Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
By Sugeng Hariyanto,
Perum. Joyo Asri Blok X/157, RT 02 - RW 08,
State Polytechnic,
Malang, Indonesia 65144
translanguage@telkom.net
ABSTRACT
Basically, poetry translation should be semantic translation for a poem is
typically rich with aesthetic and expressive values. The translator may face the
linguistic, literary and aesthetic, and socio-cultural problems in translating it. The
linguistic problems include the collocation and obscured syntactic structure. The
aesthetic and literary problems are related with poetic structure, metaphorical
expressions, and sounds. While the socio-cultural problems arise when the
translator translates expressions containing the four major cultural categories:
ideas, ecology, behavior, and products. This article shows some basic
considerations on how to solve them.
Key words: translation, aesthetic values, expressive values, collocation, poetic
structure, metaphorical expression, sounds.
Sugeng HariyantoTranslating literary works is, perhaps, always more difficult
than translating other types of text because literary works have specific values
called the aesthetic and expressive values. The aesthetic function of the work
shall emphasize the beauty of the words (diction), figurative language,
metaphors, etc. While the expressive functions shall put forwards the writer's
thought (or process of thought), emotion, etc. And the translator should try, at
his best, to transfer these specific values into the target language (TL). As one
genre of literature, poetry has something special compared to the others. In a
poem, the beauty is not only achieved with the choice of words and figurative
language like in novels and short stories, but also with the creation of rhythm,
rhyme, meter, and specific expressions and structures that may not conform to
the ones of the daily language. In short, the translation of poetry needs
'something more' than translating other genres of literature. This simple writing
will present in brief some considerations in translating poetry.
translating a poem, one of the literary genres, the translator are also likely to
face similar problems.
1. Linguistic Problems
In term of linguistic factors, according to the writer, at least there are two points
to consider: collocation and obscured (non-standard) syntactical structures. The
word "collocation' used here refers to words or word groups with which a word or
words may typically combine. The combination may by syntagmatic or
horizontal, like make a speech (not say a speech), run a meeting (not do a
meeting), etc. Something to remember is in different languages the collocates
tend to be different. The Indonesian phrase for run a meeting is not melarikan
rapat but mengadakan rapat.
The other class of collocation is pragmatic or vertical. This consists of words
belonging to the same semantic field or be semantic opposite. Different from the
first class, the collocates in this class may be the same for several languages.
Land, sea, air are exactly the same as tanah, laut, udara.
Whatever the reason is, where there is an accepted collocation in the SL, the
translator must find and use its equivalent in the TL if it exists. But a closer
attention should also be paid to the collocation with similar form in the SL and
TL, but different meaning. See this line, for example:
I find you in every woods and gardens.
The words woods and garden are collocates, and the Indonesian equivalents are
very similar, hutan and kebun. Even the form is very much similar, the translator
must examine first whether the meaning is the same. As it is known, the word
woods in US is not exactly the same as hutan in Indonesia in term of the
characteristics, area, location, etc. In addition, garden is not always the same as
kebun. It may mean taman. The clear examination can only be done if the
translator understands the contextual meaning.
The second point to consider in term of linguistic matters is obscured (nonstandard) syntactic structures. Such kinds of structures may be intentionally
written in a poem as a part of the expressive function of the text. Hence, such
structures should be rendered as closely as possible.
The first step to deal with this problem is to find the deep (underlying) structure.
According to Newmark (1981: 116), the useful procedure is to find the logical
subject first, and then the specific verb. If the two important elements are
discovered, the rest will fall into place. After that the translator can reconstruct
the structure in the TL as closely as possible to the original structure. Besides,
the structure of each phrase or clause should be examined clearly also.
The next is translating a metaphor by simile, retaining the image in the SL. This
procedure can be used to modify any type of metaphor. The 'my life hangs on a
thread', with this procedure, can be translated into 'hidupku bagai tergantung
pada sehelai benang'.
And the rest of the procedures, translating metaphor (or simile) into simile plus
sense, conversing metaphor into sense, deleting unimportant metaphor, and
translating metaphor with some metaphors combined with sense, are not
considered appropriate for poetry translation.
The possible question arising now is 'how far a translator can modify the author's
metaphorical expressions?' It depends on the importance and expressiveness. If
the expressions are very expressive in term of the originality, the expressions
should be kept as close as possible to the original, in terms of object, image,
sense, and the metaphor.
And then what about the culturally-bound metaphors or expressions?
As it is known, there are two kinds of expressions: universal and culturally-bound
expressions. Universal expressions are the ones which consist of words having
the same semantic field with that of most cultures in the world. Engkaulah
matahariku, for example, is a universal expression for every culture sees the sun
as the source of light, source of energy, source of life. Therefore, the expression
can be simply transferred into 'You are my sun'.
See the example below. The poem in 2.a. is written by Sapardi Djoko Damono
and the translation in 2.b. is done by John. H. McGlynn. The expression "matahari
yang berteduh di bawah bunga-bunga" can be transferred directly. The
expression "ricik air yang membuat setiap jawaban tertunda" is modified slightly.
The metaphor "membuat (jawaban) tertunda" is changed into "postponing (each
and every answer)", which literally means "menunda (setiap jawab)"; here the
translator reproduces the same image in the TL, but does not transfer it directly.
2.a Taman Jepang, Honolulu
inikah ketentraman? Sebuah hutan kecil:
jalan setapak yang berbelit, matahari
yang berteduh di bawah bunga-bunga, ricik air
yang membuat setiap jawaban tertunda
(McGlynn, 1990: 100)
In other cases where sounds is not such important, he should try to maintain
them first in the TL before he decides not to transfer the sound into the TL. This
means he should try to keep the beauty of the sound where possible. In example
4.b, the translator tries to maintain the rhyme but still he puts meaning in the
first consideration.
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