Translation: Engine of cultural progress that moves very slowly

By A Jo Seng Bie

BANDUNG (Antara): Although translators are one of the engines of a nation's cultural progress, in Indonesia this engine moves only a little due to lack of fuel.

Translators have not fully played their role as one of the engines bringing about cultural progress because they are usually lowly paid, according to the third scientific meeting on literary sciences held late last year by the post-graduate program of Padjadjaran University.

Besides, translators are not adequately appreciated in professional terms in Indonesia. Another constraint is the lack of commitment on the part of intellectuals to serve as cross- cultural mediators and multilingual communicators in introducing the science, literature and entertainment from other people's culture to the Indonesian-speaking community.

"A translator is paid a mere Rp 11,500 per page," said Chaedar Alwasilah, first assistant to the dean of the School of Language and Literature Education of Bandung Teachers Training Institute.

He was referring to data compiled up to mid 1997.

During the scientific meeting, chairwoman of the post-graduate program of Padjajaran University, T. Fatimah Djajasudarma, voiced a similar opinion. "Just compare conditions here with those in Malaysia. Over there a translator is paid by the word," she said.

She said that a ratio of 30 to 70 between universities majoring in text studies and those in linguistics illustrates the fact that the profession of a translator draws only a relatively small interest among students.

She went on to say that the translation of a text was very important to the development of science and technology, for example medical science.

Alwasilah said that between 1989 and 1997, 489 lecturers at state universities all over Indonesia were upgraded in terms of translation and writing. However, he went on, only a quarter of them have actively translated books.

In fact, he noted, in all state universities throughout Indonesia there are five million copies of over 100,000 book titles, mostly in English.

The fact that not many foreign books have been translated is connected to the low translation fees. It is also suspected that most lecturers translate books simply because they want to collect the credit points from this work. So these people are motivated more by their wish for promotion rather than by the desire to popularize science and technology in particular and civilization in general.

"A motivation like this apparently contradicts the commitment of an educational institution in promoting the intelligence of the people," he said, as he once dwelled upon in an article of his published in Media Indonesia daily. The major constraint in the upgrading course on translation and writing of textbooks at the national level is the poor writing skills and mastery of the Indonesian language. "The fact is that university lecturers are not the products of an educational process enabling their graduates to write books," he said.

One of the constraints in the translation of foreign books, he said, is the relatively high copyright cost, i.e. about US$1,500 to $2,000 for a title, the translation of which would be printed in about 3,000 copies.

Another reason for the low intensity in textbook translation is that this work demands strong concentration, plus it is full- time work. Therefore, to catch up with the lack of quality and quantity, the profession of a translator cannot be concurrently held by a university lecturer, whose main job is teaching.

"Translation is not something you do to while away the time. It is an activity which must be tightly planned," said Rahayu S. Hidayat, a University of Indonesia lecturer, at the scientific gathering.

Since 1983, Rahayu has translated 14 scientific works. It takes her an average four months to translate a book of 200 pages. Every day she spends an average of three hours. It takes her another two months to polish the translation before it is all set for print.

Chaedar proposes that the Directorate General of Higher Learning should consider establishing a translation institute, something like research institutes and institutes for social dedication now developing at universities.

A translation institute, he maintained, would give the community a better understanding of translation and translators. Such an institute would give professional recognition to translators, he said.

In developing its science and technology, Indonesia is oriented to Europe and the United States, he said. Therefore, the government's translation project, financed by a loan from the World Bank, will prioritize the translation of English textbooks into Indonesian, particularly textbooks on engineering, mathematics, natural sciences and agriculture.

"The involvement of the World Bank," he said, "makes us realize that to study the civilization of developed nations is costly and that the people's money must be used to cover this cost."

In connection with this, a translator will serve as a mediator between the author of the original book (or source book) and the reader of the translated version of the book (or target book).

In the absence of translation, he said, it is hardly possible for human beings to exchange a lot about their emotional experiences, entertainment or intellectual pursuits. Without the hard work of a translator, he went on, bright and brilliant ideas expressed in the original/source book would only be possessed by the "tycoons" of civilization.

According to Chaedar, there would be less need for the translation of textbooks if our university students and graduates had an adequate mastery of English and the proper writing skills to promote science and technology in Indonesia.

Possession of these two skills would help improve the generally unsatisfactory condition of Indonesia's book world. Therefore, to ensure that our university students and graduates obtain a good grasp of these skills, efforts must be made to raise the levels of quality and quantity of the teaching of English and Indonesian in universities.

In this context, Chaedar proposed that the last two years of university lectures should be given fully in English to ensure that university graduates are well prepared for global competition.

In this situation, he went on, private university managements will have an opportunity to offer special degree or non-degree programs on translation training.