40 Mandalay University of Foreign Languages Research Journal 2019, Vol. 10, No.

An Analysis of Myanmar-English Translation Techniques Found

in the Short Story “When the Pledge of Love Remains Firm”
by Zaw Tun
Aw Thu Zar 1
Abstract
Translation is the process when the translator changes the meaning of the source
language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Also, it is of great
importance in exchanging the information between languages. The translator
should be careful to use an appropriate strategy to produce a good translation.
This study aims to find out the kinds of translation techniques found in
Myanmar- English translation short story entitled ―တိုငံတညံသစ္စာွမဲေလေသာ
အခါ‖ by Thin Aung Than into ― When the Pledge of Love Remains Firm‖ by
Zaw Tun. In this study, the data were analyzed using translation techniques
proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995). The result showed that out of seven
translation techniques , three techniques such as calque, borrowing and literal
translation were not found. Only four techniques were found. The percentage of
four techniques found was transposition (21.3%), modulation (32%);
equivalence (6.4%), adaptation (40.3%). The occurrence of adaptation is the
highest and the least one is equivalence. The occurrence of calque, borrowing
and literal translation was not found. The reason is that there are striking
differences in the nature of the source language and the target language.
Therefore, this study enhances the understanding of the literature of source
language text through the target language text for the learners who would like to
approach Myanmar literature. Besides, it is of great help to students who are
interested in Myanmar to English translation.
Keywords: translation, techniques, source language, target language.
Introduction
There are many countries and also many languages all over the world. For
this reason, people in the world create language for interacting and
communicating with others. In this way, language becomes a communication tool.
Therefore, people need translation to communicate between people with different
languages. Translation, therefore, plays a vital role in human life. The act of
translation is defined in various ways by the scholars but the common thing
among the scholars is that it is an activity when someone transfers a language in a
text form or source language (SL) to another language or target language (TL)
accurately. Catford (1965), as cited in Jiraphatralikhit et al. 2 (2005) views
translation as the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by the
equivalent text material in another language (TL) .
Newmark 3 (1988) states that ―translation is rendering the meaning of a
text into another language in the way that the author intended the text.‖ In
translating, a translator should carefully keep attention for every word that is
translated because it will influence the equivalence meaning between SL and TL
on its translation.

1
Daw, Lecturer, Department of English, Mandalay University of Foreign Languages
2
Jiraphatralikhit, J., Klinpoon, S., & Kaewjan, S. (2005). An analysis of strategies in translation of
the movie subtitle: Behind the painting.Research Gate
3
Newmark, P. (1988). A textbook of translation. London: Prentice Hall.
Mandalay University of Foreign Languages Research Journal 2019, Vol. 10, No. 1 41

Nowadays, many literatures are being translated for a good variety of

reasons. A lot of English books, short stories, dramas are translated into other
language versions and vice versa. These translated literatures are very useful
materials for foreign students as well as for people who learn English. This
enables them not only to enrich their vocabularies but also to get cultural
knowledge. To translate a text from source language into target language the
translator should consider the process of translating. Further, a good translator
should be able to translate a lot of text types through the correct methods.
Nevertheless, most of the translators translate the works of other authors who are
not the same nationality from their mother tongue language into another language
and vice versa. But for this short story ―တိုငံတညံသစ္စာွမဲေလေသာအခါ‖, both the
original author and the translator are Myanmar nationality. So, this inspired the
researcher to investigate the translation techniques used by the author who is not a
native speaker. In this paper, the researcher analyzed the short story ―တိုငံတညံ
သစ္စာွမဲေလေသာအခါ‖ by using translation techniques proposed by Vinay and
Darbelnet 1 (1995). This story is written by Thin Aung Than who is a former
veterinarian and translated by Zaw Tun who has just been awarded Doctor Tin
Shwe literary prize for his book entitled The Sweet Honey Drop on the Sharp
Scalpel Blade..
This paper is intended for those who are interested in translating Myanmar
literary text into English. So it is hoped that this paper will encourage them to
make the best use of translation techniques so as to achieve improvement in their
translation skills.
Literature Review
Translation is not an easy work but it is a challenging job as well. Today
many people think that anyone who knows more than one language can become a
translator or interpreter. But it is only a half-truth because a good translator must
have good background knowledge of both languages. Moreover, the work of
translation needs the theoretical knowledge and understanding of source text.
Hatim and Mason2 (1990) suggest that translation is a process involving
the negotiation of meaning between producers and receivers of the text. It is
defined that general translation is a method of transferring oral and written
messages from writing to speech or from one language to another.
(https://translationjournal.net/journal/63theory.htm)
Larson3 (1984) states that in general translation communicates, as much
as possible the same meaning that was understood by the speakers of the source
language, using the normal language form of the receptor language, while
maintaining the dynamics of the original source language text. So, translation can
be explained as a decision-making process and a problem-solving task.
Translation is also a complicated task during which the translator
encounters some problems or problematic issues which require observation,
identification and finding the suitable solution. The means by which the translator

1
Vinay, J.P, & Darbelnet, J. (2000). A methodology for translation.
2
Hatim, B., & Mason, J. (1997). The Translator as Communicator. New York
3
Larson, Mildred.L. 1984. Meaning-Based Translation.
42 Mandalay University of Foreign Languages Research Journal 2019, Vol. 10, No. 1

deals with these problems are called techniques. Jacobson 1 (2000) described
categories of translation into three forms. First is intralingual translation or
rewording, an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs of the same
language. Second, interlingual translation or translation proper, an interpretation
of verbal signs by means of some other language. Third, intersemiotic translation
or transmutation, an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of non-verbal
signs systems.
Maisa 2 (2018) conducted a piece of research named ―The Analysis of
Translation Technique of Children Story : ―Lila, The Clumsy Witch‖. In this
paper, the writer analyzed the children text entitled Lila, the clumsy witch or Lila,
penyihir yang ceroboh. The story is written by Amelia Kurniawati and translated
by P. Francis Rhien. It is an English to Indonesian translation story. In order to
analyze the story, the techniques used by the researcher are proposed by
Newmark(1988). They are word for word translation, literal translation and free
translation. In this research, it is found that literal translation is the most preferred
method applied by the writer in translating the text. Other translation techniques
such as literal translation and free translation since these techniques are easier and
simpler to translate text from English to Indonesian. This result indicates that the
writer of the book focuses on the source language.
AlBisher 3 (2016) did a study entitled ―A Comparative Study of Two
Translations of Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland‖. This study focuses on the
translation of literary texts from English into Arabic, it discusses the challenges
that face translators of children‘s literature (CL), regarding cultural references,
and offers solutions for such challenges. The research approach adopted in this
dissertation includes a descriptive analysis carried out through comparing two
translated versions of Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland. The findings from this
research provide evidence that Klingberg 4 (1986) theory as well as other
translation techniques and procedures can be used in translating culturally bound
terms and expressions to produce child-friendly translations in Arabic. The main
conclusions drawn from this study state that despite the multiplicity of translation
theories and techniques, translating literature remains problematic. This becomes
more difficult when it comes to CL translation because of the specificity of the
target language (TL) recipient (the child). This dissertation concludes by
recommending further investigation of the most convenient techniques to achieve
child-oriented literature through translation.
From the above discussion, finding the adequate techniques for doing
translation is necessary for every translator. In the field translation, many
researchers did research on the techniques of translation. However, there is little
in the translation study which focuses especially on the translation techniques in
the context that both the authors are the same nationality. Therefore, this research
was carried out to explore and discuss the techniques used by the translator, Zaw

1
Jacobson, R. (2000). On linguistics aspects of translation. In L. Venuti (ed.). TheThe translation
2
Maisa(2018) ―The Analysis of Translation Technique of Children Story : ―Lila, The Clumsy
Witch‖. Journal of English Language and Learning.
3
Albisher, Maha K. (2016) A Comparative Study of Two Translation of Alice‘s Adventures in
Wonderland. M.A. Thesis .
4
Klingberg, G. (1986). Children‘s fiction in the hands of writers.
Mandalay University of Foreign Languages Research Journal 2019, Vol. 10, No. 1 43

Tun in translating the short story ―တိုငံတညံသစ္စာွမဲေလေသာအခါ‖ by Thin Aung Than.

Both the authors are Myanmar nationality. To conduct the research, seven
different translation techniques proposed by Vinay and Derbelnet(1995) were
used. These techniques are calque, borrowing , literal translation , transposition,
modulation, functional equivalence, and adaptation.
1. Borrowing
Borrowing is a translation technique that involves using the same word or
expression in original text in the target text. The word or expression borrowed is
usually written in italics. In this sense, it is a translation technique that does not
actually translate.
E. g. Food (Hamburger, Tofoo, Pizza, etc)
Technical terms (computer, I phone, software, facebook, etc)
Machinery and vehicle (handle, spare wheel, brake, etc)
2. Calque
When a translator uses a calque, he or she is creating or using a neologism
in the target language by adopting the structure of the source language.
E.g. Emergency Exit (A-ye-paw-hwet-pauk)
Operation room (Khwae-seit-khan)
3. Literal translation
It is a word for word translation.
E.g. He knows (Thu thithe)
He goes (Thu thwarthee)
4. Transposition
Transposition involves moving from one grammatical category to another
without altering the meaning of the text. This translation technique
introduces a change in grammatical structure.
E.g. a beautiful flower- Pan (hla-hla-ta-pwint)
Blue sky (Kaung-kin-pyar)
5. Modulation
Modulation is about changing the form of the text by introducing a
semantic change or perspective. It sounds better and more natural in the
target language.
E.g Good morning (Mingalar par)
You are welcome (Yapartae)
6. Equivalence
This is a translation technique which uses a completely different
expression to transmit the same reality. Through this technique, idioms,
slogans, names of institutions, interjections or proverb can be translated.
E.g Make hay while the sun shines. (La thar don bai ngin; moe ywa don ye
khan)
A good beginning makes a good ending. (A sa kaung ma a naung thay
char)
7. Adapatation
It is a kind of translation that cannot be translated and the meaning that is
lost is expressed somewhere else in the translation.
E.g I used to live in Mandalay. (Ngar Mandalay mar nay phoo tae)
Did you buy some bread yesterday? (Min ma nae ka par mount wae khae
lar)
44 Mandalay University of Foreign Languages Research Journal 2019, Vol. 10, No. 1

Objectives
The objectives of this study are as follows.
(1) To investigate the translation techniques used in translating the short story
(2) To provide useful information of translation techniques to students and
translators in order to raise their awareness in translating literature works like
short stories.
Materials and Methods
The method used in this study is analytical method because it analyses the
translation techniques found in the selected story. The short story ― When the
Pledge of Love Remains Firm‖ by Zaw Tun was used as the research material.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the translation techniques used
in the short story ― When the Pledge of Love Remains Firm‖ by Zaw Tun. It is
translated from Myanmar version―တိုငံတညံသစ္စာွမဲေလေသာအခါ‖ by Thin Aung Than.
To carry out this objective, the story both in Myanmar version and English
version is studied thoroughly, paying special attention to techniques used in each
sentence. To complete this research in an organized way, the chosen short story is
studied by investigating line by line in both versions. In doing research, the
translation techniques, namely calque, borrowing , literal translation ,
transposition, modulation, functional equivalence, and adaptation proposed Vinay
and Derbelnet(1995) are used to decide which techniques are used to translate the
selected story. After that, data are categorized into groups depending on the
techniques. At last, types of techniques are counted in order to know which
translation techniques are used most and least.

Research Questions
(1) What are translation strategies used most and least frequently in English
translation of ―တိုငံတညံသစ္စာွမဲေလေသာအခါ‖ by Zaw Tun?
(2) Why are particular translation techniques used in translating this short story ?

Findings and Discussion

After analyzing all data, the following results are found.
Table (1) Techniques of Translation Found in the Story
Sr. Techniques of No. of each technique percentag
No. translation found in the story e

1 Borrowing 0 -
2 Claque 0 -
3 Literal Translation 0 -
4 Transposition 10 21.3%
5 Modulation 15 32%
6 Equivalence 3 6.4%
7 Adaptation 19 40.3%
Total 47 100%
Mandalay University of Foreign Languages Research Journal 2019, Vol. 10, No. 1 45

Table (2) shows the number and the percentage of each translation
technique found in the English version story. It is found that out of seven
techniques, four techniques are found in the translation of the story. It is assessed
that techniques such as calque, borrowing and literal translation are not found.
The occurrence of adaptation (40.3%) is highest. The second most frequent
technique is modulation (32%) , the third most frequent one, Transposition
(21.3%) and the fourth one, equivalence (6.4%).
Figure (1) Translation Techniques Found in the Selected Story

45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15% Translation techniques
10% found in the selected story
5%
0%

Table (1) and Figure (1) shows translation techniques found in the selected
story ―When the Pledge of Love Remains Firm‖. By considering the results, the
first research question ―What are translation strategies used most and least
frequently in English translation of ―တိုငံတညံသစ္စာွမဲေလေသာအခါ‖ by Zaw Tun?‖can
be answered as follows. The techniques like Calque, Borrowing, Literal
Translation are not found in this story. The most frequently found technique is
adaptation and the least one is equivalence. It is believed that the source language
text was mostly translated by employing the adaptation technique in English
language and the translators attempted to translate as natural as English language
without missing Myanmar language culture.
Furthermore, the following are the answers for the second research
question ―Why are particular translation techniques used in translating this short
story ?‖ The translation technique like borrowing is not found in this story
because one fact is that it is a kind of translation which involves using the same
word in original text in the target text. Another fact is that in translating this story,
the original text is Myanmar and there are few borrowing Myanmar words in
English. Again calque is not found, either. The reason is that structure of the
source language (Myanmar) is rarely adopted in that of English language. Literal
translation is not found in the translating work. The main reason is that Myanmar
and English grammar patterns are quite different. In fact, literal translation needs
following the same pattern and order of the source language and translated it word
for word. There mustn‘t be any addition or reduction in translating .If not so, the
translation result may become awkward in target language. So, it is not surprising
that literal translation is not found in the translated story.
46 Mandalay University of Foreign Languages Research Journal 2019, Vol. 10, No. 1

Equivalence is the technique where languages describe the same situation

by different stylistic or structural methods. It expresses the same situation in
different terms or in other words or different ways of rendering some phrases. As
mentioned above, as the nature of Myanmar and English languages are quite
different, the occurrence of this technique, Equivalence is less used in the
translation work.
The technique modulation is shifting from one grammatical category to
another without altering the meaning of the original text. And it can also be
justified so that translation results will be grammatically correct. As Myanmar
grammatical structure and that of English are not the same. So there is no doubt
that the translator uses this technique more frequently in translating the text.
The most frequent technique found in collecting data is adaptation.
Adaptation is a situational equivalence or the type of situation being referred
when the source language message is unknown in the target language culture. In
this case, the translator has to do Myanmar to English translation. Myanmar is a
little-known language whereas English is an international one. So it can be said
that the translator keeps his translation faithfully by following the rule that the
translator has to create a new situation that can be considered as equivalent in the
target language.
In conclusion, the focus in this research is Myanmar-English translation
work. So, the techniques like adaptation, modulation and equivalence are found
but the rest are not, due to the different nature in grammatical patterns in both
languages as well as different levels of popularity in languages.

Conclusion
Translation has a wide area to be discussed. In this study, it is only
focused on techniques which were reflected in translating short story entitled
―When the Pledge of Love Remains Firm‖ by Zaw Tun. After analyzing and
interpreting the data, of seven translation techniques proposed by Vinay and
Darbelnet (1995), there are three techniques which were not found in the story but
four techniques were found. The percentage of every translation technique that
was found in the story was transposition (21.3%), modulation (32%); equivalence
(6.4%) and adaptation (40.3%). It can be stated that the translator tends to use
adaptation technique the most. Although the translator does not use three
techniques, the rest four techniques the translator uses are quite enough for the
readers to understand the source text. This is because the translator may try to
adapt the meaning of the original text for the target text readers. In this way, it
could be of some help to students who are interested in translating Myanmar into
English as well as to English readers who are eager to know Myanmar culture.
This study was done by considering the translation techniques which were
proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995). From the result of the study, it could be
suggested that
1. This kind of study could also be done on other techniques or strategies
suggested by other scholars.
2. The next researcher can take other translation works of Zaw Tun to be the
materials.
Mandalay University of Foreign Languages Research Journal 2019, Vol. 10, No. 1 47

3. For further studies, the next researcher can conduct another study related to
translation in order to make a comparison with this study.
In conclusion, it is hoped that this study is a reference to improve
knowledge about the material of Myanmar-English Translation subject as there
are so many techniques or procedures on how to translate to be able to produce a
good and comprehensible translation.
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Wonderland. M.A. Thesis . Department of English Language and Literature,-
Imam Muhammed Bin Saud Islamic University.
https://www.academia.edu/23266259/A_Comparative_Study_of_Two_Translations_of_Alice_s_
Adventures_in_Wonderland

Hatim, B., & Mason, J. (1997). The Translator as Communicator. New York: Routledge.Larson,
M.L.(1984). Meaning-Based Translation, a guide to Cross Language
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https://translationjournal.net/journal/63theory.htm