya
tupai melompat, sekali-kali akan jatuh juga. To translate the sentence pak guru
was as clever as one can ever be in this world, the direct meaning can be given:
Pak guru adalah orang paling pandai di dunia.
Table 4.5. Phrases and Sentences Lost or Partly Translated
For item number 1, the phrase does refer can be translated as memang
menganggap. By adding the word memang the emphasis of the source text can be
maintained. There are some losses, which can be avoided if the translation has
been done more carefully. Some of the losses that can be avoided are listed
below. The English words lost are in italics:
13) a qualified wife-to-be (p.71): seorang istri yang baik (p.105) 26) They have entered many fields, starting from commerce, fishery, food,
livestock, finance, construction, pharmacy, to the paper industry. (p.99): Mereka masuk ke banyak bidang, mulai dari perdagangan, perikanan, makanan, kebutuhan pokok, konstruksi, farmasi, sampai industri kertas. (p.153)
30) As in the early morning of October 1, 1965, …(p.115): Seperti pagi
hari pada Oktober 1965, …(p.182) 31) His classmates, drawn to the sight of an enormous body trying to
accommodate itself into the narrow aisle, did not notice his silent singing. (p.125): Sementara itu seisi kelas terbawa untuk tidak mempedulikan nyanyian lirih tersebut. (p.200)
34) In one corner a small quarrel started between a boy and a girl who sat
next to each other. She has picked up his ruler. Unlike other children, the boy protested. (p.142): Di salah satu pojok, perselisihan kecil terjadi antara seorang bocah lelaki dan perempuan yang duduk bersebelahan. Tak seperti murid lainnya, si bocah lelaki ini protes. (p.229)
The losses can be overcome by adding some words. For number 13, calon
can be added to include the meaning of to-be. It becomes seorang calon istri yang
baik. For number 26, the word finance has been skipped. The word keuangan can
be added to complete the list. For number 30, the date has been missing. The first
of October should be 1 Oktober. For number 31 and 34, the omission of the
reasons of what happened can be overcome by translating the phrase and sentence
in italics.
For item number 2, the translator has omitted the definition of the words.
The possibility is that the translator considers Indonesian readers do not need the
definition of the words. Therefore, this loss can be explained by considering the
different audience or readers of the source text and the target text. Some other
examples can be seen below:
2) Antar means to escort someone somewhere, and jemput to come to meet someone in order to escort her/him somewhere else. (p.15): - (p.15)
14) The advertisement, playing with the word bunga, which means both
flower and interest, equates interest with the flower which signifies love of the mother/land. (p.72): Iklan tersebut bermain-main dengan kata bunga, maksudnya menyamakan bunga bank dengan bunga sebagai tanda cinta dari seorang ibu maupun ibu pertiwi. (p.107)
15) Both gifts come from BungHari, Brother Hari/ Flower of the day/
Daily Interest, that is not only from the bank but also from the land and the mother. (p,.72): Kedua hadiah tersebut berasal dari “BungHari”, yaitu bunga harian bank yang tidak hanya dimaksudkan sebagai pemberian bank saja tapi juga pemberian dari bumi dan seorang ibu. (p.108)
25) Ibu Tien (the First Lady, or rather the first Mother), …(p.98): Ibu
Tien, …(p.152) 27) …penyelewengan, irregularity or deviation, … (p.107):
penyelewengan …(p.168) 33) Rp 18,000 (about US$10 then) (p.141): Rp 18.000,- (p.227)
Items number 3 and number 4 are the examples of translation losses that
are acceptable because to translate literally all the words will result in redundant
expressions:
3) hundreds of naked staring eyes (p.15-16): ditatap ratusan pasang mata (p.12)
4) in this particular place and at this specific moment (p.16): di tempat itu
pada waktu itu (p13) According to Hervey and Higgins (1992: 24), the transfer of meaning from
Source Text (ST) to Target Text (TT) necessarily involves a certain degree of
translation loss; that is, a TT will always lack certain culturally relevant features
that are present in the ST. They also mention that the translator can concentrate
on the realistic aim of cutting down on translation loss, rather than the unrealistic
one of seeking the ultimate translation of the ST. Some other examples of losses
that are acceptable can be seen in the following list. The word or words lost are in
italics:
5) the thick and high imposing walls (p.43): tembok tebal dan tinggi (p.61)
18) There follows Mother Haryono’s unhurried flashback, … (p.78): Lalu
diikuti kilas balik dari ingatan Bu Haryono, …(p.117) 19) The intimacy very deep and thick (p.78): Keakraban yang sangat
dekat (p.117) 20) “Let us have a share, you know, pap.” (p.78): “Bagi-bagi dong, pap.”
(p.118) 21) …, and he simply cannot imagine such democracy …(p.85): … dan ia
tak bisa membayangkan demokrasi seperti itu … (p.128) 22) Benedict Anderson writes about the historical significance of this
vacuous Malay- Indonesian for the making of Indonesia. (p.87): Benedict Anderson menulis tentang peran penting sejarah bahasa Melayu-Indonesia dalam membentuk Indonesia. (p.132)
24) A new social model was presented in practice for peoples with many
different languages, histories, and cultures to see, understand, and emulate. (p.89): Sebuah model social baru diperkenalkan dalam praktek untuk masyarakat yang berbeda bahasa, sejarah dan kultur. (p.136)
32) The Indonesian family is constructed in the textbook through a process
that appears to involve mere translation that simply exchanges exchangeable words between the national language and ethnic mother tongues. (p.133): Keluarga Indonesia dibanguan dalam buku pelajaran melalui proses, yang tampaknya mengikutsertakan terjemahan yang secara sederhana mengganti kata-kata yang dapat ditukar antara bahasa nasional dan bahasa ibu. (p.213)
35) piles of old womes’s magazines (p.153): tumpukan majalah lama
(p.244)
The omission of some connecters, such as however, subsequently,
nevertheless, and in fact, are acceptable in that the relation of the clauses are
understandable and the omission does not change the message. The translator
may have ommited the words in the following examples in the consideration of
either avoiding repeatition or trying to be more precise:
6) If we fully consider the wide range of possible interpretation of this kindly act in Indonesia, however, we may well think twice before gratefully being picked up at the airport (p.47): Jika kita benar-benar menyadari, kemungkinan penafsiran atas tindakan yang murah hati ini begitu beragam di Indonesia, tentu kita akan berpikir dua kali sebelum berterima kasih karena dijemput di bandara (p.68)
7) The more details are “revealed”, however, the more contradictions and
unanswerable questions seem to surface. (p.47): Makin rinci “penjelasannya”, makin bertentangan dan tak mungkin terjawablah pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang muncul. (p.68)
23) …, and it was subsequently used in army barracks, judicial courts,
hospitals, offices, schools, and media during the colonial period. (p.87): Bahasa itu digunakan di barak tentara, pengadilan, rumahsakit, kantor, sekolah, dan media massa pada masa penjajahan. (p,.133)
28) … was nevertheless alive, not dead. (p.109): … masih hidup, tidak
mati. (p.172) 29) In fact, the family system asserted itself in rescuing the bapak trapped
in this scandal. (p.115): Sistem tersebut juga tampil menyelamatkan bapak yang terperangkap skandal. (p.182)
There are other losses, which are discussed below:
8) in a recently published, controversial book (p.47): dalam sebuah buku controversial (p.68)
The phrase recently published is not translated to adjust the time of the
publication of Young Heroes and Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia. Young Heroes was
published in 1997 and Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia in 2001. What was recent in
1997, after 4 years may not be considered recent anymore. This loss is for time
adjustment.
There is a possibility that the following loss is the result of avoiding
repetition of what has been stated in the perious paragraph. The whole part is
omitted:
17) He was the red candy she desired to have. Her parents did not approve her marriage with him less because of who he was than because of her making the choice herself. Her parents, however, did not provide her with another young man of their choice, or the green candy, and thus failed to impose their choice on her. (p.75): - (p.112)
The next sentences can be the results of avoiding a collection of items,
which do not add up to recognizable lexical chains that make sense in a given
context (Baker, 1992: 207). Translating biological accident as kebetulan biologis
does not result in a common lexical chain in Indonesian. The following losses can
seen an attempt to avoid producing unfamiliar lexical chains that do not contribute
better understanding of the text.
9) The more dangerous and hostile the outside world looms, the more
secure and warm that small, once lost and now recalled, sanctuary becomes. (p.62): - (p.90)
10) The last illustration in the book describes Roni’s father and mother watching and caressing him with affection, while Roni is pointing his finger at his baby sister as if redirecting the flow of parental attention from him to his sister. He is giving away to his sister the parental love once he monopolized. (p.66): Ilustrasi terakhir dalam buku itu menggambarkan ayah dan ibu memperhatikan Roni yang tengah bermain bersama adiknya dengan penuh kasih sayang. (p.97)
11) The family, which otherwise would have remained a biological
accident, becomes a lasting social and cultural institution. (p.68): Dengan kata lain, keluarga akan menjadi institusi social dan budaya yang kekal. (p.99)
12) This way, her mother is dissociated from her milieu that has
automatically accommodated all her needs, and becomes, for the first time, separate from herself. (p.69): - (p.102)
The following item from table 4.5 may give us another kind of example of
translation loss:
16) The basic “civilized” response to such culturally defined “childish” behaviors is to manage the situation nonchalantly, as if nothing that matters has happened. (p.74): - (p.110)
In the case above, the phrases “civilized” and “childish” are not found as
“beradab” or “kekanak-kanakan” in the target text. The whole sentence is
omitted. The sentence has been replaced by the following sentences:
“… Anak-anak memang dibiarkan berlaku seperti itu, karena mereka hanya anak-anak. Mereka dimaklumi, karena dianggap belum bisa mengontrol perilakunya. Makanan yang dimuntahkan paling akan dibersihkan oleh pengasuh atau pembantunya, yang biasanya sudah siap dengan kain atau kertas pembersih.” (p.110)
The context of the use of “civilized” in the source text will not match the meaning
of “beradab”. It may even insult the target readers if the response of Indonesian
mothe rs is considered as the opposite, i.e. “uncivilized” or tidak beradab.
C. Discussion
The theories on translation discussed in chapter II have been parts of the
attempts to answer question number one and number two stated in the problem
formulation. It can be seen from several models of translation processes that the
process of translation is the process of information processing. The psychological
nature of translation process is the transfer of meaning. The translator needs to
discover the meaning of the ST and re-express the meaning in the TL. The
process involves syntactic, semantic and pragmatic analyzers, which continues
with syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic synthesizers. It is possible for some stages
to be passed through very quickly, for example in the Frequent Structure Store
and Frequent Lexis Store. The norm for the process is a combination of bottom-
up and top-down.
At the end of the discussion on the theories on translation, it is worthwhile
to remind translators that in translation, translators have some missions to
accomplish. Benjamin (1968:76) mentions that the task of the translator consists
in finding that intended effect (intention) upon the language into which he is
translating which produces in it the echo of the original. The results of the
analysis on the translation product can provide an example how the translators
have been able to produce the echoes of the ST in the TT.
Siegel (1986:7) emphasizes the responsibility of a translator because
translation can sustain a culture as well as stifle it. Siegel (in Rafael 1988:210)
claims that translation arises from the need to relate one’s interest to that of others
and so to encode it appropriately. If translation is to take place at all, it must do so
within a context of expectation; that in return for one’s submission, one gets back
the other’s acknowledgement of the value of one’s words and behaviour. In this
way, one finds oneself a place on the social map. From Siegel’s point of view
about translation, the translation of Shiraishi’s book can be related to interest,
expectation and the social map in Indonesia.
The interest in on the anxiety to see how scholars of non-Indonesians, who
are called “Indonesianists” discuss Indonesia and Indonesians. Shiraishi herself
was anxious to see how this book would be read by Indonesians. The readers’
expectation is to see how the translators maintain the nuances of Indonesian
cultural specific concepts, which have been written in English, then brought back
by translation into Indonesian. The translation of the book has been special on the
ground that the translators need to consider the translation on the social map. The
book has been written by a non- Indonesian scholar, a Japanese, who is an
Indonesianist. It depicts details of Indonesian family life and relates it with the
political life of the nation. Reading the book is like looking at the reflection of
Indonesians and Indonesia.
Sontag (2002:340-341) mentions briefly three variants of the modern idea
of translation, which may help translators to see what their missions are. First,
translation is as explanation. Motivating the translator’s effort is the project of
replacing ignorance, obscurity by knowledge, transparency. The translator’s
mission is clarification, enlightenment. Second, translation is as adaptation. The
spirit is not simply a freer use of language, which purports to express in another
language. The spirit is the conscious creation of another “version”. The old
English word for translator is “versionist”. Third, translation is as improvement.
Translation as improvement has its own sub-variant: translation as obfuscation (as
in “It sounds better in translation”), a dressing up or paring down of the text,
which may or may not entail actively tampering with it. This opinion gives the
emphasis on the importance of meaning and communicative effect of translation.
The way Shiraishi translates the song “Lessons in Love” (in Young Heroes, p.159)
can provide the examples of how to fulfill the intended meaning and the
communicative effect of translation. “Apakah ‘bokapmu’ orang kaya dulu?” is
“Were your ‘old folks’ rich once?” “Besok-besok ke penghulu!” is “Someday
[we’ll] go to the [Muslim] religious official!”
The discussion on the theories on English to Indonesian translation on part
C in Chapter II has been part of the attempt to answer question number 2. The
nature of English to Indonesian translation can be discussed as follows.
1. English and Indonesian have some differences in grammatical aspects, among
others are the use tenses and aspects, verb agreement/ concord with the
Subject, use of pronouns, relative pronouns, singular and plural markers of
noun phrases, use of articles, positions of conjuncts, and meanings of
conjunctions
2. Some problems in socio-political-cultural aspects include some daily
expressions, idioms, fixed expressions, and use of measurements.
3. Understanding the nature of the differences between the SL and the TL, a
translator will be able to anticipate problems that may arise from the
differences.
Besides the phrases and sentences listed at the beginning of this chapter,
especially in table 4.1 and 4.2, there are many other phrases and sentences, which
are considered as similar cases as represented by the samples. The application of
the technique to cut long sentences into shorter sentences can be found in many
parts in the book. “Fronted conjuncts” is also the case that is applied in many
sentences.
Young Heroes is a doctorate thesis with the university professors as the
main readers, while Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia is a popular reading with
educated, middle-class Indonesians as the readers. This may have been part of the
background of the writing style. The book is basically a writerly text. Barthes
(1974:4) uses the terms readerly and writerly to describe a text. The readers of
readerly texts are mainly as the consumers of the text. This kind of text can be
read but not written. The writerly text can be written or rewritten. The readers are
no longer merely as the consumers but can be the producers of the text. The
readers of Young Heroes or Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia are to reflect on the
content, not merely as the consumers. The readers are to participate in looking at
the relations of concepts, events, actions, use of terms and language and others.
Another interesting point to note down is about the content of the book
Young Heroes is about Indonesia and Indonesians. Shiraishi needs to consider
filling in the information gap for non-Indonesian readers when presenting many
concepts about Indonesia and Indonesians. The information gap filling is not
needed when the text is translated and the target readers are Indonesians. Some of
the omissions in the translation have been done for this consideration. The
discussion on the content may have been like a ‘shuttle’ process. First it started
from Indonesian concepts, and then it is presented in English, and finally the text
is brought back into Indonesian.
Besides looking at the techniques of translation, the content and the
writing style of the book, some use of words and patterns are discussed further in
this part. The discussion can be started with the use of the word very. Additional
examples where very should not be translated as sangat are:
1. We will have the meeting in this very room tomorrow. (…di ruang ini…)
2. He is the very person I have been looking for. (Dialah orang yang…)
The next discussion is about the translation of an exclamation or the
pattern What …! How …! In the discussion of semantics, exclamation is one of
the sources of ambiguity. When two boys are sitting in a garden, and suddenly a
girl is passing by, and one of the boys utters “What a girl!”, the two of them most
probably share the same interpretation of this exclamation. It can be either the girl
is very pretty or very messy.
The utterance “What a girl!” can be understood by the listener or reader
who shares some common knowledge with the speaker or writer and the context is
clear. When put in isolation, this sentence may mean: Gadis itu sungguh cantik!
or Gadis itu sungguh jelek! or Gadis itu sungguh galak! or Gadis itu sungguh
ramah! or Gadis itu sungguh sabar! or Gadis itu sungguh agresif! or Gadis itu
sungguh berani! or Gadis itu sungguh penakut! And there are still many other
possibilities for different contexts. In translation, understanding the context is the
requisite to be able to express the intended meaning.
Understanding the context seems to be the requisite to the translation of
many sentence patterns. Besides exclamations, translating a clause like It did,
also requires the understanding of the context as the cases above. The following
example can lead us see a similar pattern as It did, i.e. a pronoun and an auxiliary:
We did:
“In the third round of the competition, each group of the participants were to collect ten eggs hidden among the bushes in the park. I thought we could never make it. We did.”
We did is Kami berhasil. In other contexts “We did” can mean “Kami
melakukannya”, ”Kami melihatnya”, “Kami membatalkannya”, or others. A
translator needs to be aware of such possibilities and decides the proper one based
on the context.
Besides being aware of many sentence patterns in the SL that may have
multiple interpretations, a translator also needs to consider the alternatives or
possible patterns in the TL, and decide the one that is the most natural or the most
common pattern in the TL. For example, a sentence “I am proud to have Asih as
my wife” is worded as Saya bangga mempunyai istri seperti Asih. It is a more
commonly used pattern instead of Saya bangga memiliki Asih sebagai istri saya,
with a strict attachment to the word order. The translator has given the
consideration to use a more common pattern in the TL than to maintain the form
of the SL. This can be one of the reasons why some authors claim that to be a
good translator, one needs to have good mastery in both the SL and the TL.
In this study, the discussion also includes the discussion on the parts that
are not translated or only partly translated. Apart from the parts lost, there are
many parts added, particularly in the form of additional phrases by the translator.
Another form of addition is the picture of the advertisement on page 107 in
Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia. This way, the translator applies the technique of
translation by illustration, that is the picture is shown. Additional phrases to build
coherence between sentences and paragraphs can provide another interesting list
of data. Further study is required to discuss them.
Another aspect that requires some attention in the discussion of translation
is about the assessment. Setting up the categories for assessing translation may
not be easy. Teachers need to adjust the categories with the condition of the class.
The level of difficulty of the materials to be translated need also be adjusted. The
following categories have been proposed by Machali (2000:119-120). The
original Indonesian version can be seen in the Appendix.
Machali gave some additional notes on the word “wajar”, which she
means wajar dan komunikatif (natural and communicative). The first criterion has
some implication to require students already have “perfect” translation product.
For English students of even the advanced level, it is hard to achieve.
Another note about the first criterion is on the indicators. Since meaning
has been the focus of translation, one of the indicators for the first criterion should
have mentioned it. Machali mentions meaning in the second and the third criteria,
but not in the others.
The indicators for the second and the third categories are also hard because
the mark is C even students can achieve the category “good”. The mark C is not a
very satisfactory mark for a “good” category. Machali seems to set the categories
for professional translators. For learners who have just started their experience in
translation, the expectation of the categories may be too high.
In the assessment of translation, most importantly, the teacher informs the
students what they are expected to do and what aspects are to be taken into
consideration in the assessment. The application of the categories in teaching may
go some adjustment on the criteria.
Table 4.6.
Some Alternative Guidelines for Assessing Translation (from Machali, 2000:119-120, translated by the present researcher)
Category Score Indicator
Excellent 86-90 (A)
It uses natural and communicative expressions. It does not feel like a translation. There are no spelling, grammar, or vocabulary mistakes.
Very good 76-85 (B)
There is no distortion of meaning, no awkward literal translation. There are no vocabulary mistakes. There are one or two grammar or spelling mistakes. (In Arabic, there should be no spelling mistakes).
Good 61-75 (C)
Basically there is no distortion of meaning. There are some inappropriate literal translations but less than 15% of the whole text, so it does not read like a translation very much. Grammatical and idiomatic mistakes are less than 15% of the whole text. There are one or two uses of non-standard terms and one or two spelling errors
Sufficient 46-60 (D)
It feels like a translation. There are some awkward literal translation, but not more than 25%. There are some mistakes in idiomatic expressions and grammar, but not more than 25% of the whole text. There are one or two terms which are non-standard/ not common/ not clear.
Poor 20-45 (E)
It feels obviously like a translation. There are too many awkward literal translations (more than 25% of the whole text). Distortions of meanings and vocabulary mistakes are more than 25% of the whole text.
The data in this study can provide many examples of the application of
translation techniques. Some of the weaknesses can also give some insight that
translation requires not only good knowledge of the two languages and good
command of some translation techniques, but also careful considerations in
decisions and willingness to handle details carefully. By being careful,
unnecessary mistakes can be avoided.
Based on the data and the result of the analysis, the translation of Young
Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics into Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia:
Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik can be considered as good translation for the
following reasons:
1. Meaning or message has been the main focus rather than the forms. The
translator is not too much tied up with the literal words and phrases. For a
better understanding, many reformulations of the sentences have been done.
2. Easy reading has been tempted by cutting very long sentences into shorter and
precise.ones. The translator has taken into account the consideration that the
TT is a popular reading.
3. Most of the translation losses have been for some purposes such as to avoid
lengthy repetition, to make the sentence more precise, to avoid unexpected
misinterpretation of some phrases. The translation losses have been mostly
for understandable reasons and there are no significant meaning biases that
have changed or destroyed the main message of the ST.
4. Machali’s description of good translation can be used to describe the result of
the analysis of the data in this study:
“Basically there is no distortion of meaning. There are some inappropriate literal translations but less than 15% of the whole text, so it does not read like a translation very much. Grammatical and idiomatic mistakes are less than 15% of the whole text. There are one or two uses of non-standard terms and one or two spelling errors.” (Machali, 2000:120, translated by the present researcher)
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
This thesis has aimed at exploring the theories on translation as an
overview in general and the theories on English to Indonesian in particular, and
presenting the results of a case study on a translation product. With the three
questions in the problem formulation in Chapter I, this thesis tries to look at
translation as a process and as a product. In this study, translation is seen as
bilingual communication that involves the reproduction in a target language or
receptor language of the closest natural equivalence of the source message, both in
meaning and style.
The answers to questions number one and number two have been derived
from the study on the theories on translation. The answer to the third question has
been the result of the analysis on the data of the translation product of Pahlawan-
Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik from the ST Young Heroes:
The Indonesian Family in Politics.
From several models of translation processes, it can be concluded that the
process of translation is the process of information processing. The
psychological nature of translation process is the transfer of meaning. The
translator needs to discover the meaning of the ST and re-express the meaning in
the TL. The process involves syntactic, semantic and pragmatic analyzers, which
continues with syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic synthesizers. It is possible for
some stages to be passed through very quickly, for example in the Frequent
Structure Store and Frequent Lexis Store. The norm for the process is a
combination of bottom-up and top-down. On the methodological level, Bathgate
(in Widyamartaya, 1989:40-41) describes the translation process into seven steps,
namely tuning, analysis, understanding, terminology, restructuring, checking, and
discussion.
The nature of English to Indonesian translation can be concluded as
follows.
1. English and Indonesian have some differences in grammatical aspects, among
others are the use tenses and aspects, verb agreement/ concord with the
Subject, use of pronouns, relative pronouns, singular and plural markers of
noun phrases, use of articles, positions of conjuncts, and meanings of
conjunctions
2. Some problems in socio-political-cultural aspects include some daily
expressions, idioms, fixed expressions, and use of measurements.
3. Understanding the nature of the differences between the SL and the TL, a
translator will be able to anticipate problems that may arise from the
differences.
The results of the analysis on the translation product show that the
translation of Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics into Pahlawan-
Pahlawan Belia: Keluarga Indonesia dalam Politik can be considered good for
the following reasons.
1. Meaning or message has been the main focus rather than the forms. The
translator is not too much tied up with the literal words and phrases. For a
better understanding, many reformulations of the sentences have been done.
2. Easy reading has been tempted by cutting very long sentences into shorter and
precise ones. The translator has taken into account the consideration that the
TT is a popular reading.
3. Most of the translation losses have been for some purposes such as to avoid
lengthy repetition, to make the sentence more precise, to avoid unexpected
misinterpretation of some phrases. The translation losses have been mostly
for understandable reasons and there are no significant meaning biases that
have changed or destroyed the main message of the ST.
4. Machali’s description of good translation can be used to describe the result of
the analysis of the data in this study: Basically there is no distortion of
meaning. There are some inappropriate literal translations, grammatical and
idiomatic mistakes but less than 15% of the whole text. There are one or two
uses of non-standard terms and spelling errors.” (Machali, 2000:120)
At the end of the discussion on the theories on translation, it is worthwhile
to remind translators that in translation, translators have some missions to
accomplish. Benjamin (1968:76) mentions that the task of the translator consists
in finding that intended effect (intention) upon the language into which he is
translating which produces in it the echo of the original. The results of the
analysis on the translation product can provide an example how the translators
have been able to produce the echoes of the ST in the TT.
Siegel (1986:7) emphasizes the responsibility of a translator because
translation can sustain a culture as well as stifle it. Sontag (2002:340-341)
mentions briefly three variants of the modern idea of translation, which may help
translators to see what their missions are. First, translation is as explanation.
Second, translation is as adaptation. Third, translation is as improvement. This
opinion gives the emphasis on the importance of meaning and communicative
effect of translation.
It can be stated as a closing remark that many studies have resulted in
many theories on translation and on translators. Some existing theories of
translation, however, should not be seen as the solution to all problems in
translation. As Beaugrande (Beaugrande in Bell, 1997:23) said it is inappropriate
to expect that a theoretical model of translation should solve all the problems a
translator encounters. Instead, according to him, it should formulate a set of
strategies for approaching problems and for coordinating the different aspects
entailed. In other words, translation theory is reoriented towards description,
whether of process or product, and away from prescription.
B. Suggestions
There are some suggestions for further study and for teachers, which are
listed as follows.
1. Students of translation classes should be well informed about the procedure in
the class and the criteria for assessment so that they know what they are
expected to do. Students need to understand that translation is not a one-punch
work or an instant process. Understanding some translation theories and
getting themselves actively involved in practice and discussions are needed to
lead them to improve their skills better.
2. There are many approaches to translation that bring about different methods in
the translation process and techniques for teaching translation. Further studies
can be done to discuss the approaches in more details and provide examples
for the application of each of the approaches. A more concrete description of
the approaches can be done by providing the description of the procedures
better.
3. Apart from the parts lost, there are many parts added, particularly in the form
of additional phrases, by the translator. Another form of addition is the
picture of the advertisement on page 107 in Pahlawan-Pahlawan Belia. This
way, the translator applies the technique of translation by illustration, that is
the picture is shown. Additional phrases to build coherence between
sentences and paragraphs can provide another interesting list of data. A
further study is required to discuss them.
4. The analysis on this study has been done mainly on the semantic and syntactic
aspects. There are only a few cases that require pragmatic considerations or
involve socio-political-cultural aspects. Another study with other sources of
data can focus on the translation of expressions like “You are impossible!” or
the way people say, for example, “Josephine Baker!” which implies calling
someone’s full name to express annoyance. Further study can involve
collecting more data to provide evidence how translators have considered the
target readers, for example, by choosing the song “Tik…tik…tik… bunyi hujan
di atas genting” in the comic book Asterix.
5. A discussion on the developments in translation by computer programs can
also be an interesting topic for further study.
6. Another part, which has not been discussed thoroughly, is the discussion on
the contribution of postcolonial studies to translation. This study provides
only a general overview, especially in the discussion of relexification in the
problems in English to Indonesian translation (Chapter II). Further studies are
required to provide a more comprehensive discussion as Gandhi (1998:viii)
said that in the last decade, post-colonialism has taken its place with theories
such post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and feminism as a major critical
discourse in the humanities.
7. There are many academic books on Indonesian cultures and societies, which
are written by non-Indonesian scholars and experts at Indonesian studies. The
translators of such books, which are similar to Shiraishi’s Young Heroes: The
Indonesian Family in Politics can benefit by looking more thoroughly at the
examples of the translation of phrases and sentences in this study.
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