Translation Shift From Balinese Into English in the Puppet Shadow Script Lubdaka
on
LINGUISTIKA, MARET 2018
p-ISSN: 0854-9613
Vol. 48. No. 25
Translation Shift From Balinese Into English in the Puppet Shadow Script Lubdaka
Ni Made Nunik Sayani
Linguistic Program in Translation Studies Post Graduate Program Udayana University Jln. P.B. Sudirman Denpasar Bali
Mobile Phone: 085737237063 sayaninunik@gmail.com
Abstract—Balinese and English have different grammatical structure and English does not have speech level like Balinese. The condition may cause both linguistic and cultural shifts to make the translation equivalent. This difference becomes a challenge for translators in finding the closest natural equivalent of Balinese terms of address in English or vice versa.
This study analyzed types of shifts in translation occurred in the translation of the terms of address from Balinese into English in puppet shadow script ‘Lubdaka’. This study belonged to qualitative study approach and used descriptive method. The primary data is the translation of terms of address from Balinese into English directly taken from puppet shadow script and its translation into English of the Lubdaka story in the book The Invisible Mirror of Siwaratri Kalpa (2008). Shifts in translation in the data occurred in grammatical (transposition) and in point of view (modulation). There are four types of shifts that belong to the grammatical: structure shift, class shift, unit shift, and intra-system shift. Meanwhile, there are three types of shifts found that belongs to the shift in point of view: lexical dense shift, lexical loose shift, and emphasizing on 2nd person.
Keywords: grammatical, point of view, shift in translation
Abstrak—Bahasa Bali dan Inggris memiliki perbedaan dalam struktur gramatika. Selain itu, Bahasa Inggris juga tidak mengenal tingkatan bahasa yang ketat seperti dalam Bahasa Bali. Perbedaan ini dapat menyebabkan pergeseran terjemahan baik dalam linguistik maupun sudut pandang untuk membuat terjemahan yang ekuivalen. Perbedaa ini dapat menjadi tantangan bagi penerjemah bahasa Bali ke Inggris.
Masalah yang diteliti dalam penelitian ini adalah pergeseran terjemahan dari kata sapaan Bahasa Bali ke Inggris dalam skrip wayang kulit ‘Lubdaka’. Studi ini merupakan studi kualitatif dan menggunakan metode deskriptif. Data primer didapat dari skrip wayang kulit dan terjemahannya dalam bahasa Inggris berjudul ‘Lubdaka’ yang diambil dari buku ‘Mirror of Siwaratri Kalpa (2008)’. Pergeseran terjemahan yang terjadi merupakan pergeseran dalam hal gramatikal dan sudut pandang. Pergeseran gramatikal yang terjadi ada empat jenis: pergeseran struktur, kelas, unit, dan intra-sistem. Pergeseran yang terjadi dalam sudut pandang ada dua jenis: pergeseran kepadatan leksikal, kelonggaran leksikal, dan penekanan pada orang kedua.
Kata kunci: gramatikal, sudut pandang, pergeseran penerjemahan
INTRODUCTION
According to Larson (1998), translation consists of changing from one state or form to another, to turn into one’s own or another’s language. The goal of translator is to keep the meaning constant. The main objective of
translation is to transfer the meaning from the source language to the target language. In transferring the meaning, a good translator should have the knowledge of source and target language, the grammar and cultures, and also the skills in translation. Skills and knowledge in translation are powerful means to produce better
works. The knowledge can be gained through reading and understanding while the skills can be further gained by more practices. Besides, according to Beratha (2000), the genre or the materials of the source text must be considered. Halliday (1985:40), for example, stated that “written language is used for traffic signs, product label, food recipes, phone, manual books, magazines, newspaper, fiction books, poems, plays, etc. and the main purpose of spoken language is to chat with other people, debate, lecture, sing, give speech, greet someone, give orders, and pray”.
Balinese society is a society that emphasizes culture as a major asset. There are lots of cultural heritage of Bali, including some local wisdom that has actually been around since the days of pioneer ancestors of the island of Bali. The culture in Bali provides impacts to the use of language, especially terms of address. “Terms of address or term of address are words and phrases used for addressing someone. They refer to collocutors and thus contain strong elements of deixis” (Braun, 1988:5). The emotions, feelings, and even the cultural background of the participants can be seen from the terms of address used by the addresser (1st person) to address the addressee (2nd person) or the person being spoken (3rd person).
According to Granoka dkk. (1985) besides the dialect of Bali Aga and Bali Dataran, Balinese language also have strict politeness system called Anggah Ungguh Basa Bali or Sor Singgih Basa Bali, namely basa alus (the highest form of language), basa madia (the ‘middle’ form, can be used in any social status), and basa kasar (the lowest form of the language). Arka (2003), also mentioned this strict politeness level called Sor Singgih Basa Bali. Therefore, when two Balinese begin a conversation, one of the opening questions in Balinese is Nunas antuk linggih? ‘What is (your) social position?’ (lit. ‘(I) beg your position’). The expected answer is Tiang anak jaba ‘I am a commoner’ or Tiang menak ‘I’m a menak person’. (Menak is a term for medium and high castes.) Such answer allows the speaker to choose the appropriate register,
low register or high register (Arka, 2005:169). This also affects the terms of address they should use in the conversation. “The intra system cohesion has allowed the equivalent of the personal pronouns I – you- he/she to vary linguistically as far as attitude is concerned, with the following dimensions: (1) affect-appreciation: icang – cai/ia Non Honorific “rough” and titiang – iratu/ipun Honorific “humble refined”; and(2) judgement: tiang – ragane / dane Honorific “middle”” (Brata, 2014).
This characteristic of Balinese language becomes a challenge for translators in finding the closest natural equivalent of Balinese terms of address in English or vice versa. English language does not use speech level like Balinese language that affect the use of address terms. This condition may cause shifts both in linguistic and cultural factors to make the translation equivalent. In translating the terms of address from Balinese into English which has different system and ‘sense’ in honorific – non honorific. Shifts in translation is unavoidable, specifically in grammatical and point of view.
Shift represents some changes occurring in a translation process. Translation shifts occur both at the lower level of language, i.e. the lexicogrammar, and at the higher thematic level of text. Catford (1965: 73) states that “by shift we mean the departure from formal correspondence in the process of going from the source language to the target language”. Further, he states that basically, in shift of translation, or transposition he says, it is only the form that is changed. In addition, he urges “the translation shift is done to get the natural equivalent of the source text message into the target text” (Catford, 1965: 76). Translation shifts also occur when there is no formal correspondence to the syntactic item to be translated (Machali, 1998: 3). According to Bell (1991: 33), “to shift from one language to another is, by definition, to alter the forms”.
Nida and Taber (1969: 171) say that “some of the most common shifts in meaning found in the transfer process are modifications which involve specific and generic meaning.”
Such shifts may go in either direction from generic to specific or specific to generic. A shift may result from the difference of the system in both languages. The difference can be in the form of vocabulary or structure, the shift caused by the vocabulary results in a shift in meaning.
This study is focused on analyzing what types of shifts occurred in translating terms of address from Balinese into English in a puppet shadow script and its translation into English of the Lubdaka story in the book The Invisible Mirror of Siwaratri Kalpa (2008). This script is used because it contains many translations of terms of address from Balinese into English which is very interesting to analyze.
RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter gives more detail on research approach, data source, research instrument, method and technique of collecting data, method and technique of analyzing data, and method and technique of presenting the analysis.
Research Approach
This study belonged to qualitative study approach and used descriptive method. This study intended to understand the phenomenon about what has been experienced by the research subjects (text) in a holistic manner and descriptions in the form of words and language, in a specific natural context and by utilizing a variety of scientific methods.
This study was conducted by adopting the theoretical approach to obtain sufficient understanding of the purposes of solving the problems of the study, related to the terms of address from Balinese into English in a puppet shadow script and its translation into English of the Lubdaka story in the book The Invisible Mirror of Siwaratri Kalpa (2008). Descriptive qualitative approach was applied. First, the sense of power and solidarity semantics conveyed in the translation of the terms of address from Balinese into English in the text were analyzed, and next the types of shifts occurred in translating those terms of address from Balinese
into English in a puppet shadow script were analyzed.
Data Source
This study used primary data which was taken directly from the data source. Primary data is the data gathered by the researcher directly from the first source or the subject of the study by observation. The primary data was the translation of terms of address from Balinese into English that directly taken from puppet shadow script and its translation into English of the Lubdaka story in the book The Invisible Mirror of Siwaratri Kalpa (2008).
The subject of this study is the translation of terms of address from Balinese into English. The data were gathered from a book entitled The Invisible Mirror of Siwaratri Kalpa (2008) where the subject of this study is taken. The object of this study can be expressed as a social situation in the research subject that we want to know what happens in it. Object of the study is also can be said as what is the unit that is analyzed in the study. In this study, the object of the study is the translation of terms of address in Balinese and English found in the puppet shadow script.
Method and Technique of Collecting Data
Collecting data is the most important part. To collect the data, observation method and documentation method were applied in this study. The method was implemented through done a thorough observation to the data source in order to get the specific and authentic data (the translation of terms of address); scanned the terms of address in SL and their translation in TL, listed them, and then put them in a separated table. Documentation method is studying related documents in order to support the data obtained from the observation. To support the method, note taking technique was applied in this study. The data collected in this study are the translation of terms of address in the Balinese and English version in the shadow puppet script of Lubdaka in the book Mirror of Siwaratri Kalpa. Therefore, the shifts occurred in the translation of terms of
address were analyzed according to the problems of this study.
Several steps were done in collecting the data. Therefore, a certain procedure must be followed in order to obtain appropriate and sufficient data for the purposes of this study. The data was collected in some procedures in order to obtain appropriate and sufficient data for the study. First, the terms of address in the Balinese version and the English version were scanned and noted down along with the full part of the speech/sentence that contains the terms of address. The data then were sorted to get the corpus data. Next, the corpus data were noted down in the table and split into two, Balinese version and English version. This data then were analyzed using the theory of shift and appraisal theory to answer the problems of this study.
Method and Technique of Analyzing Data
This study applied the descriptive method in analyzing the data. The method of analysis, which was qualitative-descriptive in nature, was aimed at describing systematically, factually, and accurately the characteristics and correlation that occur among the phenomena (the translation of the terms of address). The data that have been obtained are analyzed qualitatively and described in descriptive form.
Data analysis technique began with a summary, coding, searching themes, make groups, write memos and so with the intention of setting aside the data / information that is not relevant. The result of the reduction will become the corpus of the data that will be analyzed.
After determining the corpus, there are several steps that are done in analyzing the data. First, the data from source language and the target language are put side by side and the types of shifts occurred there were analyzed. Then, the data was classified into the same categories of shift and were presented two or three data in each category and the rest were put in the appendix Next, the shifts of translation were described below each presented data. The theory from Catford (1965) about shifts in translation were
used to analyze the shifts in translation occurred in the data.
Method and Technique of Presenting the Analysis
The results of the analysis were presented by using formal technique (Sudaryanto, 1993). By mean of this technique, the analysis of every data were described by adopting series of sentences and explanations in the form of paraphrases. This technique was done in order to give more explanation about the shifts of translation and the power and solidarity semantic in translating the terms of address; furthermore, the analysis was expected to give a complete picture of the translation process.
DISCUSSION
Translation Shift from Balinese into English in the puppet shadow script Lubdaka
The closest natural equivalent of the Balinese terms of address in English is used by the translator; therefore this makes the word understandable to the readers in the target language, as well as conveying the sense of power and solidarity semantics between the participants of the conversation in the text. In translating the terms of address from Balinese into English which has different system and ‘sense’ in honorific – non honorific? It also can be seen from the data that shifts in translation is unavoidable because of these differences, specifically in grammatical and point of view. This section explains the types of shifts occurred in the translation of the terms of address and why it is occurred, especially in the relation with conveying the sense of power and solidarity semantic.
The shifts found in the data can be classified into two: shift in grammatical and shift in point of view. There are four types of shifts that belong to the grammatical shifts: structure shift, class shift, unit shift, and intra-system shift. Meanwhile, there are three types of shifts found that belong to the shift in point of view: lexical
dense shift, lexical loose shift, and emphasizing on 2nd person.
Grammatical Shift (Transposition)
1. Structure Shift
SL: Dong ja saja-saja kuning latig jeneng ci!
TL: You truly have all the color drained out of your face!
This conversation happened between Delem (a servant in hell, older brother of Sangut) and Sangut (a servant in hell, younger brother of Delem). Delem is examining his younger brother face because he looks so sick. He said that his brother’s face is really pale. Shift in structure happened in this sentence and the analysis can be seen below:
Table 1: Structure shift (dialogue part 30)
SL Jeneng ci
HEAD MODIFIER
TL Your face
MODIFIER HEAD
The terms of address ‘ci’, refers to the 2nd person in the conversation or the addressee acts as the modifier with the head ‘jeneng’ or face in English. It is placed after the head. The word ‘ci’ is translated into ‘your’ as the modifier to the head ‘face’. In the TL, ‘your’ as the modifier is placed before the head ‘face’. Structure shift is occurred in the translation of the terms of address ‘ci’ into ‘your’. This shift occurred because of the difference in linguistic system or the grammatical structure in SL and TL. If it is translated in the same structure in TL, the phrase would become “face your” which is ungrammatical in the TL. The translation of ‘ci’ which is non-honorific into ‘you’ which is neutral also makes the power semantics in this sentence become disappeared. This happened because English does not have honorific-non honorific variations of the terms of address like in Balinese.
SL: Men-men yen kakeneh baan anake buka nanang…..
TL: So, so if that’s what you, my father, think…..
This conversation occurred when Merdah and Twalen talked about the life in ‘Mercapada’ (earth). Merdah asked his father about what he thinks about people nowadays on the earth. In this sentence, there is a shift in unit from word into phrase. The analysis can be seen below:
Table 2: Unit Shift (dialogue part 7)
SL Nanang
WORD
TL My father
PHRASE
In TL, the word ‘nanang’ (father) is translated into ‘my father’. There is the shift in unit in this translation, from the word ‘nanang’ to phrase ‘my father’. This shift occurred merely because the preference of the translator to add the word ‘my’ before ‘father’, which is translating it into ‘father’ only is still grammatical. However, this unit shift still occurred because the addition of the word ‘my’ emphasize that the ‘father’ is Merdah’s father, Twalen. The addition of ‘my’ also emphasize the ‘honorific sense’ said by Merdah to address his father in the phrase ‘you, my father,’ and give emphasis to the word ‘father’.
SL: Sabilang Melem ngigel keto nyakitin timpal keto.
TL: Whenever you dance like that you hurt the people around you.
This conversation occurred between Sangut and Delem, the brothers, when Sangut complained that whenever Delem dances he always hurts someone else because he always spinning around like crazy. In this sentence, there is a shift in class, from the noun/3rd person pronoun “Melem” which is translated into “you”, 2nd person pronoun. The analysis can be seen below:
occurred in this translation, and the analysis can be seen below:
Table 3: Class Shift (dialogue part 28)
SL Melem
NAME/ NOUN/ 3rd PERSON
PRONOUN
TL You
2nd PERSON PRONOUN
Table 4: Intra-system Shift (dialogue part 1)
SL Widyadara,
NO Widyadari
DETERMINER
TL The angels
DETERMINER
In Balinese language (SL), it is common to address the addressee by their name or in 3rd person pronoun. In this sentence, Sangut is talking to his brother Delem/Melem about his dance movement that always hurt others around him. Sangut addressing his brother by his name, Melem, and it is grammatical in Balinese language.
However, if it is also translated into 3rd person pronoun in the TL (English), the sentence will become ungrammatical. in this translation, 'Melem' is translated into ‘you’, the 2nd person pronoun to address the addressee to carried out the message in the TL, so that the message will not be distorted.
In Balinese language, addressing the person we are talking to with 3rd person pronoun or his/her name considered as ‘polite’ or a honorific terms of address. In this sentence, Sangut addressing Delem with saying his name which carries an honorific sense. This is translated into ‘you’ which caused the honorific sense become neutral.
TL: The angels are all ready
This sentence in SL is a part of the song that sung by Sendon (the singer in shadow puppet show), explaining the event in the shadow puppet chapter when the angels all ready to the meeting established by Lord Siva. In the sentence in SL, the Sendons said ‘widyadara, widyadari’ which is translated into ‘the angels’. Intra system shift is
In this translation, determiner ‘the’ in TL is added before the noun ‘angels’ to show that the angels are Lord Siva’s angles from heaven and make it specific. However, in SL (Balinese), the language does not have determiner system. In English language, when we want to mark the word and refer it to the previous sentence, we add the determiner ‘the’ to make it specific. While in Balinese the determiner is not used/there is no such determiner. If the determiner ‘the’ is not added in the English translation, the sentence will become ungrammatical.
Besides the determiner, in the SL, the male angel is called ‘widyadara’ and the females are called ‘widyadari’. In the TL (English) there is no such differentiation, all angels are called ‘angel’ despite of their gender.
Shift in Point of View
1. Lexical Dense
SL: Kenken ya kali Ida Batara to?
TL: How is Lord Siva calculate that?
This dialogue is said by Delem when he and Sangut (his brother) talked about Lord Siva who wanted to take the soul of Lubdaka the hunter to heaven. Lubdaka killed so many animals when he was alive on earth that caused him lots of sins and should go to hell. However, Lord Siva wanted to take him to the heaven and this made Delem and Sangut confused.
In this translation, the phrase ‘Ida Batara’ is translated into ‘Lord Siva’. The analysis can be seen below:
Table 5: Lexical Dense Shift (dialogue part 56)
SL Ida Batara
GENERAL
TL Lord Siva
SPECIFIC
In the SL, the phrase ‘Ida Batara’ is very general; it can refers to any Gods, can be Siva, Visnu, Brahma, or even Yamadipati, or the God itself. Without looking at the previous context, the reader would not know that ‘Ida Batara’ refers to Lord Siva. This phrase is translated into ‘Lord Siva’ which is specific that Delem is talking about Siva, not other Gods.
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2. Lexical Loose
SL: Sanguuuuuuuut! , Pesuang, pesuang, pesuang iban caine!
TL: Sanguuut. Come out, come out!
This conversation occurred between Delem and Sangut, when Delem called Sangut to come out and dance to start the day. Delem is the older brother of Sangut and he always placed himself as a ‘superior’ to his younger brother, even though they have same position and social status. As brothers, Delem and Sangut also have a very close relationship. That affects the way Delem talks to Sangut. In this conversation Delem used term of address ‘cai’ which is non honorific, and it is omitted in the TL. This caused lexical loose, and the analysis can be seen below:
Table 6: Lexical Loose Shift (dialogue part 24) SL Pesuang Iban caine!
ADRESSING 2ND PERSON
TL Come out! NO
ADDRESSING
In SL, it is specific that Sangut (the addressee) is the one who is told to come out by
the addition of ‘cai’. However, in TL, the word ‘cai’ is not translated and the translation only become ‘come out’ which makes it not as specific as the sentence in SL, who is told to come out and who is Delem speaking to become unclear. Furthermore, by omitting the term of address ‘cai’, the power semantic in the term of address obviously disappeared and the context that Delem is ‘placing’ himself higher that his younger brother also omitted.
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3. Emphasizing the 2nd Person
SL: Aduh Ratu titiang….
TL: Yes My Lord, I am at Your service….
This dialogue is said by Twalen to his highest master, Lord Siva, when Lord Siva asked him to accompany him in the meeting with Lord Yamadipati regarding to Lubdaka’s case. In the TL, he refers Lord Siva using an honorific 3rd person pronoun ‘Ratu’, which is translated into ‘my Lord’ and emphasized with the addition of ‘Your’ which leads to emphasizing on 2nd person modulation. The analysis can be seen below:
Table 7: Emphasizing on 2nd Person (dialogue part 134)
|
SL |
Aduh |
Ratu titiang 3rd person pronoun Honorific |
|
TL |
Yes |
My Lord, I am at Your 3rd person service pronoun 2nd person Honorific pronoun Refers to addressee |
In the SL, the only term of address used is ‘Ratu’ which is the honorific terms of address and 3rd person pronoun in Balinese, used by Twalen in this conversation to address the addressee, Lord Siva, his master. In the SL, it is translated into ‘My Lord’ and emphasizes by the addition of ‘I am at Your service’. The addition you ‘your’ give emphasis that the ‘Ratu titiang’ in the SL is the addressee or the 2nd person who is the speaker (Twalen) is referring to. This makes
the context become clearer in TL and makes the translation become more understandable.
CONCLUSION
Shifts in translation in the data occurred in grammatical (transposition) and in point of view (modulation). There are four types of shifts that belong to the grammatical shifts: structure shift, class shift, unit shift, and intra-system shift. There are three types of shifts found that belongs to the shift in point of view: lexical dense shift, lexical loose shift, and emphasizing on 2nd person. In the translation, the power and solidarity semantics in the terms of address in SL becomes neutral in TL. This is because in SL (Balinese), terms of address used is following a strict politeness level and used from the honorific to non honorific based on the context, and in TL there is no such system. As a result, after the process of translation and shifting to make it equivalent in TL, the power and solidarity semantic in the terms of address in SL become neutralized after they are conveyed to their translation in TL.
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