FIGURATIVE LANGUAGES IN “PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS, THE TITAN’S CURSE” AND THEIR TRANSLATION IN “PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS, KUTUKAN BANGSA TITAN”
on
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGES IN “PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS, THE TITAN’S CURSE” AND THEIR TRANSLATION IN “PERCY
JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS, KUTUKAN BANGSA TITAN”
By
PUTU SRI YUNI SWANDHANI
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND CULTURE
UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
ABSTRAK
Gaya bahasa merupakan suatu ungkapan yang berupa perbandingan atau hubungan yang dapat diartikan secara imaginatif. Gaya bahasa juga dapat diartikan sebagai majas atau bahasa kiasan. Novel adalah jenis karya sastra fiksi tertulis yang banyak menggunakan gaya bahasa dalam penulisannya. Data diambil dari novel karya Rick Riordan “Percy Jackson & The Olympians, The Titan’s Curse” dan terjemahannya oleh Nuraini Mastura dengan judul “Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Kutukan Bangsa Titan”. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengidentifikasi jenis-jenis gaya bahasa yang ditemukan didalam novel serta menganalisis teknik penerjemahan yang diterapkan oleh penerjemah dalam terjemahan novel dari bahasa Inggris ke bahasa Indonesia. Teori yang digunakan untuk menganalisis gaya bahasa dan teknik penerjemahan dalam penelitian ini dikemukanan oleh Larson (1998).
Kata Kunci: terjemahan, gaya bahasa, teknik terjemahan
Language is a system of conventional spoken or written symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture to express themselves. The functions of language include communication and emotional release (crystal D, 2014). Literature is one example of the form of language in writing. Many people read literature for pleasure like drama, prose, and novel.
Figurative language is much needed in making literature. Some frequently used figurative languages are metaphors, similes and hyperboles. Figurative language can be mentioned as figure of speech or figurative senses since they all convey the same meaning: a word or expression which is not meant to be taken literally. Since figurative language cannot be translated literally, finding lexical
equivalent is important to transfer the exact meaning to the target language. According to Larson (1998:169), to find lexical equivalence between source language and target language is a complicated process because of the fact that target language is spoken by people of a culture which is often very different from the culture of those who speak source language.
A fiction novel has plot which is widely expressed in figurative language to produce interesting stories to the readers. One of the novels that has an interesting story with figurative language is Percy Jackson & The Olympians, The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan.
Based on the background of the study above, there are some problems that can be formulated as follows:
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a. What types of figurative language were found in Percy Jackson & The Olympians, The Titan’s Curse?
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b. What techniques of translation were applied in the translation of figurative languages in Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Kutukan Bangsa Titan?
Based on the problems above, the important aims of the study are mentioned as follows:
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a. To classify and describe the types of figurative language found in Percy Jackson & The Olympians, The Titan’s Curse.
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b. To analyze and describe the techniques of translation which were applied by the translator in the translation of Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Kutukan Bangsa Titan.
In this study, primary data were taken from a novel by Rick Riordan entitled Percy Jackson & The Olympians, The Titan’s Curse. The novel was published on May 11, 2007. That will be compared with its Indonesian translation; Percy
Jackson & The Olympians, Kutukan Bangsa Titan, that was translated by Nuraini Mastura and published by PT Mizan Publika, Jakarta in 2009. The reason for choosing this novel as the data source in this writing is that the story and the plot of this novel is very pleasant and full of unexpected shocks experienced by the characters in the story.
This study applied documentary or library research method and this method was assisted by some techniques; reading, note taking, and then saving in computer to make it easier to classify. Firstly, the data source was read thoroughly to find out the sentences which contain figurative language. Then the words, phrases, or sentences that contain figurative language were quoted as many as possible from the novel to make the identification process easier. After that, the collected data was identified to classify types of figurative language found in the novel.
After the data were collected, the data were analyzed using descriptive qualitative method which was completed by identifying the classifying figurative languages found in the novel into each type of figurative language. The data were observed base on the scope of discussion and theoretical framework. After the data were identified and classified, the figurative language from SL and its translation in TL were compared then analyzed to find out what techniques were applied in the translation of figurative language done by the translator. The data which were collected from the data source was analyzed using Larson’s theory in her book Interpreting Literature (1998) to analyze the figurative language and the translation techniques.
The analysis in this chapter is focused on figurative languages and their translation techniques in Rick Riordian’s Percy Jackson & The Olympians, The Titan’s Curse.
Metaphor shows an implied comparison (meaning not clearly stated) without the aid of such expression as like and as.
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(1.) They’ve got a lot riding on the sun . . . err, so to speak. It keeps them warm, grows their crops, power engines, makes everything look, well, sunnier. (Riordian, 2007:50)
Riding on the sun is direct comparison which is without helped by like or as. The phrase above will not be well understood by the reader if it is translated literally. Therefore, riding here means that they (people) got a lot of utilities from the sun. Ride means ‘to sit on and control a bicycle, motorcycle, etc’ but riding on something means ‘to depend on something’ (Hornby, 2005:1306). Riding is used to describe that they (people) depend on the sun because the sun can make them feel warm, grow their crops, make power engines, and etc, just like how to control people’s lives the sun would be like. The comparison was used to describe the sun utilities and how strong it was to be able to make everything look sunnier than even normal human could not do it.
Just like metaphor, simile also compares two different things, but the comparison in simile always explicit (meaning clearly stated) and has the word such as like or as.
(2.)Girls moved around in football huddles, the way they always do, wearing lots of makeup and spaghetti-strap tops and brightly colored pants and shoes that looked like torture devices. (Riordian, 2007:8)
The word like above has a function to compare the girls and torture devices to describe how they look like in front of a boy with their styles and their fashions because what the girls wear looks so scary for the boy. Torture is ‘the act of causing somebody severe pain in order to punish them or make them say or do something’ (Hornby, 2005:1621) and device is ‘an object or a piece of equipment that has been designed to do a particular job’ (Hornby, 2005:418). When it referred to the context, the girls were like torture devices who looked pitiful because of what they wore even though they like to wear those of fashions.
Synecdoche is figurative sense based on part whole relationships. In other words; a synecdoche is a word that refers to a part of something to mean the whole or whole to mean a part.
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(3.) “Grover,” Chiron said, “perhaps you’d let me have a word with Percy?” “Sure,” he sniffled. (Riordian, 2007:101)
Have a word does not mean that if Chiron wants to have just a word with Percy literally. Word means ‘a thing that you say; a remark or statement’ (Hornby, 2005:1758). The translator translated have a word as berbicara in the target language. By using the translation as reference and from the full sentence, it can be found that Chiron wants to have a conversation with Percy and ask Grover to leave them by themselves. Therefore, the author used a word as substitution of the whole conversation that Chiron would talk with Percy without being joined by anyone except them, a face-to-face conversation between Chiron and Percy.
Hyperbole is a metonymy or synecdoche telling more that what the writer intended the reader to understand. The exaggeration is deliberately used for the effect, and is not to be understood as if it were a literal description.
(4.) “You sure, boss?” “You’ve done enough already,” I said. “I’ll be fine.
And thanks a ton.” (Riordian, 2007:128)
On the data above, thanks a ton does not really mean that Percy told Blackjack ton of gratitude. However, the author used ton to express how much thank you that Percy want to say to the black Pegasus called Blackjack which helped him. The exaggeration can be seen from how instead of using many to describe the amount of thank you feeling from Percy to Blackjack because Blackjack helped him to chase the van which driven by Zoe to go to the downtown, the author used ton. Ton is used to emphasize a specific point to produce a notable effect.
Idiom is a number of words which are joined together; meaning something different from the meanings of the words when they stand alone.
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(5.) Then, as it began to sink beneath the waves, it seemed to dissolve into sunlight on the water. The sea breeze picked up. (Riordian, 2007:243)
Pick up (for something) means ‘to pay for something’ (Hornby, 2005:1136). Picked up here means that Percy paid to his father to protect the Ophiotaurus and Grover at sea by threw a lion-skin cloak into the bay when they travelled went to Long Island in Camp Half-Blood. It is used by the author to describe Percy’s act of giving his father, Poseidon the God of the seas a sacrifice as a prayer to get the Ophiotaurus and Grover safely to camp.
Descriptive phrases is used when the translator give some description or
information about a word or phrase in the target language (Larson, 1998:171).
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No. |
Source Language |
Target Language |
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1. |
“’S okay, Percy. I probably would’ve done the same thing.” She shifted from foot to foot, like she was trying to decide whether or not to say more. (Riordian, 2007:64) |
“Tak apa, Percy. Aku mungkin juga akan melakukan hal yang sama.” Dia memindah-mindahkan berat di antara kedua kakinya, seolah dia lagi berusaha memutuskan untuk bicara lebih banyak atau tidak. (Mastura, 2009:84) |
She shifted from foot to foot is one of idioms which was found in the novel. If it is translated literally, it could be dia bergeser dari kaki ke kaki and will not make a sense, because it is just doing move something from one position, in this case from one foot to another foot. Some people will do this thing; move their foot to another foot when they feel worried, anxious or confused. The translator translated the figurative language using figurative expression equivalent where the sense of figurative is still found in the target language after the translation.
Based on the meaning in the context, She shifted from foot to foot was translated into dia memindah-mindahkan berat di antara kedua kakinya which has meaning that she (Thalia) feels anxious like she was trying to decide whether or not to say more after the attack by a Manticore called Dr. Thorn. The description of the characteristic of a shift was added by the translator as the translation of the figurative language to give better understanding to the readers and to avoid ambiguity.
Secondary or figurative sense is used in the source text and is translated using lexical items primary senses as equivalents and vice versa (Larson, 1998:175).
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No. |
Source Language |
Target Language |
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2. |
I turned to the mummy. She hadn’t moved, but the shadows across her face made it look like she was smiling gruesomely. (Riordian, 2007:80) |
Aku berpaling pada mumi. Dia belum bergerak, namun bayang-bayang di wajahnya membuatnya tampak seolah dia tersenyum dengan mengerikan. (Mastura, 2009:104) |
The example above is an example of figurative language which is categorized as simile. The primary sense of gruesome is ‘very unpleasant and filling you with horror, usually because it is connected with death or injury’ (Hornby, 2005:688). In the translation of figurative language, the translator decided to keep the secondary sense which mean scary or terrible of something. According to the context, she is the pronoun of a mummy which has female gender. When Percy turned to the mummy and looked the shadows across the mummy’s face, it made the mummy look like she was smiling even if she did not smiling, actually. It does not mean literally to the mummy for smiling, because as we know mummy is a body of a human or an animal that has been mummified and mummy did not have soul again to make it live and do like human live do, such as smile. That is why the author used word gruesomely which was translated into mengerikan to emphasize the meaning of the smiling thing is not a human, but a death body called mummy.
This strategy is used for the unknown data of lexical items. It is used when the data is translated without changing the form of the lexical items in source language. Its equivalents are modified by classifier or with a description of form, function or both. (Larson, 1998:186).
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No. |
Source Language |
Target Language |
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3. |
“Annabeth! Is she there?” “Oh, well . . .” My heart felt like a bowling ball. Tyson thought Annabeth was just about the coolest thing since peanut butter. (Riordian, 2007:69) |
“Annabeth! Apa dia di sana?” “Oh, yah ...” Rasanya hatiku melesak seberat bola bowling. Bagi Tyson Annabeth sama kerennya dengan selai kacang. (Mastura, 2009:90) |
My heart felt like a bowling ball is an example of figurative language which is categorized as simile. In the context, the comparison is made between Percy’s heart and bowling ball; bowling is one of a kind of game. Bowling is a loan word which describes a kind of a game that come from Europe and famous in some countries. Since it is not so famous in the culture of the target language, even though some people know that game or ever played it, the translator borrowed the term of bowling ball and did not translate it into bola gelinding.
The translator used strategies of translating the figurative language by using figurative expression equivalent which can be seen from the translation, where the figurative sense is still lingered even after translated into target language. Because it is a name of a game and mostly people know the common term than translating into target language, bola gelinding in Indonesian, the translator did not put much emphasis on it, but borrowed the original term in kinds of game.
This strategy is occurring when concept of lexical item of source text is unknown in order to aid the reader to understand the target text. It is used to replace a source cultural word by another cultural substitute of the target language (Larson, 1998:187).
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No. |
Source Language |
Target Language |
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4. |
We decided to camp for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. None of us wanted to go Dumpster-diving in the dark. (Riordian, 2007:177) |
Kami memutuskan untuk berkemah malam ini dan mencoba menjelajahi tempat pembuangan sampah di pagi harinya Tak satu pun dari kami yang ingin menyelam ke bak sampah dalam gelap. (Mastura, 2009:228) |
Wanted to go Dumpster-diving in the dark is a type of figurative language known as hyperbole. The word Dumpster means a very large metal container for rubbish, left in the street or near a place where there is building work made in US, in Indonesian we just know a junkyard called as Tempat Pembuangan Akhir (TPA) but TPA in Indonesian does not look like a container, mostly just an open land used to be a landfill for various types of waste. And Dumpster diving means taking things, including food, from these containers, often as a way of protesting about excess and waste in modern society, and does not mean diving in a junkyard literally.
The translator translated the figurative language wanted to go Dumpsterdiving in the dark into yang ingin menyelam ke bak sampah dalam gelap using figurative expression equivalent, to make the readers able imagine what is Dumpster-diving actually. The substitution of Dumpster is translated into bak sampah, since bak sampah is the closest translation which could describe Dumpster in the target language, because of Dumpster is not available and something which is unknown in the target language culture and makes the translation become acceptable.
Based on the analysis, there are seven types of figurative language found in the analysis of Rick Riordian novel’s Percy Jackson & The Olympians, The Titan’s Curse, namely; metaphor, simile, synecdoche, metonymy, hyperbole, euphemism, and idioms. From those figurative languages found in the novel, simile and hyperbole seem to be dominant, while euphemism, metonymy and
synecdoche less frequently occurred in the data. In the translation of figurative language in the novel, the data were analyzed using lexical equivalents when concepts are shared and lexical equivalents when concepts are unknown. A literal translation might be a dangerous step to be taken since figurative language is a series of words whose meaning is different from the meaning conveyed by the individual words.
Hornby, Albert Sidney. 2005. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English 17th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Larson, Mildred L. 1998. Meaning-Based Translation. Maryland: University Press of America.
Mastura, Nuraini. 2009. Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Kutukan Bangsa Titan. Jakarta: PT Mizan Publika.
Nida, Eugene A. and Charles R. Taber. 1974. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leaden: E.J.
Riordian, Rick. 2007. Percy Jackson & The Olympians, The Titan’s Curse. New York: Disney Book Group.
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