2025/1 Translation

Translation process involves transferring the smallest units of translation from the source text to the target text. Thus, the translator’s task is to determine the smallest units to be translated, at different levels at which the equivalence is sought. Meaning can be carried in different levels or hierarchy. The language hierarchy is as follows:

 phoneme  morpheme  word  phrase  clause  sentence  text

Translation at the phoneme level is often done when translating proper name or geographical name, for example France is often transliterated into Perancis in Indonesian. Jakarta is often pronounced as [ʤəka:tə] in English.

Morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning. Morpheme in ST sometimes has equivalent in the TT, e.g. “nonprofit” nirlaba; “self-sufficient” swasembada; “prehistory” prasejarah. Some do not have one-to-one equivalent, especially the inflectional morphemes, i.e. – ing, -ed, -es, etc

Translation at the word level is the common norm in translating. e.g. Yesterday he came here. Kemarin ia datang kemari.

When the sentence is simple, it will be easy to translate at the level of word. However, sometimes translation must be done in a higher level, i.e. phrases, because meaning cannot be understood at the word level. For example, “Let’s go dutch”, which means Yuk makan tapi bayar sendiri-sendiri.

The typical examples of translation at this level usually deal with idiomatic expressions, e.g. a fly in the ointment ------ rintangan kecil A drop in the bucket ------ setetes air di lautan The salt of the earth ------ putra terbaik

Non idiomatic phrases in Indonesian usually have different word order from that of English. English phrases usually have adjective + noun order, whereas Indonesian phrases have noun + adjective order. For example:

1 Severe       2 Acute       3 Respiratory       4 Syndrome

It’s important for translators to remember this difference when translating NOUN PHRASES from and to Indonesian.

When phrases are not the smallest unit of translation, translators must seek equivalence at sentence level. Compare the translation of these sentences, taken from Kamus Inggris-Indonesia by John M. Echols and Hassan Shadily.

Birds of a feather flock together. Rasam minyak ke minyak, rasam air ke air. 

To kill two birds with one stone. Sekali merengkuh dayung, dua tiga pulau terlampaui.

Usually translation at the sentence level deals with proverbs and fixed expressions, such as “Many happy returns of the day” -- Selamat ulang tahun. However, some non-idiomatic expressions must also be translated at this level, e.g. “Do not imagine such vain things” --- Jangan begitu naif; “Will you leave a message?” --- Apa yang harus saya sampaikan kepadanya?

At this level, the unit of translation is the text as a whole. The example of this is the translation of prose and poetry. Sometimes, a word or a sentence cannot be understood in isolation without looking at the text. The poem by below may well exemplify the point.

And turned me round to hide the flood Dari bulu mata

 That in my een was swelling  Kujatuhkan tetesan air mata.

Wi’ altered voice, Dan, dengan mengubah suara, 

quoth I, Sweet Lass, Kuajukan pertanyaan pada seorang dara, 

 Sweet as yon hawthorn blossom Yang mana, aku sendiri tidak tahu

 O! happy, Kemudian aku berkata: kau lebih cerah

 happy may be, Dari pada hari yang indah,

 That’s dearest to thy bosom.  Dan yang paling bahagia ialah Yang paling mahal bagimu.  (Taken from Moentaha, 2008:43) 

 The unit of translation in the poem above is the text. Although there is no one-to-one equivalent between the form of ST and TT, the content of the poem in the ST is equivalent with that of the TT.