Translation works demand cultural mastery
Translation works demand cultural mastery
By S. Harmono
JAKARTA (JP): A letter to The Jakarta Post on Jan. 25 by
Adrianus Hiyung Tjung declares: "Translators deserve high pay."
Translators deserve to be better remunerated because theirs is a
demanding job, he said.
It would be interesting to read the reaction of his fellow
craftsmen and the public, but none was forthcoming.
Translating is a craft and a good, faithful translation may be
a work of art. It is not solely a matter of language. One may
possess language skills, one may labor through the texts fully
armed with linguistic knowledge, the question remains, will the
product in the target language be equally intelligible, provided
that the original contains no ambiguities?
The absence of any response to the letter is not surprising.
Most translators realize that the translation market is rather
slack in this protracted economic crisis. There are still well-
connected translation services which command high fees. They fill
the demand for translation by (1) businesses in international
trade; (2) bilateral cooperation projects, (3) foreign companies
wishing to understand local government regulations and (4)
individuals needing to send translated legalized diplomas for
school enrollment abroad.
Less lucrative is translation ordered by education-,
publisher- and foundation-related agencies due to their
shoestring budgets. However, this type of work gives some people
higher satisfaction.
Translation produced with craftsmanship and art does not yield
adequate remuneration because there is hardly any market for it.
So, on the practical side, if one desires to increase one's
earnings, one must see translation as a trading commodity. With
some business acumen one can create a rewarding clientele. One
will not have to cudgel one's brains on detailed contents but one
must guard against writing blunders. Some inconsistencies are all
right because our society is indulgent and even permissive in
this respect. Quality only rarely comes first. One must be
punctual in delivery which is the crucial point in the business
because clients want to see their text changed into the target
language instantly as if by magic, although it took them weeks to
write it themselves.
Good pay has nothing to do with a translator deserving it or
not. He may have to put up arduous and energy-absorbing labor but
in business one is dependent on the buyer.
International organizations abroad (e.g. some agencies of the
United Nations) require a double degree from a prospective
translator. First he must have a degree in languages (not
necessarily an MA or a PhD) and additionally in another
discipline, e.g. chemistry. The incumbent will be assigned the
translation of texts on chemistry only.
As far as it can be ascertained none of our self-avowed
translators ("sworn" or otherwise) have a double degree as
required above. They are so-called generalists, which means they
know something of nearly everything. It is only pure luck if a
linguist is strongly interested in chemistry, for example. It
would be better to find a chemist who has a knack for good
writing. He would know what it is all about. The problem with a
generalist is that he may not admit his ignorance on a subject.
He should actually do some research if his professional
conscience speaks to him.
As for the quality of translations, the subtitling of films
seems to be afflicted with problems. One reads the weirdest
Indonesian subtitles of English-speaking films on TV (and in the
cinema). They are characterized by word-by-word transfer from
English into Indonesian without regard for the meaning in
context.
More seriously, there is an apparent lack of understanding of
idiomatic and colloquial language. The team in charge of
subtitling at each TV station (penerjemah, penyunting, penyelaras
0akhir and what-have-you) should give better service to TV
viewers and not lead them up the garden path. It is necessary to
study in greater depth the language and the culture on both
sides. The problem with translation is that people are seldom
completely bilingual even if they have lived in two countries for
a long stretch of time.
Translating is risky if one does not know the other language
and its culture well enough, and worse if one's knowledge of
one's own language and culture is only approximate.
Another problem of translation is the faithful rendition of an
original text. A free translation has the inherent danger of
going too far afield thereby losing the original meaning of the
text. The Italians, on the crossroads of many cultures for
millennia, discovered that traduttore = tradittore, "to translate
is to betray". Even in closely related languages like French and
English some mistakes have remained.
It is generally accepted that Cinderella wears glass slippers.
Who would be comfortable in footwear made of glass? Charles
Perrault did not write verre (glass) but vair (furlike material).
Perhaps because the two words are homonyms, the meaning of "fur"
got lost in translation, a betrayal indeed. Homonyms are the
Achilles' heel of many native speakers. They may speak their
language fluently, though not necessarily in an impeccable
manner, but they usually do not pay enough attention to written
language.
Another example of cross-cultural communication is the
following; the famous versatile American conductor James Levine
shuttles between New York (the Metropolitan) and a number of
cities in Southern Germany and Austria. He is used to working
with German musicians. He likes to explain the music to them.
Confident that he knows the German language well enough, he
speaks German to them. Once, however, the musicians got lost
because they had difficulty understanding Levine's German usage.
"Mr. Levine, please" or perhaps "Sorry, Jimmy (he is highly
popular in the south German state of Bavaria), could you continue
your explanations in English?" Levine did not take offense. He
switched to English and everybody was happy.
The two examples show how hard it is to master two languages
at the same level. But that is the crux for doing responsible
translation.
The writer is a translator who is interested in cross-cultural
cross-purposes.