101
TT: Now he sits in lotus position
on a bench in the city park in meditation, maybe
maybe I don’t know because he said
“In Viet Nam there are no dead There is no Nam, there are no dead”
Picture of A City Park for Allen Ginsberg, On Foreign Shores, p.
117 In the TT, McGlynn translates the word bersila into a TL term in lotus
position. Both terms indicates a sitting posture acted by the character in the poem. The term lotus position, or also known as, lotus posture refers to “
a cross-legged position
for meditation,
with the
feet resting
on the
thighs” http:www.oxforddictionaries.comdefinitionenglishlotus-position
. This word accommodates TL readers to understand the original meaning of which. By using
TL cultural word to replace cultural word, McGlynn has already employed cultural equivalence Newmark, 1988: 82-83, or adaptation in Vinay and
Darbelnet’s model 1958, as cited in Machali, 2000: 6. Cultural equivalence is used three times in translating culture-specific
terms in On Foreign Shores. This procedure is used to translate one material culture term, one social culture term, and one gesture and habit term. The
distribution of this procedure can be seen in Table 4.8.
Table 4.8. The Use of Cultural Equivalence Procedure
No ST
TT Category
1 Kopiah
Suryadi’s Central Park, p. 164 Miter
Central Park, p. 165 Material Culture
2 Sabung ayam
Nadjira’s Sepasang Turis, p. 138
Cockfights A Tourist Couple, p. 139
Social Culture 3
Bersila Mohamad’s Potret Taman
untuk Allen Ginsberg, p. 116 In lotus position
Picture of A City Park for Allen Ginsberg, p. 117
Gestures and Habits
102
3. Descriptive Equivalence
The researcher found out that descriptive equivalence procedure is used once to translate culture-specific terms in On Foreign Shores. Descriptive
equivalence itself gives description to find an equivalence of SL words to TL Newmark, 1988:84. This procedure is used to translate a culture-specific term
which belongs to the category of gestures and habits. a. Procedures to translate ongkang-ongkang in Surachman’s Hari Tua Mister
Gilbert The term ongkang-ongkang refers to a local body movement in Indonesia
associated to relaxing position. This movement involves an act of dangling legs while sitting See Page 67-68. As a local body movement, this term belongs to
the category of gestures and habits of culture-specific term Newmark, 1988: 102. In the ST, the occurrence of the term ongkang-ongkang can be seen in the
following fragment.
ST: ...
Dan kau sendiri Gilbert Kau cuma
ongkang-ongkang dan goyang kaki dan tak pernah mau
punya istri. Surachman’s Hari Tua Mister Gilbert, On Foreign Shores, p. 66
In the ST, it can be concluded from that Gilbert only loves to relax and to have no burdens in his life. The reference of ongkang-ongkang can be seen in
what activities Gilbert always do—ongkang-ongkang, dangling his legs and
103 rocking them as well as persisting on having no wife. This gesture is not known
and practiced in the TL culture, yet it can be described. Therefore, McGlynn gives a description to find the its equivalence in the TL as seen in the this fragment.
TT: ...
And you yourself Mr. Gilbert?
dangling your legs and twiddling your thumbs
a man who never wanted a wife. The Last Days of Old Man Gilbert, On Foreign Shores, p. 67
In the TT, the term ongkang-ongkang is translated by describing it as an act of dangling legs in the clause dangling your legs. By giving description of a
term and sometimes providing additional information about it to find an equivalence of SL words to TL, a descriptive equivalence procedure is conducted
Newmark, 1988: 102-103. Thus, the act of giving description done by McGlynn has already employed this procedure.
Terms that do not have cultural equivalence or barely have functional concepts in the TL are usually described with words known in the TL culture.
Furthermore, Newmark 1988: 84 states that description is also essential in explanation and translation of cultural word. Therefore, this procedure is
applicable. In this research, the researcher found out that descriptive equivalence is
used once. This procedure is used to translate a culture-specific term which belongs to the category of gestures and habits. The distribution of how descriptive
equivalence is used can be seen in Table 4.9.
104
Table 4.9. The Use of Descriptive Equivalence Procedure
No ST
TT Category
1 Ongkang-ongkang
Surachman’s Hari Tua Mister Gilbert, p. 66
Dangling your legs The Last Days of Old Man
Gilbert, p. 67 Gesture and Habit
4. Transference
Transference is commonly known as loan word. Based on Newmark 1988:82, it is the process of transferring a SL word to a TL text as a translation
procedure. In this research, the researcher discovered one employment of transference to translate a culture-specific term which belongs to ecology term.
a. Procedure to translate bengawan in Surachman’s Sajak-Sajak dari Solarium The same as the word kijang, the word bengawan is also found in the
fifth segment of Surachman’s Sajak-Sajak dari Solarium. Along with other geographical objects, this word refers to one of the scenery seen in a nature trip.
The term bengawan in the ST can be seen in the fragment below.
ST: Ladang. Kota. Ladang. Kota
Bukit. Hutan buatan dan pina. Lembah. Bengawan. Lembah. Bengawan.
Tunnel. Kanal dan pelabuhan.
Surachman’s Sajak-Sajak dari Solarium, On Foreign Shores, p. 58
The word bengawan in that fragment refers to a geographical object which in the previous discussion see page 52 is defined as a kind of great river in the SL
culture. In Poems from the Solarium, the translation of Surachman’s Sajak-Sajak
dari Solarium, bengawan is partially altered as seen in the following fragment.
105
TT:
Fields. City. Fields. City. Hills. Man-made forests, pines.
A Valley. The Bengawan River. A Valley. The Bengawan. A tunnel. A canal. The port.
Poems from the Solarium, p. 59
The first bengawan word in the ST is translated into The Bengawan River, while the second bengawan word is translated into The Bengawan in the TT. Hence,
McGlynn translates both bengawan words by directly transferring them to the TT; therefore, he has applied transference proposed by Newmark 1988: 81.
The use of transference in this case is considerably appropriate. According to Newmark 1988: 82, transference normally transfers “geographical
and topographical” term known in particular culture. In addition, Newmark 1988 also exclaims that “cultural words are often transferred to give a local colour” and
“to give a sense of intimacy between the readers and the text” p. 82. Since bengawan is both geographical and cultural term in Indonesian culture, to transfer
it the way it looks in the TT is appropriate. The researcher found out that transference is used once in translating
culture-specific term in On Foreign Shores. This procedure is used to translate an ecology term. The distribution of the use of transference can be seen in Table
4.10.
Table 4.10. The Use of Transference
No ST
TT Category
1 Bengawan
Surachman’s Sajak-Sajak dari Solarium, p. 58
The Bengawan Poems from the Solarium, p.
59 Ecology
106
5. Reduction
Reduction deals with the omission of particular word from the translation. It is “practiced intuitively in some case and ad hoc in others”
Newmark, 1988: 90. This procedure is used for SL text which is impossible to be literally translated into TL. In this analysis, the researcher discovered that
reduction is used once to translate a social culture term. a. Procedure to translate pantun in Ismail’s Pantun Terang Bulan di Midwest
Pantun is a culture-specific term found in the title of Ismail’s Pantun Terang Bulan di Midwest, which is translated into Full Moon in the Midwest. In
the ST, the word pantun represents the form of the whole poem itself. The comparison between the occurrence of the word pantun in the ST and the TT can
be seen in the following fragment.
ST: Pantun Terang Bulan di Midwest
Ismail’s Pantun Terang Bulan di Midwest, p. 78
TT: _____ Full Moon in the Midwest
Full Moon in the Midwest, p. 79 The word pantun in the title of the ST refers to a kind of Indonesian
traditional poetry with unique rhyming patterns See Page 58-59. This word refers to what kind of poem Ismail’s Pantun Terang Bulan di Midwest is.
However, the word pantun is not translated in the TT; it is removed from the title and no meaning of it transferred into the TT. Therefore, the procedure which
allows this act is called reduction. According to Newmark 1988: 90, reduction is only used for SL text
which is impossible to be literally translated into TL. In the TT, the reduction of
