The Equivalence Problems in the Translation of “Pretext for Mass

Murder: The September 30

Movement and Suharto’s Coup d’Etat

in Indonesia”

Chandra K. Wiharja

, Alex Jhon

Language Center, Computer Science Department, Faculty of Humanities, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia

11480

Language Center, English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480

Keywords: Equivalence, Movement and Suharto

Abstract: Translating a text from one language to another can never be identical in meaning andoften creates problem.

This paper aims to find out the equivalence translation problem in the translation process of “Pretext for

Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto’s Coup d’État in Indonesia” from English to

Bahasa Indonesia. In order to confirm the problem, researchers have analysed the equivalence within target

text and the source text specifically in the word and grammatical by defining the possible literal or

conceptual definitions. The results indicate that from five aspects of the text analysed, only one aspect

proved to be equivalently translated. However if they are observed from conceptual point of view, all of the

aspects are proved equivalent. These findings suggest that further research should consider on the same

texts translated by the different translators.

1 INTRODUCTION

Translation is a practice of transferring thoughts and

message from the source language to the target

language. House (2009) defined the act of

translation as “the replacement of an original text

with another text”. The result of translation must be

transferring the meaning of the source language

clearly. Non-equivalence problem when doing

translation should be considered. Judging from that

perspective then, this textual replacement activity

can be concluded into three basic types which are:

(A) Interlingualtranslation, the exact rendering

into the target text; (B) Intralingual translation, the

process ofrewording making variety into one

another; and (C) Intersemiotic translation, a

transmutation within the translation process into

another media.

When focusing on a specific field of literary

works such as the “Pretext for Mass Murder: The

September 30th Movement and Suharto’s Coup

d’État in Indonesia”, the concept of these works

willfall into the type of all translation types due to

their characteristic in implementing substitution and

rewording or rather, domestication of a source text

into a target text by possible figurative language or

cultural lexical items. All three translation types will

definitely fall into interpretation based on the focus

on variable. This perspective leads the translation

strategy usage, enabling it to reword or deconstruct a

source text into the target text by focusing on the

meaning rather than the word itself.

Defining a meaning of a text may lead to

prominent confusion in finding the equivalence in

the meaning which can be analyzed solely on the

type of discourse research as Hatim (2001)

proposed. The researchers focus on this essay to

analyze the equivalence between the source texts

which is in English, into the target text which is in

Indonesia.

The research problems in this study are:

1. Does the translation process of “Pretext for

Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and

Suharto’s Coup d’État in Indonesia” from English

to Bahasa Indonesia produce the equivalent

meaning?

2. What are the aspects that contributes to the

equivalence problems in the translation?

452

Wiharja, C. and Jhon, A.

The Equivalence Problems in the Translation of “Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto’s Coup d’Etat in Indonesia”.

DOI: 10.5220/0010010300002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 452-456

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In “Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th

Movement and Suharto’s Coup d’État in Indonesia”,

by using the equivalences analysis (grammatical,

textual and pragmatic equivalence) based on Baker’s

approach, it can be seen that most of the translations

need to pay attention to the target language’s culture,

politic, poetic and discourse manipulation (or

notional context – metaphorical and socio-textual

ambiguity). Baker (2011) proposes approach to

translation equivalence. She differs the notion of

equivalence at different levels. The equivalence can

appear at word level, above word level,

grammatical, textual, and pragmatic equivalence.

For this essay, researchers focus on grammatical

equivalence, which deals with the diversity of

grammatical categories across languages which

includes number, gender, voice, person, and tense

and aspects

A word, phrase or even an idiom from culture A

may be different or even does not exist in let say

culture B nor C (vice versa). Hatim (2001) states

that this challenge can be rebutted with

appropriating the original, a concept of manipulating

the structure and texture so that an appropriation of

an original text may be readable for the target text.

Defining a true meaning can also be translated in a

translator keep the culture intact ‘by invoking a

variety of perspective (cultural and linguistic) which

of course will lead to the true expression of the

meaning identity rather than textual identity. Hatim

(2001) also defined that textual conventions are

indeed fascinating, especially if a translator is doing

a translation of a literary works because the

challenge is not just about making a translation or

even doing a translation activity but, the goal of the

socio-cultural and socio-textual accurate and ideally

readable for the target reader language. The

challenges are tantalizing as well as the results of

this research in literary works’ translating activity.

3 METHODS

In doing the analysis on translated text “Pretext for

Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement

andSuharto’s Coup d’État in Indonesia”,according

to House (2009), there are three basic features of

translationthat are very essential to the analysis

process itself; the text (the source or the target texts),

the process of the translation and of course, the

equivalence of the translation itself. When a

certain text is having its translated counterpart, there

is a possibility that the target text experienced

changes, either literal or conceptual, which are

needed due to the intercultural communication

aspect. Target culture is one of the deciding factors

to evaluate whether a target text is equivalence

enough for the target readers. As Baker (2000)

proposed, “... with the idea that translations could

somehow convey the ‘same’, necessarily stable and

language independent meaning as their source

texts”. With this statement, the writer also believes

that a translation equivalence is a process needed of

making the possible adequate dictions or

constituents from the target text into the source text.

Pym (2004) also stated that the translation

equivalence itself is a process of comparing SL and

TL texts; with the process of evaluating certain

conditions or justification.

Guided by the three features of translation

mentioned above, this essay focuses on partial

source text of “Pretext for Mass Murder: The

September 30th Movement and Suharto’s Coup

d’État inIndonesia” (John Roosa) with its

counterpart Indonesian translated text. This essay

only analyzes theequivalence within target text and

the source text specifically in the word and

grammatical by defining the possible literal or

conceptual definitions. Researchers analyze the

literal meanings by advising to three dictionaries and

try to make us of the translated target text with

possible reason why the translator translated like so.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

There are several findings from the source data that

represent non-grammatical equivalence such as

follows:

Table 1. Number.

In my reading of the

scholarly literature on

the

(none) Saya belum

pernah melihat

dokumen itu

movement, I did

not recall its ever

ein

disebut dalam

tulisan-tulisan ilmiah

mengenai

ention

ed. G-30-S.

Outrage at the

killings was muted not

ust because

Kecaman terhadap

pembunuhan-

embunuhan

The Equivalence Problems in the Translation of “Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto’s Coup d’Etat in

Indonesia”

453

the perpetrators

were anti-

Communists.

yang terjadi

diredam bukan hanya

karena para

pelakunya

antikomunis.

The post-Suharto

parliament has

maintained the

Parlemen pasca-

Suharto tetap

mempertahankan

laws forbidding

public discourse about

Marxis

hukum yang

melarang pembicaraan

ubli

Leninism and the

participation of ex-

olitical

mengenai

Marxisme-Leninisme

dan keterlibatan

pri

soner

(

heir

ildre

n nd

eks-tapol (dan anak

cucu mereka) dalam

artai

grandchildren)

in political parties.

olitik.

The first translated text has problem with ‘scholarly

literature on the movement’ which translated into

‘tulisan-tulisan ilmiah mengenai G-30-S’. The

phrase ‘scholarly literature’ was bluntly translated

into ‘tulisan-tulisan ilmiah’ which roughly the

translator assumed that the writer had read many text

considered as scholarly writings, but the fact is

unknown. In addition, this sentence specify the word

‘movement’ into “G-30-S” to possible emphasize or

refer back the information. The second translated

text changed the word ‘anti-Communits’ into

‘antikomunis’ making it more singular or in

possible perception, an abstract noun word to

describe a political belief. The third translated text

simplify the phrase ‘and their children and

grandchildren’ into ‘dan anak cucu mereka’

making it less specific and too general.

Table 2. Gender.

He had never spoken to

any

journalist

Ia belum pernah berbicara

kepada

wartawan

historian about his

experiences.

atau

sejarawan

siapapunmengena

engalamannya.

He is an old man

leading a

quiet life in a small

Ia sudah tua

dan meniti hidup

dengan tenang dan

town and does not want to

ecome embroiled in

tidak mau terlibat dalam

kontroversi.

the controversy.

Who were these two men? Siapakah dua orang ini?

The first translated text has the words ‘journalist’

and ‘historian’ into more neutral male-specific

word, ‘wartawan’ and ‘sejarawan’ The second

translated text translated ‘He is an old man’ into

more simpler sentence of ‘Ia sudah tua’. The third

translated text changed the meaning of ‘twomen’

into ‘dua orang’ making it more general. These

examples found give definition of non-

equivalenttranslation in terms of giving literal

meaning however, if it considered within the

pragmatic aspect, these translated texts are still

considered equivalent.

Table 3. Person.

In the early morning

hours of October 1,

1965,

salah satu babak

kejadian yang

terpentin

. Pada

the commander of

the army,

Lieutenant

Gen-

dini hari 1 Oktober

1965, Menteri

Panglima

eral Achmad Yani, and

five generals on his

staff

Angkatan Darat

(Menpangad)

Letnan

Jenderal

were kidnapped from

their homes in Jakarta

and

Ahmad Yani dan

lima orang staf

umumnya

trucked to a desolate

grove south of the

cit

diculik dari rumah-

rumah mereka di

Jakarta, dan

dibawa dengan truk

ke sebidan

areal

perkebunan di selatan

kota.

What was his

response to this

information?

Apa tanggapan

Suharto

terhadap

informasi itu?

As Noam Chomsky

and Edward Herman

have

Seperti dinyatakan

Noam Chomsky dan

Edward

noted, the massacres in

Indonesia represented a

Herman, pembantaian

di Indonesia

merupakan

“benign bloodbath”

and a “constructive

terror”

“pembantaian

bermaksud baik” dan

“teror

because

they

served

U.S. foreign policy

interests.

konstruktif”karena(

none

)mela

ani

kepentingan politik

luar ne

eri AS.

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The first translated text defined ‘the commander of

the army’ into ‘Menteri Panglima Angkatan Darat’

which is in target language is more precise, this

example is unique but although not equivalent, the

translation has fixed the culturally inaccurate terms.

This text also translated ‘five generals on hisstaff’

into ‘lima orang staf umumnya’ which in my

perspective has a bit of referential problem withinthe

sentence. The second translated text specify ‘his’

into a name ‘Soeharto’ in the target language. The

third translated text omit the word ‘they’ with

possible omission strategy due to the belief that it is

still readable although it was a bit confusing to

whom this action of ‘melayani kepentingan politik

luar negeri AS’ referred to exactly.

Table 4. Tense and Aspect.

With the wisdom

of hindsight Robert

Dal

renu

ngan

reflekt

ifnya,

ber

McNamara

, the

secretary of defense

unde

McNa

mara,

nte

Pert

aha

nan

dala

presidents John F.

Kennedy and Lyndon

pemerintahan Kennedy

dan Johnson, men

atakan

Johnson, has argued that

the United States should

bah

seh

aru

sny

mengu

rangi

have downscaled its

involvement in

Indochina

keterlibatannya di

Indocina setelah pembas-

mian

after Suharto’s

annihilation of

Communists in

kaum komunis di

Indonesia oleh Suharto.

Indonesia.

In my reading of the

scholarly literature on

the

Saya belum pernah

melihat dokumen itu

movement, I did not

recall its ever being

disebut dalam tulisan-

tulisan ilmiah mengenai

mentioned. G-30-S.

Atmodjo also confirmed

man

of the claims that

Atmodjo juga

mengonfirmasi banyak

ene

asan

Supardjo had made

(not described).

yang dikemukakan

Supardjo (added)

dalam

dokumen itu.

The first translated text changed the tense of

‘wisdom of hindsight Robert McNamara’ with the

target language, ‘renungan reflektifnya, Robert

McNamara,’ this shifted the importance of the

subject since in the target language, Robert

McNamara is an appositive meanwhile in the source

text, it was the opposite (based on the comma

punctuation mark). The second translated text

shifted ‘in myreading of the scholarly literature

on the movement’ and then translated ‘I did not

recall its ever being mentioned’ first. The third

translated text added ‘dalam dokumen itu’ in the

target language tospecify what was missing in the

target text.

Table 5. Voice.

The Orientalis

stereotypes abou

Indonesians as

Stereotip yang dibua

ara orientalis men

enai

rimitive, backward,

and violent came to the

fore,

orang Indonesia yang

rimitif, terbelakan

, dan

swamping the

factual reporting abou

army-

bengis

mengemuka

sehin

mene

nggelam

kan

organized cold-

blooded executions.

emberitaan faktual

tentan

pembunuhan-

pembunuhan

berdarah

dingin

yang

diorganisir militer.

Theodore Friend,

historian of Southeas

Asia,

Theodore Friend,

seorang sejarawan

Asia

asserts with grea

confidence that the

killin

Tenggara, dengan

yakin mengatakan

ahwa

represented a “vas

opular irruption [sic]”;

they

pem

bunuha

itu

mencermink

“

leda

kan

began

“spontaneously”

without militar

kekerasan massal

yang hebat”; dimulai

“secara

direction and involve

a violence that was “face

spontan” tanp

arahan militer dan

merupakan

to face” an

“stran

intimate.”

kekerasan “muk

lawan muka” dan

den

“kedekatan yang

aneh.”

The Equivalence Problems in the Translation of “Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto’s Coup d’Etat in

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In the case of the

movement, the head o

the PKI was somehow

involved (Aidit was a

Halim Air Force Base)

and some PKI

personnel were

participants.

Dalam kasus G-30-S,

ketua PKI bagaimana

punjuga terlibat (D.N.

Aidit berada di

angkalan AURI Halim)

dan beberapa personil

PKI ikut

berperan serta.

The first translated text translated ‘army-organized

cold-blooded executions’ into ‘pembunuhan-

pembunuhan berdarah dingin yang diorganisir

militer’ which changed the phrase ‘army-

organized’ into ‘yang diorganisir militer’, this

target text, although not equivalent but, clearer in

meaning. The second translated text, shifted the

voice into passive from the target text, ‘they

beganspontaneously’ into ‘secara spontan’. The

third translated text shifted the voice of ‘were

participants’ into strangely ‘ikut berperan serta’

changing not only the verb but also shifting the

objects into adverbs.

5 CONCLUSION AND

RECOMMENDATION

Overall, the translated text can never be identical to

its original although it may be equivalent in certain

respects which is in line as what House (2009) said

and so by that statement, researchers believe that this

translated academic article is still equivalent enough

if they are viewed from the spectacle of conceptual

meaning rather than solely, the literal meaning. As

House (2009) described (as the examples from the

analyzed translated word above) translation is

basically a secondary communication of what is

actually already given or exist and therefore, the

recipient from the target language also play the role

as well to interpret the translated text as not just a

literal words but also, a yet possible conceptual

meaningful words within the book’s utility which is

to inspire the richness of a person’s inner-self.

In addition, Lee (2003) stated that a language is

an expression of a culture and the culture is

inseparably related to its language. The translation

of culture is defined as somewhat difficult especially

when the culture of source language is remarkably

different from that of target language. When it

comes to the various translating strategies of culture-

bound vocabulary, there doesn't seem to be the best

strategy. There are only more appropriate strategies

in a given situation. In addition, the appropriate ones

also depend on the purpose of the translation and the

choice of the translator. The result found in this

study was from the effort of the translators, who try

to seek cultural, functional, and technically dynamic

equivalence as well as naturalness to target

language. Therefore, translators can have their own

various translation strategies, and their choice of

strategies depends on the purpose of the translation.

REFERENCES

Baker, M. (2000). Routledge Encyclopedia of translation

studies. New York, USA : Routledge.

Baker, M. (2011). In other words: A coursebook on

translation. New York: Routledge.

House, J. (2009). Translation. Oxford: Oxford University

Press

Hatim, B. (2001). Teaching and Researching Translation.

English: Pearson Education Limited.

Lee, K.,H. (2003). Translation Strategies on Culture-

bound Vocabulary. The Journal of Translation

Studies.

Pym, A. (2004). The moving text: localization, translation,

and distribution. USA: John Benyamin Publishing.

United Nations Development Programme (2018). UNDP

Human Development Reports.

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