ABSTRACT
The present study aims to investigate the strategies in translating metaphors, particularly dead and live metaphors from Indonesian into English in Dewi Lestari’s
Supernova: Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh. This study employs a qualitative method. The data were obtained from Dewi Lestari’s Supernova: Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh and its translation version, Supernova: The Knight, the Princess, and the Falling Star which is translated by Harry Aveling. The data are in the form
of words and sentences critically selected to answer research question. In analyzing the data, the study uses translation strategies for metaphors proposed by Larson (1998) as the framework of analysis. The result of the study reveals that four out of five translation strategies proposed by Larson (1998) are applied in translating the metaphors. They are: 1) translating metaphor by keeping its metaphorical imagery;
2) translating metaphor into simile; 3) translating metaphor without keeping its metaphorical imagery; 4) translating metaphor by using the metaphor of the target language which conveys the same meaning. The results of the study confirm in
translating dead metaphors, the most strategy used is translating metaphor without
keeping its metaphorical imagery or in other words, translating metaphorical
expressions into non-metaphorical or literal expressions. Meanwhile, in translating live metaphors the most strategy used is translating metaphor by keeping its
metaphorical imagery which means translating metaphorical expressions into
metaphorical expressions literally.
ABSTRAK
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisa strategi penerjamahan metafora mati dan hidup dalam novel Dewi Lestari yang berjudul Supernova : Kesatria, Putri, Dan
Bintang Jatuh. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif. Data dalam penelitian
ini diperoleh dari novel Supernova: Kestaria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh karya Dewi Lestari dan versi terjemahanya yaitu, Supernova : the knight, the Princess, and the
Falling Star yang diterjemahkan oleh Harry Aveling. Jenis data yang digunakan
dalam penelitian ini berupa kata dan kalimat yang secara kritis dipilih untuk menjawab pertanyaan penelitian. Dalam menganalisa data, penelitian ini menggunakan strategi penerjemahan metafora yang dicetuskan oleh Larson (1998). Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa ada empat dari lima strategi yang dicetusakan oleh Larson diterapkan dalam menerjemahkan metafora yaitu : 1) menerjemahkan metafora dengan mempertahankan imej metaforisnya ; 2) menerjemahkan metafora menjadi simile; 3) menerjemahkan metafora tanpa mempertahankan imej metaforisnya; 4) menerjemahkan metafora dengan menggunakan metafora dari bahasa target yang menyampaikan makna serupa. Hasil penelitian ini juga mengungkap bahwa dalam menerjemahkan metafora mati strategi yang paling sering digunakan adalah Menerjemahkan metafora tanpa mempertahankan imej
metaforisnya atau dengan kata lain menerjemahkan ungkapan bemetafor menjadi
ungkapan tak bermetafor. Sedangkan, dalam menerjemahkan metafora hidup, strategi yang sering digunakan adalah Menerjemahkan Metafora Dengan Mempertahankan
Imej Metaforisnya yang berarti metafor dalam bahasa sumber tetap diterjemahkan
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents a brief introduction of the study. It consists of background of the study, research question, aims of the study, methodology, significance of the study, clarification terms, and the organization of the paper.
1.1Background of the Study
In literary texts, metaphors are considered to be one of the most important aspects that need to be included in the text. Metaphors are very important in literary texts because they can evoke readers’ imagination and set certain mood to the readers (Perrine, 1963). Due to this significant role of metaphors, many literary texts such as novels or poems provide lots of metaphors to make their stories more dramatic, expressive, and vivid. However, when it comes to translation, metaphors are viewed as the most problematic expressions to translate (Newmark, 1988). There are often problems in translating metaphors. In fact, as stated before the role of metaphors in literary text is significant. Thus, it is highly necessary to translate metaphors properly in order to make the translated version of the texts as interesting, dramatic, and vivid as the original texts.
equivalent problems in translation in the novel Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Bumi manusia. In her study, it was found that a dead metaphor ‘buaya darat’ which means ‘womanizer’ was translated into ‘crocodile on land’ (p.23). It is believed
that ‘buaya darat’ is included in dead metaphors which cannot be translated literally, unlike the live metaphors.
To overcome problem in translating metaphors as mentioned above, Larson (1998) suggested that it is important to identify the types of metaphors: dead metaphors and live metaphors before deciding on how the metaphors will be translated. Dead metaphors are those which are commonly used in daily life so they are no longer understood or thought as metaphors but directly as literal expressions. Dead metaphors are simply idioms (ibid). For example, in English there are: ‘piece of cake’ or ‘kick the bucket, or in bahasa Indonesia, there are, ‘buaya darat, or ‘kambing hitam’. Meanwhile, live metaphors are “understood only after paying special attention to the comparison which is being made” (Larson, 1998, p.274). For example, in English, the passages, such as ‘she is the sun’ and ‘the sky is crying ‘or in bahasa Indonesia, ‘kata-katanya menusuk
jantungku’, ‘dia adalah matahariku’ and so on. In addition, in order to translate metaphors properly and avoid mistranslation, Larson (1998) also proposed the strategies in translating metaphors which are: (1) translating metaphor by keeping its metaphorical imagery; (2) translating metaphor into simile; (3) translating metaphor by using the metaphor of the target language which conveys the same meaning; (4) translating metaphor by adding the topic and the point of similarity; (5) translating the metaphor without keeping its metaphorical imagery.
Even though there have been some studies related to metaphors translation such as studies conducted by Tobias (2009), Madsar (2010), Yanbo (2011), Khosravi (2012) and Mohaghegh and Dabaghi, (2013), these previous studies only focused on one types of metaphors either live or dead metaphors.
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1.2 Research Questions
To guide the study, the writer formulates a question as follow:
1. What strategies are used by the translator in translating dead and live metaphors in Supernova: Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh?
1.3 Aims of the study
Based on the research questions, the study aims:
1. To reveal the strategies used by the translator in translating dead and live metaphors in Supernova: Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh.
1.4 Significance of the Study
Theoretically, the results of the present study would enrich the knowledge in translation field on how to translate metaphors from Indonesian to English properly. Practically, this study is also significant for new translators to improve their translation skill, especially in translating metaphors from Indonesian to English.
1.5 Clarification of terms
1. Translation: “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text” (Newmark, 1988, p.5).
2. Metaphor: “a direct comparison, explicit or implicit, between two different things” (Mezzo, 1999, p.1).
3. Dead Metaphors: “a part of idiomatic construction of the lexicon of the language” (Larson, 1998, p.274).
1.6 Organization of the paper
The present study is arranged into five chapters. The first chapter is introduction. This chapter gives a brief overview of the study. It consists of background of the study, research question, aims of the study, methodology, significance of the study and the organization of the paper.
The second chapter is literature review. It covers the theories that are used as the frameworks of the study such as Metaphors, translating literary works, and the strategies of translating metaphors. In addition, it also discusses the previous study related to the study.
The third chapter is the research methodology. It consists of research design, data collection, data source, and data analysis.
The fourth chapter is the result of the study. It presents the finding and discussion of the study.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter describes a methodology which is used in this study. It consists of research method, research questions, aims of the study, data sources, data collection, and data analysis.
3.1 Research Method
This study employed qualitative method. It is in line with Creswell (2008, p.46) who stated that qualitative research is “a type of educational research in which the researcher collects the data consisting largely of words (or text) and analyse these words for theme and conduct the inquiry in subjective and biased manner”. Moreover, Myer (1997) pointed out that a qualitative research method is a method applied in studying social and cultural phenomena (cited in Hunt, 2014). Thus, by using this method, this study investigated a phenomenon of translating metaphor which contains cultural and social aspect in it.
Even though this study employed primarily qualitative method, this study also used simple quantification in order to present the data in the form of percentage.
3.2 Data sources
The data were taken from Dewi Lestari’s Supernova: Kesatria, Putri dan Bintang Jatuh and its translated version Supernova: The Knight, the Princess and the
3.2.1 Synopsis
Dewi lestari’s Supernova: Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh is a story within a
story. The first story is about a gay couple, Dhimas and Reuben who worked together in making a literary masterpiece which packaged romance altogether with science. Meanwhile, the second story was the story that Dimas and Reuben created in their writing. Both these stories in this novel were going back and forth.
The story began when Dimas and Reuben first met in Washington DC. At that time, they were still students of university, Dimas was an English literature student and Reuben was a medical student. They met in the party held in fancy apartment of Dhimas’s friend. They found chemistry as they were talking to each other in that party. As the time went by they got closer and finally became a couple.
On their 10th anniversary they went back to Indonesia and started working together to make a masterpiece which they had planned 10 years earlier. They decided to make a story which was inspired by a fairy tale, the Knight, the
princess and the falling star. In their writing, they presented three main characters
Ferre, the knight, Rana, the princess, and Diva, the falling star. Then another story went on. This story started as Rana, a married woman who work as a reporter from a magazine wanted to interview Ferre, a single young successful business man. During the interview, they both talked about their own life. There, they found an interest in each other. They started loving each other. Both Rana and Ferre were trying so hard to be together. But then Rana realized that she was wrong. She decided to stay with her husband and left Ferre.
Ferre was shocked with Rana’s decision. He was depressed and lifeless. But his life changed after he met Diva, his neighbour, a high knowledge, beautiful, rich prostitute. She taught Ferre to live freely with his own. In the end, she left Ferre to travel around the world.
3.3 Data collection
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on metaphorical words or sentences found in the novel. Thus, other sentences such as literal sentences were ignored.
Some dictionaries, such as Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary and
Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Kamus Ungkapan Bahasa Indonesia (Chaer,
2002), were used to help in interpreting the metaphors. In indentifying the data, the present study used the theory of metaphor proposed by Larson (1998). The steps of data collection further could be clearly seen as follow:
1. Reading both original and translated version.
2. Highlighting the sentence which contains metaphor in them. 3. Identifying the types of metaphor which are evident in the novel.
4. Classifying the metaphor found in the novel into two types of metaphors: dead metaphors and live metaphors based on the categorization proposed by Larson (1998).
Dead metaphor Live metaphor
Dalam kamusnya, tidak ada air
muka sebrilian itu selain ekspresi
Mr. Bean saat dibelakang setir
mobil Morris-nya..(p.34)
“Kamu pasti masih matahari yang dulu”( p.131)
5. Juxtaposing metaphorical expression in original version with the translated version.
Indonesian version (SL)
English version (TL) “Semua berawal dari satu getar sel
abu-abu” (p.26)
“Everything begins from a single choice” (p.27)
3.4 Data Analysis
metaphor into a simile; (3) translating metaphor by using metaphor of the target language which conveys the same meaning; (4) translating metaphor by adding the topic and the point of similarity; (5) translating metaphor without keeping its metaphorical imagery.
The step analysis could be clearly seen as follow:
1. Identifying the strategies used by the translator in translating each metaphorical expression found in the novel.
2. Making a table analysis which consists of columns labelled Indonesian
version, English version and translation strategies.
The sample of analysis could be seen as follow: 1. Dead metaphors
Indonesian version (SL) English version (TL) Translation strategies (Larson,1998)
Suatu malam ketika pergi makan dengan Ale, ponselnya berdering. Kali pertama ia tertangkap basah(p.108).
He was having dinner with Rafael one night when his friend caught him red- handed. His cell phone had rung and interrupted their conversation (p.87).
Translating metaphor by using the metaphor of the target language
which conveys the same meaning
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2. Live metaphors
Indonesian version
(SL)
English version
(TL)
Translation strategies (Larson,1998)
Semua berawal dari satu getar sel abu-abu(p.26)
Everything begins from a single choice(p.27)
Translating metaphor without keeping its metaphorical imagery
The analysis: as it can be seen that the expression “satu getar sel abu-abu” was translated into “a single choice”. Here, the translator translated the metaphor without keeping its metaphorical imagery. In that context, satu getar sel abu-abu has metaphorical meaning which does not literally mean satu getar sel abu-abu or in English, one single vibration of gray cells but it means something else which is not clear what it refers to. And when it was translated into ‘one single choice’ the meaning becomes clear but it lost its metaphorical imagery. This might happen because there is no equivalent metaphorical image in the target language which conveys the same meaning as the source language expression. Moreover, if it was translated literally into one single vibration of gray cells, it would not sound natural for the target language reader and even worse it would be misunderstood. Thus, to translate this metaphor to non-metaphorical expression is the best choice.
Even though, this study analysed the translation strategies of both types of metaphors dead and live metaphors, this study did not investigate further by interviewing the translator to clarify the fact behind the use of the strategies in translating them. Moreover, as the object of this study is a novel, then, this study only covered the strategies of metaphors in written language.
3.5 Concluding remark
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter draws some conclusions based on the results of the study. This chapter also provides the recommendation for further research.
5.1 Conclusions
The previous chapter has discussed the strategies in translating dead and live metaphors. It revealed that there were 134 metaphors found in the novel, 47 included in dead metaphors and 87 included in live metaphors. Dead metaphors are those which are no longer understood as metaphors since they are commonly used in daily communication. In consequence, they have been “a part of idiomatic construction of the lexicon of the language” (Larson, 1998, p.274). Meanwhile, live metaphors are those which still carry metaphorical imagery so that they can only be understood after considering several aspects: the structure and the context. They are mostly found in literary texts; therefore, they are also called ‘creative metaphor’ (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980 cited in Trim, 2007).
Based on the findings, it can be concluded that live metaphors presented more frequently than dead metaphors in the novel. As it is said before, it happens because live metaphors are ‘creative metaphors’ (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980 cited in Trim 2007) and novel as literary works must provide lots of creative expressions, such as ‘metaphors’, which are originally created by the authors in order to make the stories more interesting, unique, and powerful.
conveys the same meaning (14.89%); (3) translating metaphor without keeping its metaphorical imagery (72.34%).
As it can be seen, the findings show that the most frequent strategy in translating dead metaphors is ‘translating metaphor without keeping its metaphorical imagery’. This indicated that in translating dead metaphors the most important thing is to save the meaning rather than the form since dead metaphor is the type of metaphor which has lost their metaphoric sense (Larson, 1998) and the meaning of whole expression has nothing to do with the meaning of each word constituted the dead metaphors (Glucksberg, 2001). In other words, maintaining the form or ‘the style’ of a dead metaphor could potentially lead to the fatal mistakes in translation— meaningless and non-sense translation. Therefore, translation by changing metaphoric expression into literal expression occurred to be the most frequent strategy in translating dead metaphor to save the meaning and avoid mistranslation.
On the contrary, in translating live metaphors, translating by keeping the metaphorical image (form, style) was found to be the most frequent strategy in this novel. There are four out of five strategies for live metaphors proposed by Larson (1998) which has been applied: (1) translating the metaphor by keeping its metaphorical image (68.97%); (2) translating the metaphor into a simile (6.9%); (3) translating the metaphor without keeping its metaphorical imagery (19.54%); (4) translating the metaphor by using different metaphorical imagery but the same meaning (4.6%).
the beauty of the metaphor as well as the originality of the source language texts. Thus, translating by keeping the metaphorical image occurred to be the most frequent strategy in translating live metaphors. This particular strategy is frequently applied in the text in order to maintain the aesthetic and artistic value of the metaphor.
5.2 Suggestions
For further research it is suggested to investigate the metaphors subtitling strategies in movie’s version of Supernova: Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh—the Knight, the Princess and the Shooting Star (2014) and compare the result of the further research
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