The
Challenges of Translating an Ethnic Ritual Text of Mandailing
By: Syahron Lubis
Umar Mono
Linguistics
Postgraduate Program
Universitas
Sumatera Utara
ronlubis@yahoo.com
Abstract
The aim of the
study was to show how to translate a cultural text of Mandailing: a ritual text
recited at a wedding ceremony of the society, into English. Meaning-based
translation method had been applied to translate the text called mangupa. Due
to the vast linguistic differences between the source language (SL) (Mandailingnese)
and the target language (TL) (English) a number of linguistically-related
translation problems were encountered. And due to the great differences between
SL cultures and TL cultures a number of culturally-related translation problems
were found ranging from untranslatable items to items which could be translated
literally into the TL but need explanation. Since the text did not only consist
of prose text but also verses a various translation techniques must be used to
translate the 37 verses in order to achieve not only meaning equivalents but
also to create the rhymes of the translated verses. It was found that the
structure of phrases, compound words and sentences in the SL and the TL were so
different and thus caused translation problems. Subjects of sentences, numbers
and conjunctions which were sometimes implicit in the SL must be made explicit
in the translation. A certain word category in the SL might correspond to a
different word category in the TL and thus they caused shift. Since the mangupa
text is a classic text, there were many archaic words whose meanings were
untranslatable. Since tenses do not exist in the SL they caused special
translation problems to translate the text into the TL which has tenses. In
order to achieve the rhymes of the translated verses, the following translation
techniques must be used: transposition, addition, generalization, alteration,
explication, modulation, concretization and transcreation.
Key words: source language/text, target
language/text, equivalents, untranslatable, shifts, cultures
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The
relationship between language and culture is very close since language is part
of the culture it self. Language and culture are even inseparable. Furthermore
language is culture and culture is language. One cannot be understood unless
the other is understood. When people communicate verbally and nonverbally their
culture is embodied in their language (Kramsch, 1998: 3). The closeness of the
relationship between language and culture is sometimes likened to the two sides
of a single coin.
Translating is
process of transferring not only the meanings of Source Language (SL) into
Target Language (TL) but also the cultural meanings contained in the text being
translated. If only the linguistic meanings of the Source Text (ST) which are
transferred into the Target Text (TT) while the cultural meanings are ignored,
the translation will only be acceptable linguistically but will be unacceptable
culturally. Translating, for example a short English text: Julia mengawini
(married) Tom, suaminya (her husband) sepuluh tahun yang lalu (ten years ago)
is linguistically acceptable, but culturally unacceptable since in Indonesian
culture men and women are not in an equal position in terms of marriage. It is
a man who acts actively not a woman. Only by changing Julia as the object of
the verb married or by changing the active sentence into passive, then the
translation will be culturally acceptable in Indonesian culture.
English and
Mandailingnese are two distinct languages genealogically, typologically as well
as geographically. English belongs to Indo-European family, of
Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) word order, spoken mainly in western countries like
USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland (Crystal, 2001) by hundreds of millions of
speakers who adopt individualistic culture. In contrast, Mandailingnese is an
ethnic language of Indonesia that belongs to Austronesian family (Hartmann
& Stork, 1972) of VOS (Verb-ObjectSubject) word order spoken only by a
hundred thousand speakers in a small area of an eastern country who adopt
collectivistic culture. Thus it is assumed that anyone who is translating
English into Mandailingnese or from Mandailingnese into English must be faced
with not only linguistic problems but cultural problems as well.
The purpose of study
The purpose of
the study was to translate a text spoken by a skilled speaker to accompany part
of Mandailingnese wedding ceremony called text of mangupa (TM) into English and
to find out translation problems that may arise as linguistically and
culturally affected by both distinctness of the SL and the TL and to find
appropriate translation techniques to solve the problems so that the
translation could be expected readable and acceptable for English readers.
Research Method
1. Data
The data (the
text translated) was a written text of mangupa comprising 22 paragraphs and 37
verses. The mangupa ceremony was held in the groom’s house attended by members
of dalihan na tolu, the host and the people having the same clan as his
kahanggi, the side who gave the host wife, mora, and the side to whom the host
gave wife, anak boru. Mangupa is mainly a ceremony of giving advice to a newly
married couple. A skilled speaker gives the advice to the couple using things
like cooked chicken, boiled eggs, salt, cooked rice etc as the symbols of the
advice. For example, the yellow of the egg symbolizes gold. The married couple
is advised to collect gold/wealth as much as possible. Thus a mangupa text is
actually expressed orally but for the present study a written text (an oral
text which had been transcribed into written form) was used because the written
text is now available. And the suprasegmental elements contained in the oral
form, in the writer’s opinion, are not so relevant to the purpose of the
translation.
2. Translation Method
As mentioned previously the text translated
was one written in Mandailingnese and then translated into English. Both are
very distinct languages. Thus, the type of the translation used belongs to
inter-lingual translation. The ideal aim of translation of such type is to
achieve a translation which is accurate (without intentionally losing some
important information), readable (easy to read and understand) and acceptable (can
be accepted by the readers because the translation has conformed to their
cultural values). However such an ideal translation is not easy to achieve. A
translation whose purpose is to render the meaning of the text being translated
although the form of the translation is not similar to the form of the ST is
what is claimed by Larson as idiomatic translation (Larson, 1984:16) or
communicative translation by Newmark (1988 : 46). The idiomatic or
communicative translation method has been done to translate the TM.
3. Translation Procedures
Since
translation is commonly related to two aspects, i.e. the linguistic aspect and
the cultural aspect, the first thing done was to compare the linguistic
characteristics of English and Mandailingnese to see whether the two languages
are different in all aspects or are only different in some important aspects.
By knowing the differences of the SL and the TL translation problems could be
anticipated. Second, the two cultures were also compared to see whether a
translation of a sentence or an expression is acceptable linguistically but is
unacceptable culturally. After the two aspects had been compared, then the ST
was analyzed to see the genre of the text because a different text needs a
different translation approach to 3translate it. Then the translation process
passed through seven stops : 1) transfer of meaning of the ST to TT, 2) writing
the first draft, 3) revising the first draft and then writing the second draft,
4) evaluating the second draft, 5) writing the third draft, 6) reevaluating the
second draft and 7) writing the final draft. The translation procedures can be
seen in the diagram below.
Translation Procedures
Translation
evaluation was done by two people. The ST evaluation was done by an expert and
a native speaker of Mandailingnese and the TT evaluation was done by an expert
and a native speaker of English.
4. The Process of Translating TM and the
Problems Encountered
The TM which
consists of 22 paragraphs and 37 verses has been translated by the writer himself
and the following is the description how the translation was done and what techniques
had been used to solve the problems in order to achieve an accurate, readable
and acceptable translation. Unfortunately due the limited space, the complete
translation can not be included in this paper.
4.1 Problems Caused by Cultural Differences
The
translation problems caused by the differences of SL and TL cultures have been
distinguished into two, i.e. 1) untranslatable cultural terms and 2) literally
translatable but culturally untranslatable. The terms dalian na tolu,
kahanggi, anak boru, mora, harajaon, raja panusunan, uluan, and pantar paradaton
are some of the terms used in the text which do not have equivalents in English
and thus they are untranslatable. Let us see how they were left untranslated
and their meanings must be explained.
Parjolo (first ) au (I) marsantabi
(apologize) tu (to) barisan (row) ni (of) dalian na tolu, kahanggi, anak boru,
mora songon i (as well as) tu (to) barisan (row) ni (of) harajaon, sumurung
lobi (especially) tu (to) raja panusunan na (who) juguk (sit) di (on) uluan ni
(of) pantar paradaton on (this).
Translation:
First of all I
would like to apologize to dalihan na tolu, kahanggi, anak boru, mora as well
as harajaon particularly to raja panusunan who are all now sitting on the uluan
of this pantar paradaton. These cultural terms are untranslatable since
equivalents of those words are not found in English. The term kahanggi refers
to a group of people originating from the same ancestor.
Literally kahanggi means ‘brothers’. Anak boru
refers to one or a group of people who has got a wife from the kahanggi and
mora refers to one or a group of people from whom kahanggi has got a wife
(wives).
The three
sides form a social relation called dalihan na tolu. Dalihan na tolu is a metaphor
which literally means ‘fireplace made of three stones that supports a cooking
pot’. Raja panusunan, means the first person (king) who established the
village, uluan is part of the floor away from the entrance door of the
traditional house which is regarded as a respected place, and pantar paradaton
is a wide floor of the traditional house on which the event is held. Salleh
(2006) when translating Hikayat Hang Tuah, a Malay classic text left some
cultural terms untranslated like keris, raja, makan sirih. According to him
they can be translated literally into dagger, king, and eating betel
respectively but the cultural meanings contained in the words can not be
translated. Teylanyo (2007: 30) also suggests that such terms should not be
translated.
Some terms
could be easily translated because the equivalents of the words are available in
the TL but only the literal meaning that could be transferred while the
cultural meanings could not be transferred. The word amang, inang and
morsamtabli correspond to father, mother and to apologize in English. However
amang and inang here do not refer to one’s father and one’s mother but to one’s
son and daughter. English speakers do not call their son and daughter father
and mother but in Mandailingnese kinship system one’s son is equal to his/her
father and one’s daughter is equal to his/her mother. Thus one may call his/her
grandfather (elder) brother and his/her grandmother (elder) sister (Nasution,
2005). Let us see how the two words are used in the two verses below.
Dijujar
horambir poso
Mangihut
saludang na tobang
Tinggalkon ma
amang adat na poso
Madung sandang adat matobang
A young coconut falls down
An old stem is brought down
mang! Now leave a youth’s customs
On your
shoulder now you are carrying a married man’s customs
Tal duskom ma
giring-giring
Laho
mamasukkon golang-golang
Tinggalkon ma
inang adat ma bujing
Madung jujung adat matobang
Take off your jingling bracelets
When putting on your gold bracelets
Inang ! leave now the youth’s habits
On your head
are now a married woman’s habits
The word
marsantabi is equal to apologize but it is placed in the beginning of the
speech before mistakes or errors in the speech are made. Again this is very
culture–bound. In a Mandailingnese formal speech it is customary to apologize
before saying something. This is contrary to English speakers’ habit who
apologize for having done something wrong as seen in the first example above.
4.2 Problems Caused by Linguistic
Differences
Since
Mandailingnese and English belong to two unrelated languages, as a translator I
expected that there must be many linguistic differences between the two
languages and evidently five translation problems were found while translating
the ST into the TT.
1) Since the
SL and the TL differ in the structure of noun phrase, compound noun and sentence,
it causes translation problems. In the SL, the modifier occurs after the head
in both noun phrase and compound noun as in aek na lan as a noun phrase and
dalihan na tolu as a compound noun which literally means ‘clear water’ and ‘the
three stones’ respectively. In aek na lan aek ‘water’ is the head while na lan
‘clear’ is the modifier (in the SL an adjective is usually preceded by the
particle na ‘which’). In dalihan na tolu again dalihan ‘fire place’ is the head
while na tolu ‘three’ is the modifier. In the SL, typically, the subject occurs
after the verb when the verb is intransitive as in Sayur badan do hot tondi
literally ‘body and soul get older’ or in martamba denggan paruntungan
literally ‘fortune gets better’ where badan do hot tondi and paruntungan are
subject while sayur and martamba denggan are verbs. When the verb is
transitive, the sentence pattern is verb–object –subject as in Pamilas aek
inang where pamilas ‘boil’ is a transitive verb, aek ‘water’ is the object of
the verb and inang ‘mother’ is the subject. In English the typical pattern of
sentence is S–V–O as in mother boils water.
2) The subject
of sentences, number and conjunctions are sometimes not expressed explicitly in
the ST while in the TL they are always shown explicitly. In sada panginuman
sada perbasuan which literally means ‘one place for a drink and one place for
washing hand’ there is no conjunction between the two phrases. Similarly there
is no conjunction in tubuan anak nian tubuan boru which literally means ‘get
sons and get daughters’ but in TT they are 7usually shown explicitly as in ‘a
glass and a bowl’ and ‘baby-boys and baby-girls be born’ respectively.
In harani
rumbuk hita satahi ‘because we are intimate, we are in agreement’ the subject of
the first sentence does not appear. When the subject (hita) appears it will
become harani hita rumbuk, hita satahi. So in the translation the subject has
been added as in since we are intimatewe are always in harmony. In muda
marjagal bahat mandapot untung which literally means ‘when selling get much
profit’ there is no explicit subject but it is understood from the context that
the subject must be the addressees, that is ho ‘you’ or hamu ‘you–all’ because
the addressees are both the bride and the groom. In the translation the subject
had been added as in when selling things you may make much gain.
3). A phrase
in the ST may correspond to a clause in the TL and one word category in the ST may
shift to a different word category in the ST. Di hanaek ni mata ni ari ‘at
sunrise’ is a phrase but it needs to be translated into a clause in order to
make it longer so that it matches the next sentence because it is part of a
verse as in while the sun is beginning to rise, it is the time for luck and
nobility to rise. The word lungun-lungunan ‘lonely’ is an adjective but it shifts
to a noun (loneliness) in order to help make a good rhyme as in Yearning for
his experiences in the past May his loneliness be released.
4). English
has tense while Mandailingnese does not. This may cause translation problems especially
when the translator does not pay much attention to non-linguistic context in
which an utterance of the ST is used. Let us see the example below.
Ari (day) on
(this) ari (day) na (particle) denggan (good) ari (day) na (particle) uli (beautiful),
ari (day) na (particle) tupa (right) ari (day) na (particle) niligi (see) ni
(of) bayo datu (headman) di (at) hanaek (rise) ni (of) mata ni ari (sun), diupa
(advised) tondi (spirit) badan (body) muyu (your) anso (so that) manaek (climb)
tua (luch) hamamora (nobility) ,
In this sentence there is no a word that is
referring so the time explicitly in which the action is done except the
adverbial phrase ari on ‘this day’. But since the mangupa ceremony is habitually
performed while the sun is rising (at about 9 to 11 am) so in the translation
the progressive tense, simple present tense and future tense were used as seen
below.
It is a good
day, a lovely day, the right day, the day which has been examined by the bayo datu
(headman), When the sun is rising, your spirit and body diupa (being advised)
so that your luck and nobility will rise.
5). Mangupa
text is a classic text so that many old words or even archaic words are still
used. Younger people normally do not understand most of the archaic words while
older people are no longer available and there is no a dictionary of archaic
words. Since their meanings are unknown many archaic words were left
untranslated especially in the translation of the verses. However, when
translating verses the translator is allowed to replace the archaic words with
new words as long as the basic meaning of the verse can be conveyed. (Newmark, 1988,
Salleh, 2006. Chan, 2003). So some archaic words had been replaced and some had
been left untranslated. Some of the archaic words used in the MT are omas si
gumorsing, rambe-rambe lai-lai, sangap, si maradang tua, juhut gana-ganaan,
tulan rincan , longa tinungtung, sinta-sinta, andalado, pulik.
4.3 Translating Poetry
Known as
pantun in Indonesian literature, this traditional poetric form consists of two
couplets; the first suggests the second by sound or other similarity (Echols
and Shadily, 1989: 409). Pantun is very popular in Indonesia because of the
beauty of its language. It is a means of expressing feelings through a special form
of language which has musical rhythm (Chan, 2003: 1). Poetry does not only have
semantic function and aesthetic form but is also used as a means of arousing
feeling and produce emotional effect (Connolly, 1998: 176).
Translating a
poetic text is more difficult than translating a prose text because the
translator’s task is not only to convey the meaning but also to achieve rhyming
form. And although much poetic nuance can not be transferred, and the forms of
the poem can be restructured, the translated poem may be better than the original
(Dastjerdi, 2004).
The following
is the account of translating the 37 poems in the TM. A number of techniques
were applied to translate the poems. Some poems could be translated literally
without difficulties but in translating the other poems certain techniques of
translation were applied. The adverbial phrase di hanaek ni mata ni ari, was
translated into when the sun is beginning to rise which is a clause. The
reasons are it sounds better than at sun rise and also to make it match in
length with the next line (It is the time for luck and nobility to rise). So
transposition technique had been applied. In harani rumbuk, hita satahi there
is no subject in the first clause. If there is a subject it would be harani
hita rumbuk, hita satahi. In the translation the subject had been added (since
we are intimate, we are always in harmony) because a sentence without a subject
is not common in English. Thus the technique of addition had been applied.
The imperative
sentence ulang sirang literally can be translated into Don’t get divorced but
it was translated generically into Avoid argument so that a good rhyme could be
achieved with the previous sentence which sounds Don’t hesitate to make
agreement. So the technique of generalization had been 9adopted. When tumbuk
dapot na ni roha in the last line is translated literally it will become so
that what is in heart can be achieved but the literal translation was not done;
if it was done so, the translation will not match in rhyme with the second line
(May your destiny become better). So using alteration technique it was
translated into to achieve your aim and desire. By doing so, meaning was not
distorted and a good rhyme could be achieved.
When these two
lines:
Halaklahi si suan bulu
Dadaboru si suan pandan
are translated
literally, they will become
A boy is a
bamboo-grower
A girl is a
pandanus-grower
Without indication
of tense.
But in the
translation the two lines were translated to :
A boy will be a bamboo-grower
A girl will be a pandanus-grower
adding will be
to make them future tense. It was done in order to make the tense of the two lines
explicit because the previous lines indicate a hope in the future: when the
bride and groom have descendants. Thus technique of explication had been used.
Nipasae
tanding duru is a passive sentence which means ‘the edge of the cultivation is cleared’.
The line was changed into imperative and simultaneously edge was changed to shrub
so that it became clear up the shrub from the cultivation. The second line anso
santak nida tu ipar which literally means ‘so that the distance can be seen’
had been translated into so that the view is clear.
Thus at the
same time the technique of transposition, alteration and modulation had been applied
in order to achieve good rhyme.
When gogo hamu
sumbayang is translated literally it becomes diligently you pray but it was
translated into may you perform the daily five prayers in order to achieve good
rhyme with the following lines (may you become a hajj fulfilling one of the
Moslem’s pillars) although a hajj is actually not the equivalent of rukun na
lima in the previous line. Rukun na lima is equal to the fifth pillar (of
Moslem). But it was not done so because the fifth pillar is too generic and the
English readers may not be familiar with the term. Thus by applying technique
of concretization (Moentaha, 2006 : 62) it was then translated into become a
hajj, the term which is more specific and popular even for non–Moslem readers.
When bariba
tor bariba rura of the first line is translated literally it becomes across the
mountain, across the river but it had been translated into the rivers flow
through the valley changing the whole sentence to a totally new sentence in
order to achieve a good rhyme with the next line (they gather at the estuary).
The technique of changing the whole form, (transcreation) according to Chan
(2003: 15) may be used in translating verses in order to achieve good rhyme as
long as the important message/meaning of the verse is not distorted.
Conclusions
It is now
evident that in translating a culture text a translator will not only be faced
with linguistic problems but also cultural problems as what the translator
experienced when translating the cultural text from Mandailing. The problems
range from simple linguistic and cultural problems to complicated ones such as
adding a new element to the TT and replacing the whole form with a new form to
make the translation sound better and more readable.
Five
linguistic problems were encountered when translating the prose text, that is
1) the problem of translating noun phrases, compound nouns and sentences, 2)
the problems of translating subjects of sentences, number and conjunctions, 3)
the problem of translating phrases and words (shifts may occur), 4) the problem
of translating a linguistic form without tense to a linguistic form with tense,
and 5) the problem of understanding the meaning of archaic words in a situation
where there were no dictionaries and also no informants who know the meanings
of the words.
In translating
the verses a number of translation techniques have been applied. The techniques
applied were addition, generalization, alteration, explication, transposition, modulation,
concretization, and transcreation. The various techniques were used because of the
nature of the text being translated, that is, a poetic text.
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