Poetry is the most compressed form of literature books may describe thousands of objects with thousands words, but poetries describe thousand of objects
with fear words only. It is written in sentence. Therefore, the way to understand poetry may be more complicated than that to understand a book.
The definition above proves that poetry translation must give the best result; both in the content and form because poetry presents the thing in order to convey a
feeling, a behavior, and a view of life as well as itself. Moreover, poetry has several elements universal, culture, personal sources, so that the translator of poetry cannot
make any concession to the reader such as transferring the foreign culture to native equivalence. Besides, Sayogie adds that poetry translation has double jobs; rendering
messages and forms must be reliable. It means that translation in poetry refers to deliver messages as the SL does.
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There are two elements in literary works, especially in poetry. There are an art and expression. In poetry, the art does not only achieve through diction, but the writer
produce rhythms, tones and significant emotions by particular expression. Furthermore, what the writer writes is not based on grammar.
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Frans Sayogie, Teori dan Praktek Penerjemahan Jakarta: Pustaka Anak Negeri, 2009, p.212
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Zuchridin Suryawinata Sugeng Hariyanto, Bahasa Teori dan Penuntun Praktis Menerjemahkan Yogyakarta: Penerbit Knaisius, 2003, p. 159
2. Poetry Translation Approaches
Newmark adds that there are many steps to translate poetry easily. The first, the translator decides to choose a TL poetic form viz. sonnet, ballad, quatrain, blank
verse etc. as close as possible 10 that of the SL, Although the rhyming scheme is part of the form, its precise order may have to be dropped. Secondly, the translator will
reproduce the figurative meaning, the concrete images of the poem. Lastly the setting, or sound-effect must be considered. The translator may use these steps to apply in
translating a text and also have to choose language poetic form in order to easy translating.
In other sides, Hilaire Belloc in Basnet also laid down six general rules for the translator prose text:
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1. The translator should not „plod on‟, word by word or sentence by sentence,
but should „always “block out” his work‟. By „block out‟ Belloc means that the translator should consider the work as an integral unit and translate in
sections, asking him self „before each what the whole sense is has to render‟. 2.
The translator should render idiom by idiom and idioms of their nature demand translation into another form that of the original.
3. The translator must render „intention by intention‟, bearing mind that; the
intention of a phrase in one language may be less emphatic than the form of the phrase or it may be more emphatic. By „intention‟, Belloc seems to be
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Susan Basnet, Translation Studies Third Edition New York: Rouledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2002, pp. 116-117.
talking about the weight a given expression may be in a particular context in the SL that would be disproportionate if translate literary into the TL. He
quotes several examples where the weighting of the phrase in the SL is clearly much stronger or weaker than the literal TL translation, and points out that in
the translation of „intention‟, it is often necessary to add words not in the original to conform to the idiom of one‟s own tongue.
4. Belloc warns against the words or structures that may appear to correspond in
both SL and TL but actually do not. 5.
The translator is advised to “transmute‟ boldly and Belloc suggests that the essence of translating is „the resurrection of an alien thing in a native body‟.
6. The translator should never embellish.
From general rules above, Belloc wants to stress that translator in literary work especially in poetry must consider that a text is whole thing and is never
separated. He also admits that the translator also must be a person who makes faithful translation in the SL. Furthermore, translators can also add or reduce words in
original text when translating in order to the result of translation can be suitable with the messages and style rules SL. Finally, translation poetry should render its meaning,
and then its style. Although so many people are opposed poetry translation, the translation of
poetry into the other languages still continues. The translation of poetry is the field where most emphasis is normally put on the creation of a new independent poem, and
where literal translation is usually condemned. In short, the translation of poetry need something more than translating other genres of literature.
3. Translating the Literary Works
Basically, poetry translation should be semantic translation for a poem is typically 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, expression, and sounds; while the socio-cultural problems arise when the translator translates
expression containing the four major cultural categories: ideas, ecology, behavior, and products.
Translation 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, metaphor, etc; while the expressive function
shall put forwards the writer s thought or process of thought, emotion, etc, and the translator should try, at this best , to transfer the specific values into the TL. As one
genre literature, poetry has something special compared to the others.
