2025/1 Translation

In addition to lexical and grammatical differences, translation is problematic when it comes to cultural differences. Cultural differences refer to differences of world view which are reflected in the language. Idioms are frozen patterns of language which allow little or no variation in form and often carry meanings which cannot be deduced from their individual components. Unless consciously making a joke or playing on words, a speaker or writer cannot normally do the following with an idiom: 

 a. change the order of the words in it (*like two pods in a pea)  It should be: “like two peas in a pod.” 

 b. delete a word from it (*spills beans)  “spill the beans.” 

 c. add a word from it (“to face the classical music)  “to face the music” 

 d. replace a word with another (*bury a hatchet)  bury the hatchet.” 

 e. change its grammatical structure (*the music was faced)  “to face the music.” 

 The main problems that idiomatic and fixed expressions pose in translation relate to two main areas: the ability to recognize and interpret an idiom correctly. As there are various types of idioms, some are more recognizable than others. Those which are easily recognizable include expressions which violate truth conditions such as It’s raining cats and dogs, throw caution to the winds, storm in a tea cup, jump down someone’s throat, etc. Expressions which start with like (simile-like structures) also tend to suggest that they should not be interpreted literally. 

 Two cases of misinterpretation: 

 1. Some idioms are misleading. They seem transparent because they offer a reasonable literal interpretation and their idiomatic meanings are not necessarily signaled in the surrounding text. For example: go out with (have a romantic or sexual relationship with someone), and take someone for a ride (deceive someone in some way). A translator who is not familiar with the idiom in question may easily accept the literal interpretation and miss the play on idiom. 

 2. An idiom in the source language may have a very close counterpart idiom in the target language which looks similar on the surface but has a totally or partially different meaning. For example: the idiomatic question Has the cat got your tongue? is used to urge someone to answer a question or to contribute to a conversation. Indonesian: Apakah lidahmu kelu? 

The difficulties in translating idioms 

 1. An idiom or fixed expression may have no equivalent in the target language. It is culture-specific, and therefore untranslatable. For example: Yours sincerely is translated into Dengan hormat; to carry coals to Newcastle is translated into menggarami air laut. 

 2. An idiom or fixed expression may have a similar counterpart in the target language, but its context of use may be different. “To sing a different tune” is an English idiom which means “to say or do something that signals a change in opinion because it contradicts what one has said or done before”. In Chinese the same ‘to sing different tunes’ (chang-dui-tai-xi) means contradictory points of view but has quite a different usage”. (Baker, 1988) 

 3. An idiom may be used in the source text in both its literal and idiomatic senses at the same time. For example: “to find the needle in the haystack” -> mencari jarum di tumpukan jerami. 

 4. The 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. Using idioms is a matter of style. In translating novels, idioms are replaced with idioms in the target language. In translating non-literary texts, idioms are not necessarily be translated into idioms. 

 Sometimes, we are tempted to find the keywords meja, hijau, susu, tuba, cucuran atap, pelimbahan, dayung, pulau, etc in the Indonesian-English dictionary and we curse under our breath in desperation for not finding the meaning of the idiom. Of course! In fact, the English versions of these idiomatic expressions are not semantically related to those words in Bahasa Indonesia. Idioms (Beekman and Callow, 1974: 121) in Larson (1984:125) are expressions of ‘at least two words which cannot be understood literally and which function as a unit semantically’. Larson points out that the sensitivity in using idioms in the receptor language naturally is very crucial to help him make the translation agile and maintain the style of the source language (1984: 126). An idiom is shortly defined as an expression whose meaning does not seem to follow logically from the combination of the meaning of its parts. There are different types of idioms. 

 1. Lexemic idioms: 

Verbal: get away, go on Noun: hot dog Adjective: salt and pepper Adverbial: like a breeze 

 2. Idiomatic pairs Peace and quiet, safe and sound, on and off, up and down, read and weep, etc. 

 3. Phraseological Idioms To kick the bucket, to be caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, to be off one’s rocker, etc. 

 4. Proverbial idioms Don’t count your chicken before they’re hatched, don’t wash your dirty linen in public, the early bird catches the worm, etc. 

 5. One-word idioms Lemon, yellow, chicken, looney, jerk, bitch, hip, lousy, heart-throb, etc. So, how to translate idioms? Either from English to Indonesia or the other way around. All idioms have underlying meaning, so they can’t be interpreted literally. Even when using seemingly common phrases, we may think we are saying one thing, but another person who is unfamiliar with the language might think we are saying something else. For these reasons, when idioms are translated word for word from one language to another, they often do not make sense. Therefore, in translation, if we want people to understand the meaning of the original idiom in the source language, we have to find an accurate way to state that meaning of the idiom in the target language. All languages have idioms, i.e. a string of words whose meaning is different from the meaning conveyed by the individual words. In Indonesian, to say that someone has ‘kepala batu’ means that the person is ‘stubborn’. The meaning has nothing to do with stone (batu) or head (kepala). Languages abound in such idioms. The following are a few English idioms using into and in: run into debt, jump into a fight, wade into adversity, stumble into acquaintance, fall in love, in and out. A few Indonesian idioms are: membabi buta, mata-mata, menggantang asap, bagai katak dalam tempurung, etc. A literal word-for-word translation of these idioms into other languages will not make sense. The form cannot be kept, but the target language word or phrase which has the equivalent meaning will be the correct one to use in the translation.