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Meanwhile, Bell in his book Translation and Translating states that translation is “the expression in another language or target language of what has
been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences.” 1991: 5.
From those definitions, it can be concluded that translation is the replacement form of the SL to TL which has closest natural equivalent meaning of
the SL, rather than style, and it makes the TL readers have the same response to the text like the SL readers. In addition, when dealing with the translation, two
aspects should be taken into consideration: meaning and style. Although Nida prioritizes the meaning, the style can never be ignored altogether, as stated by
Bell. Arguing that stylistic is important, Bell also emphazises “the semantic equivalences”, whose accuracy can be traced via semantic properties shared by
both source and target language. Moreover, as pointed out by Nida, a good translation should receive
similar response from readers as that of the source language. This is emphasized by Larson who says that translation should be done naturally in order that the
target readers can feel the same way the source readers can.
2. Translation Accuracy
As stated by Munday in Introducing Translation Studies, Accuracy is the correct transfer of information and evidence of complete
comprehension; the appropriate choice of vocabulary, idiom, terminology and register; cohesion, coherence and organization; accuracy in technical
aspects of punctuation, etc. 2001:30
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Munday further elaborates that accuracy is related to “’faithfulness’, ‘spirit’ and ‘truth’” 2001: 30. The aspects stated by Munday, i.e. faithfulness,
spirit, and truth, represent the theories forwarded by the three translation theorists previously discussed. An accurate translation should be ‘faithful’ in terms of its
content not necessarily style, according to Nida, contain the ‘spirit’ the target readers should feel the same way the source readers should, pointed by Larson,
and convey the ‘truth’, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in semantic terms, it should share similar semantic properties, according to Bell.
In somewhat a loose definition, a text is called accurate when it gives the target readers the same response, like what is contained in the SL, to the text so
the target readers can get the ‘true’ message delivered. On the other side, the accuracy can be measured by finding the semantic
properties of the terms in question. This is possible since accuracy is “again ‘the very first requirement’…the translator should put this meaning into English [or
other target language] which will, so far as possible, produce the same impression in this case English language reader as the original would have done on the
appropriate foreign-language reader.” Munday, 2001: 31 In conclusion, comparing semantic properties can be a way to measure
translation accuracy.
3. Translation Readability
Elkins says that “readability is simply how easy a piece is to comprehend. This is the single most important characteristics of your manuscript.” 2001:3
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Tytler as quoted in Bell says that I would therefore describe a good translation to be, that in which the merit
of the original work is so completely transfused into another language, as to be as distinctly apprehended, and as strongly felt by a native of the
country to which that language belongs, as it is by those who speak the language of the original work 1991: 11.
A readable translation, still according to Tytler in Bell, 1991: 11, has to deliver the source text message and that the target text should gain the similar
response of the target readers as it does to source text readers. It can be concluded that the translation text can be easily comprehended by
the target readers, so that when the readers read the text, they feel like reading the original text, not the translation one.
What is so called readability of translation is introduced by Nord who says that “it is as a form of meditated intercultural communication which is done
intentionally and interpersonally” 1997: 81. A good translation is the one that “functions” well and thus it “must be intended for a specific purpose and for
specific readers” Nord, 1997: 20. Although Nord is rather emphasizing on the ‘function’ of the translation,
we cannot readily refuse the idea that the primary ‘function’ of a translation is to deliver the source text message, and consequently in order that the message can be
understood by the target readers, the translation should be readable. In that case, the translation is said to be able to cater its so-called ‘function’.
In assessing a translation work, a translation assessor should also consider the existence of the target language culture. It is not merely on the consideration
of the text readability in target readers’ culture, but also whether or not the applied
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readability value is suitable to the function or purpose of the translation text in its role as interlingual and intercommunity bridge.
4. Foreignized and Domesticated Translation
In his book Translation Invisibility, Venuti states that “foreignization entails choosing a foreign text and developing a translation method along lines
which are excluded by dominant cultural values in the target language.” 1995: 20 This is in line with what Hervey and Higgins call “exotic method”, whose
characteristics, among others, are closest to source culture, giving ‘exotic’ nuance to the target text, and leaving source culture untranslated 1992: 5.
In further discussion, Venuti pursues that the foreignized translation can also be used as a political strategy by some authorities to “brainwash the target
culture mind” with foreign cultures and terms, which in turn is internalized in the target readers. Although in the positive side, the foreignized translation can be
seen as a bridge to further mutual undertanding between two different cultures, such a hidden agenda should not be ignored.
Schleimercher in Venuti states that “foreignizing method is an ethnodeviant pressures on those values to register the linguistic and cultural
differences of the foreign text, sending the readers abroad” 1995: 20. This means that the target readers upon reading the ‘foreignized element’ in the translation
feel they are ‘abroad’, introduced with terms, cultures, aspects alien to their own. Examples of the foreignized method in the translation books can be found
in children books published by Gramedia Pustaka Utama. In Lima Sekawan series,
