AN ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF THE PRESIDENT'S

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AN ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF

THE PRESIDENT’S MISTRESS

Laurina Suling, S.S, M.Min

Komp Billy & Moon Blok H2 No.1

Pondok Kelapa

Jakarta Timur 13450

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

This research is an annotated translation. The object of the study is an English

novel The President’s Mistress, written by Patrick Anderson. The purpose of this

research are (1) To attain factual information concerning the problems faced by the

researcher in translating the source text; (2) To give plausible solutions to the

difficulties. In conducting this annotated translation research, the researcher involved

the introspective and retrospective study. The result and analysis revealed that there

were 7 words, 6 phrases, 7 idioms and 5 sentences from the 25 aspects of language

analyzed that were difficult for the translator/researcher, those difficulties were at the

same time problems for the translator/researcher. The solutions of the problems were

attained by the annotation or analysis done relevant to the translation strategies and

translation theories.

Key words: annotation, introspective, retrospective, translation

INTRODUCTION

In this sub chapter, the researcher is describing the justification of the research,

relevant researches done, position of the research, and significance of the research.

In this research the researcher found out difficulties during the process of

translation from English into Indonesian faced by the researcher by annotating several

aspects, grammatical, lexical, cultural, as well as stylistic features that posed problems

for the researcher. By annotating the difficulties encountered during the translation

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means that the translator who was at the same time also the researcher conducted a

research called an annotated translation.

This area, namely annotated translation from one language into another, is

chosen by the researcher in order to widen her experience in translation which is in line

with her study. The translation from English into Indonesian was selected due to the

familiarity of the language, Indonesian, mostly known by the researcher as her native

language. The book The President’s Mistress was taken to be translated as its theme

shows one of the evidences how freedom of speech is truly applied in daily life in the

US, while in other countries freedom of speech is still questionable.

It was important to carry out this research because annotated translation applies

in practical sense the theories the researcher had studied in class, for example :

Theories of Translation, Linguistics, Bahasa Indonesia, Cross Culture Understanding

etc.

Previous researches related to this research are :

1. Venny Eka Meidasari (2008). Annotated Translation of the Speed of Trust.

2. Sudarya Permana (2007). Penerjemahan Beranotasi Buku Science in Medieval

Islam Karya Howard R. Turner.

3. James Mallinson (2007). The Khecarividya of Adhinatha: A Critical Edition and

Annotated Translation of an Early Text of Hathayoga.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Theories of Translation

Principles of Translation

According to Duff (1989) there are some general principles which are relevant to

all translation:

1. Meaning. The translation should reflect accurately the meaning of the original

text.Nothing should be arbitrarily added or removed, though occasionally part of the

meaning can be “transposed”. Ask yourself:

- is the meaning of the original text clear? If not, where does the uncertainty lie?

- are any words “loaded”, that is, are there any underlying implications? (“Correct

me if I’m wrong ... suggests “I know I’m right”! ).

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- is the dictionary meaning of a particular word the most suitable one?

- does anything in the translation sound unnatural or forced?

2. Form. The ordering of words and ideas in the translation should match the original as

closely as possible ... But differences in language structure often require changes in

the form and order of words. When in doubt, underline the original text the words on

which the main stress falls.

3. Register. Languages differ greatly in their levels of formality in a given context. To

resolve these differences, the translator must distinguish between formal or fixed

expressions and personal expressions, in which the writer or speaker sets the tone.

4. Source language influence. One of the most frequent criticism of translation is that ‘it

doesn’t sound natural.’ This is because the translator’s thoughts and choice of words

are too strongly moulded by the original text. A good way of shaking off the source

language (SL) influence is to set the text aside and translate a few sentences aloud,

from memory. This will suggest natural patterns of thought in the first language (L1),

which may not come to mind when the eye is fixed on the SL text.

5. Style and clarity. The translator should not change the style of the original. But if the

text is sloppily written, or full of tedious repetitions, the translator may, for the

reader’s sake, correct the defects.

6. Idiom. Idiomatic expressions are notoriously untranslatable. These include similes,

metaphors, proverbs and sayings (as good as gold), jargon, slang, colloquialisms,

(user friendly, yuppie, the Big Apple), and (in English) phrasal verbs. If the

expressions cannot be directly translated, try any of the following:

- retain the original word, in inverted commas.

- retain the original expression, with a literal explanation in brackets.

- use a close equivalent.

- use a non-idiomatic or plain prose.

Theories of Idiomatic Translation

1. Larson (1984) said, “Meaning – based translations make every effort to communicate

the meaning of the SL text in the natural forms of th RL. Such translations are called

idiomatic translation.”

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2. Larson also said.

A good translator will try to translate idiomatically. This is his goal. However,

translations are often a mixture of a literal transfer of the grammatical units along

with some idiomatic translation of the meaning of the text. It is not easy to

consistently translate idiomatically.

3. Again from Larson.

Idiomatic translations use the natural form of the receptor language, both in the

grammatical constructions and in the choice of lexical items. A truly idiomatic

translation does not sound like a translation. I sounds like it was written originally in

the receptor language .

The Theories of Overtranslation / Padding.

1. Newmark (1981) said.

A semantic translation tends to be more complex, more awkward, more detailed,

more concentrated, and pursues the thought-processes rather than the intention of the

transmitter. It tends to overtranslate, to be more specific than the original, to include

more meanings in its search for one nuance of meaning”.

2. Newmark (1988): “It is sometimes advisable to retreat from literal translation when

faced with SL general words for which there are no “satisfactory” one-to-one TL

equivalents even though one is over-translating”.

3. Duff’s (1981) Padding or overtranslation: “In good translation, length is determined

by the structure of the target language and not by the number of words in the source

language. Padding occurres when words are merely transfered without regard for the

potential of the target language”.

Theories of Shifts

Munday citing Catford (2000). Catford considers two kinds of shifts: (1) shift of

level and (2) shift of category:

1. A Level Shift (2000: 141-3) would be something which is expressed by grammar in

one language and lexis in another.

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2. Category shifts. These are subdivided into 4 kinds:

a. Structural shifts – these are the most common form of shift and involve mostly a

shift in grammatical structure.

b. Class shifts – these comprise shifts from one part of speech to another.

c. Unit shifts or rank shifts – these are shifts where the translation equivalent in the

TL is at a different rank to the SL. “Rank” here refers to the hierarchical linguistic

units of sentence, clause, group, word and morpheme.

d. Intra-system shifts- these are shifts that take place when the SL and TL possess

approximately corresponding system but where “the translation involves selection

of a non – corresponding term in the TL system”.

Theories of Naturalness

1. Nida and Taber (1982):” Translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language

the closest natural equivalent of the source languange message, first in terms of

meaning and secondly in terms of style”.

2. Munday (2000): “The message has to be tailored to the receptor’s linguistic needs

and cultural expectation and aims at complete naturalness of expression”.

3. Larson (1998): “To do effective translation one must discover the meaning of the

source language and use receptor language forms which express this meaning in a

natural way.”

4. Newmark (1981)

Normally, the translator should write within his own idiolect or his conception of the

SL text author’s, always provided the text appears to be written naturally. The

translator must not use a word or phrase that sounds intuitively unnatural or artificial

to him.

Theories of English and Indonesian

Cohesion and Kohesi

1. Jan Renkema (1993): “Cohesion is the connection which results when the

interpretation of a textual element is dependent on another element in the text.”

2. Howard Jackson (1990):

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Cohesion refers to the ways which the sentences of a text are grammaticlly and

lexically linked. A bond is formed between one sentence and another because the

interpretation of a sentence either depends on or is informed by some item in a

previous---usually the previous---sentence .

3. Hasan Alwi dalam Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia (2003) :” Kohesi merupakan

hubungan perkaitan antaraproposisi yang dinyatakan secara eksplisit oleh unsur-

unsur gramatikal dan semantik dalam kalimat-kalimat yang membentuk wacana.

Interjection and Interjeksi

1. Leech and Svartvik in: A communicative Grammar of English (1975). “Interjections

are words whose only function is to express emotion. Common English interjections

are: Oh (surprise), Ah (Satisfaction), Wow (Great Surprise), Ouch, Ow (pain).”

2. Hasan Alwi et al dalam Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia (2003).

Interjeksi atau kata seru adalah kata tugas yang mengungkapkan rasa hati pembicara.

Untuk memperkuat rasa hati seperti kagum, sedih, heran, dan jijik orang memakai

kata tertentu di samping kalimat yang mangandung makna pokok yang dimaksud.

Comparison and Tingkat komparatif

a. Frank, (Marcella, 1972): Modern English:

Descriptive adjective have special forms only for comparison”.

Comparative degree

Superlative degree

b. Jackson Howard, 1990, Grammar and Meaning:

Another important characteristic of most adjectives is that they are “gradable”. There

are grades or degrees of the quality or description referred to by the adjective, and we

can express this gradability grammatically. Adjectives can be inflected for

comparative and superlative degree.

c. Hasan Alwi dalam Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia (2003) menyatakan bahwa

tingkat komparatif mengacu ke kadar kualitas atau intensitas yang lebih atau yang

kurang. Pewatas yang dipakai ialah lebih ... dari (pada) ..., kurang ... dari (pada),

dan kalah ... dengan/dari (pada). Dewasa ini dalam struktur komparatif pemakaian

kata daripada bersaing dengan kata dari.

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Tingkat superlatif mengacu ke tingkat kualitas atau intensitas yang paling tinggi di

antara semua acuan adjective yang dibandingkan. Tingkat itu di dalam kalimat

dinyatakan dengan pemakaian afiks ter atau pewatas paling di muka adjective yang

bersangkutan.

Strategies of Translation

According to Williams and Chesterman (2002) in their book The Map: a Beginner’s

Guide to Doing Research in Translation Studies, there are three strategies of translation.

1. Syntactic strategies, such as shifting the word-class, changing the phrase, clause or

sentence structure, adding or changing cohesion.

2. Semantic Strategic, such as using hyponyms or super-ordinates, altering the level of

abstraction, redistributing the information over more or fewer elements.

3. Pragmatic strategies, such as naturalizing or exoticizing, altering the level of

explicitness, adding or omitting information.

4. Emphasis on stylistic appropriateness. Emphasized are features such as:

a. The choice of oral mode.

b. The selection of appropriate genre and type of discourse.

c. Appropriate language varieties or styles.

DESIGN AND PROCEDURES OF THE RESEARCH

Design of the Research

This research belongs to the area of analysis of the original and source text

which covers a study on annotated translation. Introspective and retrospective research

are included in this annotated translation study. Introspective method is carried out

when “... the process of observing and reflecting on one’s thoughts, feelings, motives,

reasoning processes, and mental states with a view to determinig the ways in which

these processes and states determine our behaviour.” (Nunan, 1992, p. 115).

Introspective method is included in this annotated translation research, in which the

researcher herself translates the text and, at the same time, writes annotations on her

own translation process.

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Furthermore, Nunan (1992) stated that the retrospective research is conducted

when “... retrospective data are collected some time after the event under investigation

has taken place.” (p. 124). Retrospective research is a study investigating the mental

processes through the researcher’s original memory immediately after he/she has

translated.

Procedures of the Research

In conducting this research, the researcher uses the following procedures:

1. The source text is read thoroughly to give a full understanding of the content.

2. Independently the researcher translates the source text into Indonesian.

3. During the course of translating the text, the researcher regularly consults her advisors

to discuss problems she encounters referring to the task undertaken.

4. At the same time, she marks down the words, phrases, idioms, clauses, and sentences

that have become a problem in the process of translating the texts.

5. The researcher takes only the most significant ones due to the limited time allotted.

6. These problematic items are analyzed and the researcher then gives plausible reasons

as to the solving of these problems.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The source text amounted to 15.000 words and was translated into Indonesian as

the target text. During the process of translating the researcher collected the data which

amounted to eighty-nine (89) items.

The data to be annotated are categorized based on the grammatical items. There

are four categories namely words, phrases, idioms, and sentences. From the 89 items of

the data, the researcher has annotated 25 items which are the most difficult problems

that the researcher has encountered.

Based on the result of analysis, the data collected will be synthesised into

aspects of grammatical and stylistic features that posed problems to the translator /

researcher. This synthesis forms a brief summary of all the difficulties encountered by

the translator / researcher during the process of translation.

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Annotation and Analysis

Words

There are 7 words to be annotated, namely: … do-gooders …, Jesus, …

demanded. … pacing …, She …, Something!” and … moving …

As example we take the word … do-gooders …

Source Text Target Text

Plus the usual fringe of

do-gooders and weirdos.

Ditambah golongan pinggir yang terdiri dari orang-

orang yang selalu ingin membereskan sesuatu dan

orang-orang yang aneh.

In this sentence, the word ...do-gooders... was translated into .... orang-orang

yang selalu ingin membereskan sesuatu ... There is no equivalent for the word do-

gooders in Indonesian. The translator/researcher finds it difficult to translate it. Thus

she has to explain descriptively the actual meaning of do-gooders in the translated text.

That’s why to convey the message, one word ... do-gooders ... was translated into

several words, namely a clause, ... orang-orang yang selalu ingin membereskan

sesuatu ... So, there are too many words or over translation.

Translation Strategy :

1. Pragmatic strategy, adding information, namely yang selalu ingin membereskan

sesuatu.

2. Syntactic strategy :

Shift of rank, namely do-gooders, a word was translated into orang-orang yang

selalu ingin membereskan sesuatu, a clause.

Translation Theory :

1. Duff’s Principle of Translation :

“The translation should reflect accurately the meaning of the original text.” (1989)

e.g. …do-gooders … was translated into … orang-orang yang selalu ingin

membereskan sesuatu ….

2. Newmark’s Communicative and Semantic Translation

A semantic translation tends to be more complex, more awkward, more detailed,

more concentrated, and pursues the thought-processes rather than the intention of

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the transmitter. It tends to overtranslate, to be more specific than the original, to

include more meanings in its search for one nuance of meaning .(1986)

e.g. … do gooders … was translated into … orang-orang yang selalu ingin

membereskan sesuatu…

3. Catford as cited by Munday (2001):

“Unit shifts or rank shifts: These are shifts where the translation equivalent in the

TL is at a different rank to the SL. ‘Rank’ here refers to the hierarchical linguistic

units of sentence, clause, group, word and morpheme.”

e.g. … do-gooders … (a word) … was translated into … orang-orang yang selalu

ingin membereskan sesuatu … ( a clause)

Phrases

There are 6 phrases to be annotated, namely, … a combination of bartending and

dope dealing …, … curled up on the seat …, … said those words?, “It’s hard to say …, …

throwing my route, “If you say so”.

As example we take the phrase … was throwing my route …


Once or twice when I was throwing

my route around dawn, there’d be

parties still going on here.

Sekali atau dua kali ketika saya sedang

bertugas melempar koran pagi-pagi

sekali, pesta masih berlangsung di sini.

In this sentence the phrase … was throwing my route … was translated into …

sedang bertugas melempar koran … The literal meaning of … was throwing my

route … in Indonesian is sedang melempar jalan saya … but if it was translated in that

way it would not make sense. So it was translated … ketika saya sedang bertugas

melempar koran … to make it sound more natural.


Pragmatic strategy, naturalizing, namely from … was throwing my route …

into … sedang bertugas melempar koran.

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1. Munday’s Equivalence and equivalent effect.

“The message has to be tailored to the receptor’s linguistic needs and cultural

expectation and aims at complete naturalness of expression. (Munday 2000)

1. Larson Idiomatic Translation

A good translator will try to translate idiomatically. This is his goal. However,

translations are often a mixture of a literal transfer of the grammatical units along

with some idiomatic translation of the meaning of the text. It is not easy to

consistently translate idiomatically. (Larson, 1998)

Idioms

There are 7 idioms to be annotated, namely … a basket case …, “And cows might

fly”, … “I’ll take …, “Business as usual, … to make one final stab, … blew his stack…,

… to work it out”.

As example we take the idiom … “And cows might fly”.


“And cows might fly.” Ed Murphy said. ”Tidak mungkin,” kata Ed Murphy.

In the sentence above “And cows might fly,” is an idiom and was translated

into “Tidak mungkin”…. There is no equivalent in Indonesian for And cows might fly.

Literally And cows might fly means Dan sapi dapat terbang, and that is an

impossibility that’s why it was translated into “Tidak mungkin” which means It’s

impossible. In Indonesian we don’t have such idiom with the word cows and the same

meaning.


Emphasis on stylistic appropriateness: the selection of appropriate genre and type of

discourse.


1. Duff’s Principles of Translation:

“Idiomatic expressions are notoriously untranslatable. If the expressions cannot be

directly translated, use a non–idiomatic or plain prose translation”. (1989)

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e.g. The idiom “And cows might fly” … was translated into “Tidak mungkin.” , a

plain prose.

2. Larson’s Kinds of Translations:

“Meaning-based translations make every effort to communicate the meaning of the

source language text in the natural forms of the receptor language. Such translations

are called idiomatic translation. (Larson, 1998)

e.g. The idiom “And cows might fly” was translated ito “Tidak mungkin”.

Sentences

There are 5 sentences to be annotated, namely: “The hell I did, … he knew better,

On top of everything else, “Suppose they raped her?”, The boy was a suspect. As example

we take the sentence: The boy was a suspect.


The boy was a suspect. Anak itu patut dicurigai.

This sentence, The boy was a suspect, was translated into Anak itu patut

dicurigai. The boy was a suspect, is an active sentence, translated into Anak itu patut

dicurigai, a passive sentence.


Syntactic strategy, changing the sentence structure, namely translation of an active

sentence: The boy was a suspect into a passive sentence : Anak itu patut dicurigai.


1. Duff’s Principles of Translation:

“The ordering of words and ideas in the translation should match the original as

closely as possible. But differences in language structure often require changes in

the form and order of words.” (1989)

2. Catford’s as cited by Munday:

“Structural shifts are the most common form of shifts and involve mostly a shift in

grammatical structure.” (Munday, 2001)

e.g. The boy was a suspect, an active sentence, translated into Anak itu patut

dicurigai, a passive sentence.

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Conclusion

This research solves the problems that are detected when the researcher is

translating the English source text into Indonesian.

Based on this research the findings are: (1) All the collected data or the

difficulties of the research amount to 89 items. (2) Of these 89 items, 25 of them were

very difficult for the translator/researcher.

The theories that are used in solving the problems by the researcher besides

theories of translation, are also compared with the theories of the English language and

those of the Indonesian. The difficulty in the course of translating the text that has to be

overcome by using the relevant theories, forms the application of what the researcher

has studied in class.

Recommendation

Due to the weakness of this research, the researcher highly advises that other

researchers who are going to conduct annotated translation research render the entire

book so that more annotations may be produced. If more annotations are made it will be

clearer for the understanding of the readers who are of different field of study. The

researcher uses English as the source text and has translated it into Indonesian. For the

next prospective researcher, it is recommended that they also make a research of

annotated translation from Indonesian into English.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alwi, Hasan,. 2003, “Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia”, Jakarta, BalaiPustaka

Anderson, Patrick., 1976, “The President’s Mistress”, New York: Pocket Book

Catford, J.C., 1974, “A Linguistic Theory of Translation: An Eassy in AppliedLinguistics”, Oxford University Press.

Duff, Alan., 1984, “The third Language, Recurent problems of translation intoEnglish”, Pergamon Press.

_________., 1989, “Translation”. London: Oxford University Press

Frank, Marcella, 1972, “Modern English, a practical reference guide”, New Jersey,Prentice – Hall Inc.

Jackson, Howard., 1995, “Grammar and Meaning: A Semantic Approach toEnglish Grammar”, London and New York: Longman

Larson, Mildred, L. 1998, Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross-Language Equivalence,University Press of America, Inc.

Leech, Geoffrey and Svartrik, 1975, “A Communicative Grammar of English”,Essex, Longman Group, UK Ltd.

Mallinson,James.,2007, “The Khecarividya of Adhinatha: A Critical Edition andAnnotated Translation of an Early Text of Hathayoga”,

Munday Jeremy.,2000, “Introducing Translation studies: Theories and applications”,London: Routledge.

Meidasari, Venny Eka., (2008). “Annotated Translation of the Speed of Trust”,Unpublished Magister Thesis: Universitas Guandarma.

Newmark, Peter., 1986, “Approaches to Translation”, Oxford: Pergamon Press.

______________., 1988, “A Text Book of Translation”, Prentice HallInternational (UK) Ltd.

______________., 1991, “About Translation”, Clevedon: Mulitlingual MattersLtd.

Nida, Eugene, A. and Taber,Charles, R., 1982, “ The Theory and Practice ofTranslation”, Second Photomechanical Reprint.

Nunan, D., 1992, “Research Methods in Language Learning”, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

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Permana, Sudarya., 2007,Penerjemahan Beranotasi Buku Science in MedivalIslam, Unpublished Magister Thesis: Universitas Indonesia.

Renkema, Jan, 1993, “Discourse Studies, An Introductiory Textbook”, Amsterdam/ Philadelphia ,John Benyamins Publishing Company,.

Williams, Jenny & Chesterman, Andrew. 2002, “The Map: a Beginner’s Guide toDoing Research in Translation Studies”, Manchester, St. Jerome Publishing.

Documents

AN ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF THE PRESIDENT'S