Introduction to Translation

INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION

Again, I’m very glad to still have a chance to share information for you. 

Is there anyone here interested in being a translator? Or are you looking for some references about intro to translation (if you are still studying... J)

Well, this time, I’d like to discuss a bit more about introduction to translation. Right below, I am going to show the description of source text (ST) and target text (TT) as one of the famous terms in translation techniques. For you who have already a good deal with literature, you might be also familiar with some translation techniques such as translating by a more neutral/less expressive word, translating by paraphrase using unrelated word, translating by a more general word, etc. I provide the examples of translation analysis in texts or news.

1.      TEXT ANALYSIS

Introduction

As we will later discuss in this analysis, we will focus on analyzing the news which has been translated into Indonesian. The source text is in English used in the web, BBC NEWS as a global rated site that most people visit. It provides many news and articles from around the world. The target text is Indonesian which is translated by one of the Indonesian sites Liputanislam.com. We will discuss how the languages are translated to provide the information for different readers.

The term that we discuss is the appropiateness of the source text (English) and the target text (Indonesia), what techniques are used, how it is translated into the other language, and how the message is transfered through the translation.

No.	Source Text	Target Text
1.	North Korea hit by 'worst drought in a century' Wednesday 17 June 2015 08.49 North Korea says it is facing its worst drought in a century, sparking fears of worsening food shortages.	Korea Utara menghadapi kekeringan terburuk  Rabu 17 Juni 2015 17.27 Pemerintah Korea Utara (Korut) mengakui negaranya tengah menghadapi kekeringan terburuk dalam seabad terakhir, memicu kekhawatiran terjadinya kekurangan makanan di negara itu. Seperti dilansir BBC News, Rabu (17/6), kantor berita
2.	State news agency KCNA said main rice-growing provinces had been badly affected and more than 30% of rice paddies were "parching up".	Korut KCNA melaporkan bahwa wilayah-wilayah penghasil beras telah terkena dampak buruk kekeringan dan lebih dari 30% tanaman padi yang ditanam terancam mati karena kekeringan.
3.	Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are believed to have died during a widespread famine in the 1990s.	Ratusan ribu warga Korut diyakini menderita kelaparan akibat musim kering yang menggagalkan produksi pertanian tahun 1990-an.
4.	This drought is unlikely to be as deadly because of recent agricultural reforms, correspondents say.	Namun, musim kering kali ini diperkirakan tidak akan seburuk kala itu, setelah pemerintah melakukan sejumlah reformasi pertanian. Demikian laporan KCNAmenyebutkan.
5.	It is unusual for North Korea to talk openly of its shortages so the very appearance of the report in state media is significant.	Pernyataan yang disampaikan pemerintah melalui KCNA ini menjadi sesuatu yang janggal, mengingat selama ini pemerintah sangat tertutup tentang hal-hal buruk yang terjadi di negara itu.
6.	It indicates the situation is serious, and it may well indicate that North Korea wants outside help.	BBC menyebut hal itu mengindikasikan masalah yang dihadapi Korut sangat serius dan pemerintah membutuhkan bantuan internasional.
7.	Denmark's ambassador to North and South Korea, Thomas Lehman, told Reuters that he had visited drought-hit areas in the North in May. "The lack of water has created a lot of damage to the so-called spring crop, and the rice planting is extremely difficult without sufficient water," he said.	Kekeringan di Korut tersebut juga dikonfirmasi oleh pernyataan Dubes Denmark untuk Korea Selatan dan Korea Utara Thomas Lehman kepada Reuters. Mengaku telah mengunjungi wilayah-wilayah yang dilanda kekeringan pada bulan Mei lalu, ia mengatakan: “Kekurangan air telah membuat banyak kerusakan atas apa yang disebut dengan tanaman musim semi, dan penanaman padi menjadi sangat sulit dengan jumlah air yang tidak mencukupi
8.	Last year the country saw its lowest rainfall in 30 years.	Tahun lalu Korut mengalami musim kering terburuk dalam 30 tahun. Demikian BBC melaporkan.
	http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33160768	http://liputanislam.com/berita/korea-utara-akui-tengah-menghadapi-kekeringan-terburuk/

Discussion

As the news is from the international site, it provides alot of  information around the world. In this part, we discuss the news ‘North Korea Hit By Worst Drought In A Century’ taken from BBC News. First, We then discuss the sentences which are translated in Indonesian by Liputanislam.com. In terms of clasifying the chategories, we use the theories from Vinay and Darbelnet’s Model and Catford and Translation ‘Shift’.  Here are the words which are randomly taken to be clasified into some chategories.

 

ST	TT	Chategory	Note
Says	Mengakui	Modulation
Said	Melaporkan	Modulation
Been badly affected	Terkena dampak buruk	Class shifts	The word ‘bad’ (adj) changes to badly (adv)
rice paddies were parching up	tanaman padi yang ditanam terancam mati karena kekeringan.	Modulation
to have died during a widespread famine in the 1990s	menderita kelaparan akibat musim kering yang menggagalkan produksi pertanian tahun 1990-an	Modulation
This drought is unlikely to be as deadly because of recent agricultural reforms	musim kering kali ini diperkirakan tidak akan seburuk kala itu, setelah pemerintah melakukan sejumlah reformasi pertanian	Level shift	Tidak akan seburuk is used instead of tidak seburuk
It is unusual for North Korea to talk openly of its shortages so the very appearance of the report in state media is significant.	Pernyataan yang disampaikan pemerintah melalui KCNA ini menjadi sesuatu yang janggal, mengingat selama ini pemerintah sangat tertutup tentang hal-hal buruk yang terjadi di negara itu.	Modulation
rice planting	penanaman padi	Structural shift	Penanaman padi is used instead of padi penanaman
without sufficient water	dengan jumlah air yang tidak mencukupi	Structural shift
saw	mengalami	Modulation

Based on the book, In Other Words (Mona Baker, 1992:26) about  strategies used by profesional translators, we also notice some techniques used in translating the sentences in order to still carry the message well. Now take a look at the discussion below.

In the sentence 1 uses translating by a more neutral/less expressive word. The translator opteds for a more general word in the TT. For example, mengakui in the TT is used to translate says, instead of using mengatakan. The technique used is translating by a more neutral/less expressive word.

In the sentence 2, the translator uses Translation by paraphrase using unrelated word. We see how the words rice-growing provinces had been badly affected are translated into wilayah-wilayah penghasil beras telah terkena dampak buruk kekeringan. Since the consept of the ST is not lexicalizerd well, the translator modifies the words to keep the message. The same happens to the sentence This drought is unlikely to be as deadly because of recent agricultural reforms which is then translated to Namun, musim kering kali ini diperkirakan tidak akan seburuk kala itu, setelah pemerintah melakukan sejumlah reformasi pertanian.

In the sentence 3, the technique used is Translation by a more general word. It is shown in the words have died during a widespread famine which is translated to menderita kelaparan akibat musim kering yang menggagalkan produksi pertanian tahun 1990-an. The use of  the superordinate word, menderita will create the general meaning and meet the intended information.

In the sentence 4, the translator uses translation by paraphrase using unrelated word. As we can see, if the words unlikely to be as deadly because of recent agricultural reforms  are literally translated, the translation will be tidak mungkin semematikan karena reformasi pertanian terbaru. But, since it brings uncompleted meanings, the translator pharaprases the words to be diperkirakan tidak akan seburuk kala itu, setelah pemerintah melakukan sejumlah reformasi pertanian.

In the sentence 5, we see the significant different in the position of the noun phares. Let’s see the sentence below,

ST: It is unusual for North Korea to talk openly of its shortages so the very appearance of the report in state media is significant TT: Pernyataan yang disampaikan pemerintah melalui KCNA ini menjadi sesuatu yang janggal, mengingat selama ini pemerintah sangat tertutup tentang hal-hal buruk yang terjadi di negara itu. Back translation: the question which is stated by the goverment through KCNA becomes an unusual thing, ...

English has a specific rule called ‘it impersonal’ which has no reference to anything. However, Indonesian rarely uses that rule. So in this sentence, the translator changes the position of the subject. The technique used is translation by paraphrase using a related word.

In the sentence 7, we find the words which are translated using tecnique paraphrasing the related word. The words without sufficient water actually means tanpa air yang cukup. But then it is translated to be dengan jumlah air yang tidak mencukupi.

In the sentence 8, we might see that the translator also paraphrases and ommits some words as well. We call these as translation by paraphrase unrelated word and translation by omission. The words saw its lowest rainfall  literally means melihat hujan terendahnya. But since, the meaning feels strange, the translator paraphrases with the different words but they are still meanifully related . in addition, there is also an omission word, which is its. As the result, the translation in the TT becomes mengalami musim kering terburuk .

REFERENCES:

Aalborg University. 2010. Translation strategies I: methods and procedures, (http:// www.hum.aau.dk/~kim/BoT10/bot5.pdf), retrieved on 9 April 2015.

Baker, M. 1992. In Other Word; a coursebook on translation. Roudledge: London.

BBC.COM. 2015. North Korea hit by 'worst drought in a century'. http://www.bbc.com/news/ world-asia-33160768, retrieved on 17 June 2015.

Cambrigde. 2008. Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary; Thirth edition. Cambridge University Press: United Kingdom.

Liputanislam.com. 2015. Korea Utara Akui Tengah Menghadapi Kekeringan Terburuk, http://liputanislam.com/berita/korea-utara-akui-tengah-menghadapi-kekeringan-terburuk/, retrieved on 17 June 2015.

Munday, J. 2001. Introducting Translation Studies: Theories and Application. Routledge: New York.

They are all the examples of translation techniques. I do recommend Mona Baker’s book “In Other Word; a coursebook on translation” to help you provide information about introduction to translation subject.

I’m looking forward to having any comments and questions from you all. Thanks for visiting, perhaps this will help you. J