2025/1 Translation

The relationship between language and culture that can be found in a translation task needs to be well understood by translators because translation is not only a matter of transferring one language into another but also the culture. Translators must comprehend those differences of cultural viewpoint in order to get good understanding of the source text and can translate it to the people who have different set of beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules. E.g. American address system – you= Bapak/ibu/saudara. 

 Translators should develop cultural sensitivity in order to translate correctly. Understanding culture does make a difference in translation. 

 1. Idiomatic Translation The meaning-based translation of the source language text in the natural forms of the receptor language will lead to a better result. Idiomatic translation (meaning-based) is the one that communicates the source language text’s meaning and in a natural form of the source language. The meaning should be held constant, not the form. A truly idiomatic translation does not sound like a translation, it sounds like it was written originally in the receptor language. 

 2. Meaning and shades of meaning A translator must first analyze the text in the source language carefully to transfer the equivalent meaning into receptor language. The translator must not only maintain the meaning, but also the shades of meaning. Sad = grief : sedih sad= sedih grief: kesedihan yang mendalam. 

3. Emotive meaning Transferring the same emotional effect can be challenging for translators since each culture has a different way of communicating. E.g. Now what? – Jadi bagaimana? I see – Saya paham kok. Yeah, right – Yah, terserahlah, How could you? – Teganya dirimu padaku! A good translator selects forms that communicate the same meaning and emotive meaning. Whichever form is chosen, it should communicate both the information and the emotion of the source language. 

 4. Phonology In translation, we may find phonological devices such as intonation patterns, stress or certain words, a change in tone, etc. Phonological devices are used to indicate prominence in oral material. The translator should identify the prominence in the source language first and then find the same devices in the receptor language which indicates unity and prominence. Each language has its own idiomatic way of expressing meaning through lexical items (words, phrases, etc). Languages abound in idioms, secondary meanings, metaphors, and other figurative meanings. Two things are necessary for a good translation – an adequate understanding of the source language (Bahasa Indonesia) and an adequate command of the language into which one is translating (the target language/English). A translator who takes time to study carefully the source language text, to write a semantic analysis of it, and then to look for the equivalent way in which the same message is expressed naturally in the target language, will be able to provide an adequate, and sometimes brilliant, translation. His goal must be to avoid literalism and to strive for a truly idiomatic target language text. In translating a fiction, there are a lot of idiomatic expressions as well as figurative languages, such as idiom, metonymy, personification, etc. Therefore, to determine the equivalent meaning, translators should analyze the idiomatic expressions carefully and recognize the types of each figurative language, such as metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification, euphemism, hyperbole, etc. Every translator must communicate not only the same information, but he must also attempt to evoke the same emotional response as the writers of the original attempted to evoke. A good translator must be aware of aspects such as idiomatic expressions, figurative language, connotation, collocation, undertranslation, overtranslation, different cultural background, etc.

Strategies in translating idioms 

 1. Using an idiom of similar meaning and form This strategy involves using an idiom in the target language which conveys roughly the same meaning as that of the source language idiom and in addition consists of equivalent lexical items. For example: “to find the needle in the haystack” -> mencari jarum di tumpukan jerami. 

2. Using idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form. For example: “like father like son” -> buah tidak jatuh jauh dari pohonnya 

3. Translation by paraphrase is done when a match cannot be found in the target language or when it seems that inappropriate to use idiomatic language in the target text because of differences in stylistic preferences of the source and target languages. E.g. “don’t count your chicken before they are hatched” 

 4. Translation by omission is done when the idiom has no match in the target language, its meaning cannot be easily paraphrased, or for stylistic reasons. It is omitted when the omission does not affect comprehensibility. 

 5. Strategy of compensation means that one may either omit or play down a feature such as idiomaticity at the point where it occurs in the source text and introduce it elsewhere in the target language. For example: English puns in Asterisk comic -> Lukanis Perbanikus etc.