In translation meaning should be given the highest priority, but style

also important. For example, a translator should not translate prose into
poetry, nor expository into a narrative one. Because almost impossible to
create in the target language the exact style of the source language such as
plays on words, poem in certain rhymes, rhythmic units (phrase and line of
poetry), a marginal note should be added to ease the readers understand
why the text is written like this.

2. Types of translation
There are so many definitions of translation offered by experts but they can be
categorized into two broad types, namely free and literal translation. Free
translation also called sense for sense translation. Here, the translator interprets
the source text and renders certain aspect of his or her interpretation in the
target text in addition to, or instead, surface meaning. There are some principles
for the translator to translate a text using this type of translation. These are the
principles of free translation
a. The translation should convey the ideas of the target language text, not the
words.
b. The translation is like the text written in the target language in terms of its
flexibility.
c. The translation should have its own style.
d. The translation should show the time of the writing of the text.
e. The translation may add or reduce anything existed in the source language
text.
f. A literary genre does not have to be maintained.

Here, the translator should try to transfer the ideas of target language
text into those of the source language text. It is not the form but the ideas or
content that shoud be rendered. The translation should read like the original text
in the target language, so the translator is permitted to add or reduce elements
which may distract the smoothness of the translation result. For principles 6,
however, it should be noted that the translator should not change the genre of
the writing if the idea still can be conveyed without changing the genre.
Faithful translation, also called word-for-word translation, is ideally the
segmentation of the source language text into individual words and target

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language rendering of those word-segments one at the time. But in “real-life”
translation this ideal is often literally impossible—an inflected word in an
agglutinative source language, for example, can almost never be replaced with
single word in an isolative target language—and even when literally possible, the
result is often unreadable. Hence most so-called literal translations are in fact
compromises with the ideal; looser renditions that replace individual source
language words with individual target language words wherever possible, and
cling as closely possible to the source word order in the target language. In
detail, the principles of faithful translation are as follows:
a. The translator should use the source language words.
b. When the translation is read, it is like a translation.
c. The translation should show the style of source language text.
d. The translation should show the time of the writing of the text.
e. The translation should not add or reduce anything existing in the source
language text.
f. A literary genre should be maintained in the translation.

On the basis of the principles above, the translator in performing his/her

task should translate the texts literally and maintain the style of the text.
Therefore, when the translation is read, it is like a translation and in this case
translator should not reduce or add words from the source language text. The
time of writing also should be shown. The last, a certain genre should be
translated into the same genre, poetry, for instance, should be translated into
poetry, not a prose.
To make the explanation more understandable, following is a short
example where English is source language and Bahasa Indonesia as a target
language.

- Source language
In our notion the object of a university education is to train intellectual men
for the pursuits of an intellectual life.

- Result of faithful translation

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 Menurut gagasan kita sasaran dari suatu pendidikan universitas adalah
untuk melatih laki-laki intelektual untuk pengejaran suatu kehidupan
intelektual.

- Result of free translation

Dalam gagasan kita, tujuan pendidikan tinggi adalah untuk melatih manusia
intelektual demi mengejar kehidupan intelektual.

3. Translation Process
Translating involves two processes in the mind of the translator. In one side
translator should focus his/her attention on the source language text and in the
same time process it into target language text. We call this as process of
translation. According to Nida and Taber (1982), there are two approaches in
translating text from source language into target language. The first approach is
based on the application of rules called “surface structure” of language. Look at
the diagram below

A------------------(X) ------------------B
Figure 1. Surface structure

In the above diagram, A refers to source language, B target language and (X)
represents the intermediate structure set up as a type of universal language
where any and all languages might be related for the sake of economical
transfer, but the approach doesn’t represent mental state experienced by the
translator.
But Nida and Taber also offer their more detail diagram process

A (Source) B Target/Receptor)

(Analysis) (Restructuring)

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 X (Transfer) Y
Figure 2. Process of translation according to Nida and Taber 1982.

The Nida and Taber’s process is then refined by Suryawinata (1989)

because the process shown by Nida and Taber does not show the internal
process explicity. Suryawinata then proposes the process which can be shown
as follows:

Analysis and
Understanding Restructuring
Content Transfer Content
Source meaning Equivalent meaning Target
language message message language
Text in source in target text
language 2 language

1 3
Evaluation and revision

Figure 3. Process of translation developed by Suryawinata (1989:14)

The process shown by figure 2 shows that translator should transfer

three different things simultaneously namely content, meaning, and message.
Content refers to the information written in a language and message refers to
information written in the source language, meaning to something expressed in
a language and message refers to feeling, emotion, and the implication
expected by the author to be understood by the readers (Suryawinata and
Hariyanto, 2003:181).
The process of translation consists of three stages. First is analysis and
understanding. In this process, the translator reads the source language text to
understand the content of the text. In this stage, the surface structure and
message in the source language is analyzed in line with grammatical relations,
meaning of words and combination of words, texture and contextual meanings.
The second is transfer. In this process, the material is analyzed and the
meanings understood are processed in mind of the translator from source
language into target language. The last is restructuring. It means that if the
equivalent of the meanings in the source language has been obtained, the

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 translator should look for equivalent of words, expression, and sentences in the
target language. At this stage, the translator should restructure the grammars in
line with the rules of the target language. The nearest equivalents are obtained.
This process occurs quickly but when translating complex texts or difficult
technologies, the process may happen many times, so revision and
reconsideration should be done until accurate equivalents is obtained. If the
translator had done the analysis, transfer of content, meaning and message
from source language into target language, the translation is finished, and a
translation has been produced.
About the process of translation, one proposed by Suryawinata may
lead the translator to a different process. In this process, errors might be
predicted and analyzed more systemically. The prediction and analysis,
however, might be done at the surface manifestation. Therefore, the study may
still be done on linguistic aspect. Moreover, problems in translation might arise
at the transfer stage.

Exercises
Write in separate papers, if necessary, translate the following texts. Translate into
Bahasa Indonesia as the target language. Translate them in both styles (literal and
free translation) and compare the results. You may do it in a group of two to four.

Text #1
The Loss of the ‘Titanic.’

The great ship, Titanic, sailed for New York from Southampton on April 10th, 1912.
Titanic was carrying 1316 passengers and 891 crews. Even by modern standard,
the 46.000 ton Titanic was a colossal ship. At that time, however, she was not only
the largest ship that had ever built, but regarded as unsinkable ship, because the
ship has sixteen watertight compartments. Even, if two of these compartments were
flooded, the ship still be able to float. The tragic sinking of this great liner will always
be remembered, because she sank on her first voyage with heavy lost of life.
Four days after setting out, while Titanic was sailing across the icy water of
north Atlantic, a huge iceberg was suddenly spotted by a look-out.

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