Article

TRANSLATION STRATEGIES ANALYSIS OF INDONESIAN-

ENGLISH TRANSLATION IN GOENAWAN MOHAMAD'S POEMS

Anita Basrah
English Applied Linguistic Study Program
Postgraduate of State University of Medan
Indonesia
Anitatambak11@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
This research is Translation Strategies Analysis Of Indonesian- English
Translation In Goenawan Mohamad's Poems. The objective of this study is to
find out what translation strategy applied by the translatorin translating
Goenawan Mohamad's poem. This research was a qualitative research. The data
were collected through two steps, the first step was to collect the data from
internet, and the second step was to divide the data into stanza and stanza into
line. In analyzing the data, the researcher read the bilingual poems and found the
classified data to be analyzed. There are 10 Lines in the poems which analyzed
and classified according to the translation strategies composed by Vinay and
Darbelnet’s strategies. The result shows that there are 6 from 7 translation
strategies applied by the translator in order to translate the poems. The
translation strategy is translation using Literal Translation which applied 2 times
(16,67%), transposition which applied 3 times (30%), Modulation which applied
2 times (20%), Adaptation translation strategy which applied 1 times (10%),
Omission which applied 3 times ( 30%), and addition translation strategy which
applied 1 times (10%). it can be concluded that the dominant translation
strategies applied by the translator in translating Goenawan Moehammad’s poem
are Transposition and Omissin Translation Strategies.
A. INRODUCTION
Translation has an important role in communication. Translation is a
medium to transfer the knowledge or information. It can be a bridge which
connects the people from the different languages and cultures. By using
translation, people can learn and understand each other’s languages and cultures.
Translation is not merely at changing words, but also transferring of cultural
equivalence with the culture of the original language and the recipient of that
language as well as possible. The better translation must be accepted by all people
in logic and based on fact; thus, the message which contained in the source
language (SL) can satisfy the target language (TL) reader with the information
within
Nida and Taber (1982:12) state that translating consists of reproducing in
the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language
message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. Meanwhile, as
stated by Newmark (1988:5), translation is rendering the meaning of a text into
another language in the way that the author intended the text. By language, the
translation appears as the significant scope to overcome the language border,
which makes the process of communication becomes better.
Translating a text is not only in scientific field but also in non-scientific
fields. One of them is translating the poems. Nowadays there are many poems
which are translated to another language, of course in purposing to convey the
messages of the poems and easier to understand in target language, so not only the
people who live in the same area with the poets but also the people who live in
different area, have different language and have different culture can enjoy the
beautifulness of the poems. In some ways reading poetry is much like reading
fiction: we observe details of action and language, make connections and
inferences, and draw conclusions.
Peter Newmark (1988; 163) states Poetry is the most personal and
concentrated of the four forms, no redundancy, no phatic language, where, as a
unit, the word has greater importance than in any other type of text. Poetry can be
said as an extraordinary literary work. As one of literary works, poetry has a
special characteristic. Not like words in prose which have a descriptive character,
the words in poem have very solid meaning. So denseness of word mean it make a
word in a poem has many kinds of meaning or sense.
We also bring to poetry some intellectual and emotional dispositions, the
same general experience with life and literature that we draw on in reading fiction.
And yet there is something different about reading poems. The difference,
admittedly more on of degree than of kind, involves our being more attentive to
the connotation of words, more receptive to the expressive qualities of sound and
rhythm in line and stanza, more discerning about details of syntax and
punctuation. As one of literary works, poetry has a special characteristic. Not like
words in prose which have a descriptive character, the words in poem have very
solid meaning. So denseness of word mean it make a word in a poem has many
kinds of meaning or sense.

In this study the researcher is interested in analyzing poems written by

Goenawan Mohamad and its English translation translated by Herry Aveling, he
has translated some Gun's poems such as Dingin Tak Tercatat; Z; Senja pun Jadi
Kecil, Kota pun Jadi Putih; Ranjang Pengantin, Kopenhagen, Nina Bobo; and
Kwatrin Musim Gugur. In this research the writer will analyze just one of them
they are Dingin Tak Tercatat.
The reason why the writer chose poems written by Goenawan Mohamad is
because he is well known as a living legend and one of the best indonesian poet.
His poetry has drawn many praise and admiration from public. A number of his
poems have become highly popular after being set to music, while many of his
works also widely distributed on social media. One of the reasons why he is very
famous is because his ability to uses simple and endearing language in his work.
He is one of indonesian talented writer which a lot of his works has been
translated into English.

In this research, the researcher also used the translation strategy theory by
Vinay and Darbelnet. The reason of choosing this translation theory is because the
Translator’s Invisibility theory has a relationship to Vinay and Darbelnet’s
strategy (Zare-Behtash 2009: 1579). The theory is divided into 7 strategies, they
are: borrowing, literal translation, transposition, modulation, adaptation, omission,
addition.

Research conducted by Ida Ayu and Indrawati (2018) shows that the
dominant translation strategy applied by the translator in translating Sapardi’s
poem is Literal translation strategy. Raja Rachmawati (2014) shows that the
general translation strategy used in the translation of Chairil Anwar Poetries are
modulation translation, calque or literal translation, descriptive equivalence
translation, generic words translation, additional translation and interpretation
translation.

From the explanation above, the writer wants to analyze further more
about the translation of Goenawan Mohamad's poems. Especially about the
strategies of translation, the shift and the differences in contents after the process
of translation related to the meaning of the poems which occurred as a
consequence of the translation process. This research entitled "Translation
Strategies Analysis of Indonesian- English Translation in Goenawan
Mohamad's Poems".

B. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Based on the background of the study and research focus, the writer makes
questions that he wants to analyze are as follows:
1. What kinds of translation procedures are used by the translator to
translate Goenawan Mohamad's poems?

C. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The aim of this research is to discover the translation procedures of the

poems which occurred as a consequence of the translation process in Goenawan
Mohamad's poems. Therefore the research will complete and give more
information about translating the literary work generally and translating poetry
especially for the writer himself and for the others who concern in translating the
literary works
THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

A. The definition of translation

Basically the definition of translation is the process of transferring
messages from one language into other languages, but there are other definitions
of translation such as described In Oxford dictionary which tells that the meaning
of translation is the process of changing something that is written or spoken into
another language. Besides those two definitions, there are still some definitions of
translation as follows:
Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the
way that the author intended the text.
1. Translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closes
natural
equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and
second in term of style.
2. Translation may be defined as the replacement of textual material in one
language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL) . (J.
C Catford. 1965: 20)
3. Translation is a craft consisting in attempt to replace a written message and
or statement in one language by the same message and or statement in
another language. (Peter Newmark. 1981:13)
4. Wills (1982:112) says that translation is a procedure which leads from a
written source language text to an optimally equivalent target language
text and requires the syntactic, semantic, stylistic, and text pragmatic
comprehension by the translator of the original text

Based on the definitions of translation above, it can be concluded that

translation is a process of transfering and creating an equivalent written message,
meaning, style, and content within the source language text into the target
language text in the most natural way in order to create an acceptable reading to
the reader. The point of translation is to render the message from the source
language (SL) into target language (TL) which requires cultural awareness and
understanding.
There are several things that need to be considered in translating activity
one of them is the choice of word the translator use to translate the text so the
result of the translation will be accurate, clear, natural and effective. So, the
message from the Source language (SL) can be perfectly transferred in the Target
language (SL) and the text has a good degree of readability.
 B. Poetry Translation
The researcher divides the section of the poetry translation thoery into
three parts, they are definitions of poetry translation, elements of poetry, and
strategies in poetry translation.
a. Definition of Poetry Translation
Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through
meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional
response. Poetry is defined as kind of a text that that its language use is totally
different from what people use in a daily conversation. Moreover, poetry is also
different from a novel or drama. The differences lay on its meticulous
composition and its restrictive convention. Therefore, it creates a narration
that the translator is not allowed to create their own language freely by using
random simple words, the translator should be able to use the language that
express something much more than the word itself to create a meaningful poetry
sense (Siswantoro, 2010, p.23).
Poetry translation is a product of translation which delivers the author’s
feeling in the target language context associated with the target culture. Poetry
translation is making a new poem in the target language (Newmark,1988, p.58).
Besides, Rodda defines poetry translation as bellow:
The translation of any poem is necessarily a sort of cross-word puzzle
because of the necessity of attempting to reproduce the form, the
meaning, and the feeling of a work which was conceived in different
form. When the poem has been set to music and of making the right
words come out on the right notes for the expressive values of the poem
is added to the problems of meter, rhyme, sense, and atmosphere, and
the problem becomes sort of three-dimensional cross-words puzzle
(Rodda, 1981, p.150).

The definitions above prove that poetry translation is quite problematic

compared with other any kind of translations. Poetry has many different kinds
and various of figurative languages, and distinctive elements such as rhyme,
stanza, meter, in the text that need to be taken seriously due to its contribution in
creating the meaning and the sense of the poetry. Therefore, to get the most
accurate and equal meaning of literary works, especially poetry translation is
really difficult. Moreover, the form and the meaning in the poetry are relatively
connect to each other, the form of literary works also include meanings. And the
translator need to work hand in hand with those both to get a good translation.
Thus, it can be concluded that poetry translation is not merely translating a poem
but creating a new poem using the target language context adjusted with the
target culture.

C. Strategies in Procedures of Translation

According to Vinay and Darbelnet’s strategy (Zare-Behtash 2009: 1579),
In translating the texts there are many procedures that can be used by the
translators as described below:
a) Borrowing. Borrowing is to adopt SL text when the TL has no equivalent
for the SL text. It is a case where a word or an expression is taken from the
SL and used in the TL., that is, it is made to conform to the rules of
grammar or pronounciation of the TL, it occurs when there is no changing
meaning from SL into TL. For example the word formula is translated into
formula too in Bahasa Indonesia
b) Literal translation. Literal, or word for word, translation is the direct
transfer of a SL text into a grammatically and idiomatically appropriate TL
text in which the translators' task is limited to observing the adherence to
the linguistic servitudes of the SL. For
example the word president is translated into presiden
c) Transposition. According to Vinay and Darbelnet, transposition involves
replacing one word class with another without changing the meaning of the
message. Peter Newmark classifies transposition into four types of
grammatical changes, as follows:
i. Automatic transpotition and offers the translators no choice.
For example the change from plural to singular, a pair of
shorts is translated into sebuah celana pendek.
ii. Transposition which is required when a SL grammatical structure
doesn't exist in the TL. For example, Diledakkan bom itu kemarin
is translated into the bomb was blasted yesterday.
iii. Transposition which is the one where literal translation is
grammatically possible but may not accord with natural usage in
the TL. For example, cara pakai is translated into how to use.
iv. Transposition which is the replacement of virtual gap by a
grammatical structure. For example, He is very pleasant, but his
wife is arrogant is translated into Ia sangat baik(sekali), tetapi
istrinya sangat sombong.
d). Modulation
Modulation is a variation of the form of the message, obtained by a change
in the point of view. For Example, You should know that modules writing
takes time is translated into perlu diketahui bahwa menulis modul itu
memakan banyak waktu.
e). Adaptation.
It is used in those cased where the type of situation being referred to by SL
message is unknown in the TL culture. For example, Dear Sir is translated
into dengan hormat
f). Omission.
This means that there is no translation in SL word to TL word. For
example, Awas anjing galak is translated into Beware of the dog
g). Addition.
Addition is normally cultural (accounting for difference between SL and
TL culture), technical (relating to the topics) or linguistic (explaining
wayward use of words), and is dependent on to the requirement of his, as
opposed to the original, readership.24 For example, mengusir; tapi kita
tetap saja is translated into driving us away, yet we stay ( to add personal
pronoun us)
 METHODOLOGY
The research design to analyze the problem in this study was qualitative
research. Qualitative research was the method to describe the subject or the object
of the research based on the fact or reality. According to Denzin and Lincoln
(1994), qualitative method focuses on interpretation of phenomena in their natural
settingsto make sense in terms of the meanings people bring to these settings.

A. Unit of Analysis
The unit analysis on this research is three Goenawan Mohamad's poems, It
is Dingin Tak Tercatat. The poem have been translated by Harry Aveling in "
Contemporary Indonesian Poetry" published by university of Queensland Press,
St Lucia, Queensland, 1975.

B. Research Instruments
The instrument in this research is the writer himself. The writer employs
himself to read the text, to copy, to understand, and tabulate the data that are
related to the translation procedures and the differences in contents related to the
meaning of the poem which occurred as a consequence of the translation process

C. Technique of Data Collection

The data collection of this study used documentation method. The researcher
collected the data from the book. It contained two languages; they were Indonesian
as the source language and English as target language. In collecting data the
researcher used the following steps:
1. Choosing the data
The researcher found poems book by Goenawan Mohamad from e-book on
the internet and then the researcher chose eight poems from the book or 20%
from the total of poem in that book.
2. Reading the data
The second step was reading the poems written Goenawan Mohamad as the
source data, and then compared it with its translation.
3. Identifying the data
The next step of data collection was identifying the data, the researcher
identified the data into each stanza of the poems.
 D. Technique of Data Analysis
This study used qualitative method of research, In the research, the
researcher analyzed the data using the following steps :
1. Dividing the poems into stanzas.
2. Comparing rhythm and meter by finding the number syllables of each line in
each stanza.
3. Comparing rhyme by finding the rhyme pattern of each line in each stanza.
4. Comparing the data between Indonesian and English version
5. Determining the translation strategies used by the translator in translating
Goenawan Mohamad's poetries based on the comparison of textual elements
in two versions of poems.
6. Drawing conclusion

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

A. DATA ANALYSIS

Z Z
(Goenawan Mohamad) (Harry Aveling)

Dibawah bulan Marly Dan pohon Beneath Marly moon And

musim panas summer trees
Ada seribu kereta api A thousand trains stand ready
Menjemputmu pada batas To meet you at the border

Mengapa mustahil mimpi Why is it impossible to dream

Mengapa waktu memintas Why does time interpose
Seketika berakhir berahi In the second desire fails
Begitu bergegas Suddenly

Lalu jatuh daun murbei Dan Then the mulberry leaves fell
airmata panas And tears
Lalu jatuh daun murbei Mulberry leaves fell
Dan engkau terlepas And you were free
 To know further about the translation of this poem, the writer analyzes the
other changes that the translator did as follows:

1. SL : Dibawah bulan Marly Dan pohon musim panas

TL: Beneath Marly moon And summer trees

Analysis : in this case, the translator adaptation the word Summer in the end which
mean musim panas. It is used in those cased where the type of situation being
referred to by SL message is unknown in the TL culture

2. SL : Ada seribu kereta api

TL : A thousand trains stand ready

Analysis: In this case, the translator adds the words stand ready in the end which
means bersiap. It is called addition. The writer thinks that it doesn't matter to add
those words. The writer thinks why the translator adds the words stand ready in
the end, because the translator wants to get the same sound of last word in the
original (api).

3. SL : Ada seribu kereta api

TL : A thousand trains stand ready

Analysis : In SL there is the word ada which is in English it can be translated into
there, but the translator omits this word. It is called omission. The writer thinks

that this omission is still appropriate, because the omission doesn't change the
meaning of the original poem. But it doesn't mind if the word ada is also translated,
so the translation becomes There are thousand trains stand ready.

4. SL : Mengapa mustahil mimpi

TL : Why is it impossible to dream

Analysis: In this case the translator The strategy that is used in translating the line
above is literal translation. In the line above each element of the word is translated
according to the meaning or the meaning closest to the context of the sentence, the
words rearranged, and there are some words that deliberately omitted by the
translator
 5. SL: Mengapa waktu memintas
TL: Why does time interpose

Analysis: In this case the translator The strategy that is used in translating the line
above is literal translation. In the line above each element of the word is translated
according to the meaning or the meaning closest to the context of the sentence, the
words rearranged, and there are some words that deliberately omitted by the
translator

6. SL : Seketika berakhir berahi

TL : In a second desire fails

Analysis: In this case the translator translates the word berakhir into fails. It is
called modulation. In an English-Indonesian dictionary by John M. Echols and
Hassan Shadily the word fail means gagal, meninggalkan, membiarkan,
menjatuhkan, lalai etc, there is no word berakhir. If it is translated again literally
into Indonesian becomes Seketika berahi gagal/ jatuh of course it becomes
inappropriate to the original. But the writer thinks fails is still appropriate to
render berakhir because the real meaning is not lose.that this omission is still
appropriate, because the omission doesn't change the meaning of the original poem. But it
doesn't mind if the word ada is also translated, so the translation becomes There are
thousand trains stand ready.

7.SL : Seketika berakhir berahi

TL : In a second desire fails

Analysis: In this case the translator translates the word berakhir into fails. It is
called modulation. In an English-Indonesian dictionary by John M. Echols and
Hassan Shadily the word fail means gagal, meninggalkan, membiarkan,
menjatuhkan, lalai etc, there is no word berakhir. If it is translated again literally
into Indonesian becomes Seketika berahi gagal/ jatuh of course it becomes
inappropriate to the original. But the writer thinks fails is still appropriate to
render berakhir because the real meaning is not lose.
8.SL : Seketika berakhir berahi

TL : In a second desire fails

Analysis. The translator puts the noun desire before the verb fails. It is called
transposition. The writer thinks that it is appropriate, because the word berakhir
in Indonesian is kata kerja intransitif means a verb that doesn't need an object, so
the there is no object after the intransitive verb(in English intransitive verb must
be put in the end of the sentence ).

9.SL : Seketika berakhir berahi

TL : In a second desire fails

Analysis. The translator puts the noun desire before the verb fails. It is called
transposition. The writer thinks that it is appropriate, because the word berakhir
in Indonesian is kata kerja intransitif means a verb that doesn't need an object, so
the there is no object after the intransitive verb(in English intransitive verb must
be put in the end of the sentence ).

10. SL : Begitu bergegas

TL : Suddenly-

Analysis : In this case the translator omits or doesn't translate the word begitu. It is
called omission. In translating a poem, omission is very common as far as it
doesn’t break the real meaning of the original.

11. SL : Lalu jatuh daun murbe (line

9)
TL : Then the Mulberry leaves fell

Analysis: In this translation almost has the same analysis with the analysis number
5. In this case the translator uses transposition. The word jatuh is intransitive
verb, in English the intransitive verb have to be put in the end. The word jatuh is
translated into fell, so it is appropriate to put the word fell in the end.

12. SL: Lalu jatuh daun murbei Dan airmata panas

TL : Then the mulberry leaves fell And tears
In this case the translator omits or doesn't translate the word panas. It is called
omission. In translating a poem, omission is very common as far as it doesn’t break
the real meaning of the original.

DISCUSSION

According to Vinay and Darbelnet’s strategy (Zare-Behtash 2009: 1579).

there are 7 translation strategies which can be applied in translating poems. The
translation strategies are they are: borrowing, literal translation, transposition,
modulation, adaptation, omission, addition.However, in translating Vinay and
Darbelnet’s poems the researcher found that there are only 3 strategies applied.
The following Table 1.1 presents the amount and percentage of each translation
strategy applied by the translator in translating Goenawan Moehammad’s poems.

Table.1.1 The Translation Strategies Applied in translating Vinay and

Darbelnet’s
No Translation
strategies
1 Borrowing.
2 Literal
translation
3 Transposition
4 Modulation.
5 Adaptation
6 Omission
7 Addition
Total Data 12
Total Percentage (%)
-
2 16,67%
3 25 %
2 16,67 %
1 8,33%
3 25 %
1 16,67%

The table above shows the amount and percentage of 5 translation strategies
applied by the translator in order to translate Goenawan Moehammad’s poems.
Those are Literal Translation which applied 2 times (16,67%), transposition which
applied 3 times (30%), Modulation which applied 2 times (20%), Adaptation
translation strategy which applied 1 times (10%), Omission which applied 3 times (
30%), and addition translation strategy which applied 1 times (10%).It can be
concluded that the dominant translation strategy applied by the translator is the
Transposition and Omission strategies Which take (30%) or applied
3 times.
.
CONCLUSION :
The objective of this analysis is to find out what is the translation strategy applied by the
translator in translating Goenawan Moehammad’s poems Based on the objective, some
conclusions can be given bellow. Based on the data finding, there are 6 from 7 translation
strategies by Vinay and Darbelnet’s strategy which are applied by the translator to translate
Goenawan Moehammad’s poems. Those are Literal Translation which applied 2 times
(16,67%), transposition which applied 3 times (30%), Modulation which applied 2 times
(20%), Adaptation translation strategy which applied 1 times (10%), Omission which applied
3 times ( 30%), and addition translation strategy which applied 1 times (10%). From the
amount and the percentage of the translation strategy applied by the translator to translate
Goenawan Moehammad’s poems, it can be concluded that transposition and omission is The
dominant strategy applied by the translator