Functional and Descriptive Equivalents in The Land of Five Towers

Erlina Zulkifli Mahmud

Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, Jalan Raya Bandung Sumedang Km 21, Jatinangor, Indonesia

Keywords: Functional Equivalent, Descriptive Equivalent, Translation Procedures, Translation Studies.

Abstract: The major thing to do in any translation activities is to find the closest natural equivalent of words in the

source text. Unfortunately not all equivalents are available in a dictionary. When no direct equivalent found,

some translation procedures need to be implemented so the readers of the target language could understand

what messages are being delivered through a translation. Translators have to be creative in getting the

equivalent needed either by replacing the meaning with its function as in functional equivalent, or by giving

a description as in descriptive equivalents. The data source of this paper is The Land of Five Towers, a

translated novel of Negeri Lima Menara, written by A. Fuadi. It is about the life in Pesantren and the

cultural background of its main characters. As this research deals with two texts, source text and target text,

the method used for this research is comparative method. What phenomena found in the target text relating

to the use of these two equivalents are then described based on the theories in Translation Studies. How the

translator makes use of these equivalents and what information revealed in the target text become the aims

of this research.

1 INTRODUCTION

Translating work is

actually

an individual work where

translators make their own decision on everything

they deal with in the source text. A translator has to

be a “communication problem solver (Harnowo,

2014). What they know based on their knowledge and

what they have in their own culture are going to

influence the steps they make in their work. A

translator needs to be creative and sometimes has to

play some roles. The efforts of finding out

equivalence in translation lead the translators to play

the same role just as either artists in creating beautiful

paintings or the poets in showing the beauty of the

world and sharing moral values through rhymes and

diction (Jayantini Sri Wa, 2016). Even when there is

an editor or a consultant provided, their work is just

to edit what needs to be edited relating to the major

misinterpretation in the target text the translator

possibly makes. Others like styles, methods,

procedures, techniques of translation the translator

had chosen in doing the translating work are going to

be there undisturbed. The target text is still his

masterpiece and will always be.

It is interesting to know that very often a translator

has his or her own perspective towards the words or

terms used by an author in the source text. These

differences are considered to be natural as the author

and the translator may come from different

background of knowledge as well as different

background of culture. What needs to be put in mind

is that any action a translator does is nothing but to

deliver the message from the source text into the

target text in a way that the readership of the target

text could get the same understanding, the same

sensation, the same feeling as the readership of the

source text could get. However, it is going to be

challenging for the translator when dealing with

unique terms or expressions which commonly

cultural and therefore very often have no direct

equivalents provided in a dictionary. In order to deal

with this situation, a translator needs to apply some

translation tools like translation techniques or

translation procedures, either by adding, reducing,

describing, or even changing. All are parts of subjects

in Translation Studies. Simply Translation Studies

can be defined as the study of translation as an

academic subject (Munday, 2001).

Mahmud, E.

Functional and Descriptive Equivalents in The Land of Five Towers.

DOI: 10.5220/0008217000002284

In Proceedings of the 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference (BELTIC 2018) - Developing ELT in the 21st Century, pages 287-295

ISBN: 978-989-758-416-9

287

The novel, “The Land of Five Towers,” a

translated novel from “Negeri Lima Menara,” is

chosen for this research due to the richness of cultural

words used there. It is mostly about the life in a

pesantren, Islamic Boarding School, in the

perspective of teenagers. It is not surprising if

anything about the obligation Moslems have to do are

also involved in the novel, including the five

obligational shalats, prayers, what Moslems

commonly wear for performing their shalat, the rules

they need to obey in reciting the Holy Al Qur’an.

How teenagers who study there describe what it is

like in the school, how they struggle to do their best,

how they build a communication among friends,

between a student and a teacher, as well as with their

seniors are all in the novel. What makes this novel

even richer is that the cultural background of its main

characters are also described in detail. “Negeri Lima

Menara,” the source language novel written by A.

Fuadi is one of the best seller novels in Indonesia and

has been translated into English, and has participated

in the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015. Apart from all the

cultural richness, this novel also portrayes the beauty

of friendship among the main characters, the

solidarities, the togetherness. It can be expected that

through the translated novel, the readership of the

target text will get the comprehensive knowledge

about some of Indonesian cultures, including about

the religion most people have, Islam.

This paper is a part of a grant research, “Karya

Literatur Berbahasa Indonesia dalam Dua

Perspektif: Kajian Penerjemahan” ‘Indonesian

Literary Works in Two Perspectives: Translation

Studies’ funded by Universitas Padjadjaran for the

academic year 2017. This deals with Indonesian

novels which have been translated into English and

this grant research has been initiated since the

beginning of 2017. All of them are studied based on

Translation Studies and some of the articles made

from this grant research have been published in some

prosidings through international seminars, and some

others have been made into a book, a teaching book

for students of Translation major. Through this paper,

I would like to clarify and confirm that everything I

write here is all authentically my own research, not a

copy, never been published in any other prosidings or

presented in other seminars before.

There are some related researches all over the

world written and published in international journals

which have involved with these two kinds of

translation strategies, functional equivalent and

descriptive equivalent: (1) “Analysis of Culture-

Specific Items and Translation Strategies Applied in

Translating Jalal Al-Ahmad’s by the Pen”. It was

written by Shekoufeh Daghoughi & Mahmood

Hashemian, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

and it was published in a journal named English

Language Teaching, Vol.9. No.4, 2016 by Canadian

Center of Science and Education. They use all

Newmark’s translation procedure in their paper

(Daghoughi and Hashemian, 2016). (2) “Newmark’s

Procedures in Persian Translation of Golding’s Lord

of the Flies,” written by Habibollah Mashhady,

Maryam Pourgalavi, and Moslem Fatollahi. It is

published in International Journal of English

Language & Translation Studies, Volume 03, Issue

01, January-March, 2015. They elaborately discuss

not only Newmark’s translation procedures but also

Newmark’s translation methods (Mashhady et al.,

2015). (3) “The Translation of Indonesian Cultural

Lexicons in the Novel Saman,” written by Evert H.

Hilman and published in Lingua Cultura Journal by

BINUS, in 2015. This one is considered to be the

most closely related to the topic being discussed in

this research article. Both discussed Indonesian

cultural words used in a literary work, a novel.

Hilman uses Newmark’s theory, translation

procedures, among others, cultural equivalent,

functional equivalent, and addition (Hilman, 2015).

(4) “Features of Translating Religious Texts,” written

by Abdelhamid Elewa and published in Journal of

Translation, Volume 10, Number 1, 2014

(Abdelhamid Elewa, 2014). (5) “Equivalence in

Translation Theories: A Critical Evaluation,” written

by Despoina Panou and published in Theory and

Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 3, No.1, January

2013 by Academy Publisher in Finland. Panou uses

Newmark’s theory relating to the concept of

equivalent especially in semantic translation and

communicative translation (Panou, 2014). (6)

“Translation Procedures, Strategies and Methods,”

written by Mahmoud Ordudari. It was published in

Translation Journal, Volume 11. No.3, July 2007.

This paper was downloaded from

http://translationjournal.net/journal/41culture.htm at

17:15 on March 25

, 2018. He describes different

approaches towards translation techniques including

translation procedures, translation strategies, and

translation methods, one of the approaches is

Newmark’s theory relating translating procedures

(Ordudari, 2007).

All those related researches use the two

translation procedures, functional equivalent and

descriptive equivalent, and all of them deal with

cultural words or terms. What makes it different with

others is the object of the research and the

involvement of other translation procedures.

BELTIC 2018 - 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference

288

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Translation

Before explaining what translation procedure is, we

need to find out what actually contained in the word

or term translation. Translation is the replacement of

textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent

textual material in another language (TL) (Catford,

1969). SL and TL are common terms used in

Translation Studies; SL stands for source language

while TL stands for target language. This explains

why translation will always involve two languages,

the source language and the target language. As what

the translator needs to do is to find the closest natural

equivalent, this research will also make use of the

definition given by Nida. Nida & Taber say that

translating consists in reproducing in the receptor

language the closest natural equivalent, first in terms

of meaning and secondly in terms of style (Nida,

1982). What Nida & Taber propose in their definition

reflects their work as translators of a Bible that they

need to be faithful to the source language text in order

to minimize the possibilities of ambiguity, having

misinterpretation, and unclear description. It is not

expected at all that the readership of a Bible gets a

false

understanding

about what God asks human to do

in the Bible when they read the translated Bible.

Similarly to this, that is what we can see in the

translated novel “The Land of Five Towers” in the

part of the life in pesantren, the translation tends to

be faithful to the source language text. This is one of

the major reasons why functional equivalent and

descriptive equivalent are used.

2.2 Translation Procedure

Functional equivalent and descriptive equivalent as

mentioned in the title are parts of translation

techniques which are called translation procedures.

The term procedure is used by Newmark to indicate a

technique of translation for a text which is shorter

than a paragraph, or sentence, or clause, or phrase.

This term is opposed to the term method of translation

which is applied for a larger text; can be a sentence, a

paragraph (Newmark, 1988). The term translation

procedure is used by several experts to show the

difference between the method and the step to do the

activities of translating. These two procedures,

functional equivalent and descriptive equivalent are

mostly used to translate cultural words which are

considered to be unique or specific, so very unique

that they do not have direct equivalents in a

dictionary, or when there is, the meaning becomes too

general or too specific to be implemented in the target

language text. By using these two procedures, it is

expected that a translator will be able to give the

closest natural equivalent as required in the definition

of translation given by Nida although the equivalents

written in the target text are consequently going to be

in a longer phrase or even put into a clause. This does

not break any rules. As long as the core message can

be covered through these procedures, nothing else

matters.

2.2.1 Functional Equivalent

Functional equivalent is the common procedures,

applied to cultural words, requires the use of a culture

free word, sometimes with a new specific term. It

therefore neutralizes or generalizes the SL word, and

sometimes adds a particular (Newmark, 1988), for

example, the Indonesian word kebaya which is

translated into ‘Indonesian traditional blouse. This

equivalent, Indonesian traditional blouse, generalizes

the term kebaya as there are various traditional

blouses in Indonesia, like baju kurung, baju bodo, and

kebaya is only one of them. However the general idea

about kebaya has been represented through the

equivalent, that it is a blouse, and the blouse is

traditional, and this traditional blouse belongs to

Indonesian culture. The second example is the

Indonesian word keris. It is translated into the

traditional dagger in Indonesia. This equivalent

generalizes the meaning of keris which actually is the

traditional dagger from Java, while in Indonesia there

are still other more traditional daggers like rencong

from Aceh, kujang from West Java (Erlina, 2016).

Again, however, this equivalent has given the general

idea about what keris is, that it is a kind of dagger,

and it is traditional dagger, and it is a part of

Indonesian culture.

2.2.2 Descriptive Equivalent

The next equivalent discussed in this research is

called a descriptive equivalent. This is also a part of

translation procedures given by Newmark and as

already stated before that this kind of equivalent is

commonly used for translating cultural words which

have no direct equivalent as provided in a dictionary

(Newmark, 1988). A translator needs to use a

description to create the same message so the

readership of the target text will get the knowledge

about the word used there. This kind of equivalent is

usually implemented in the target language text when

Functional and Descriptive Equivalents in The Land of Five Towers

289

the cultural words which need to be translated are so

very unique, so very specific, that they cannot be

explained by the functions only. Descriptive

equivalent is sometimes introduced by a transference

procedure through a borrowing either partially or

totally. According to Newmark, descriptive

equivalent is when in translation, a description has to

be weighed against function (Newmark, 1988), for

example, the Indonesian culinary term nasi goreng.

This nasi goreng is translated into the name of

Indonesian fried rice which is usually to be served for

breakfast. It uses a description to give the equivalent

for the term. The term nasi goreng is so unique that it

cannot represent the general idea of it when it only

uses its function in the equivalent. It needs more than

that; it needs a description of what it is. This is why a

descriptive equivalent is implemented in the target

language text. The readership needs to know the

general and specific idea about nasi goreng not only

through its function but also through its description

3 METHOD

As this research deals with two texts, a source

language text (source text) and a target language text

(target text), the research method used is comparative

method. With this method, we compare the two texts,

“Negeri Lima Menara” and its translation “The Land

of Five Towers” so we can get the differences as well

as the similarities of the syntactical elements,

semantic elements, pragmatic elements, and cultural

elements relating to the implementation of functional

equivalent and descriptive equivalent. What

phenomena found in the target language text dealing

with the implementation of the two translation

procedures and what information added are the aims

of this research. As the results of this research are

shown in the

description

about

translation

phenomena

found in the translated novel, the factual as well as

natural data, a descriptive method of research is also

used.

All of these methods are included in a research

method called a qualitative research method; any

research whose results are captured in words, images,

or nonnumeric symbols (George, 2008). The analysis

of the data in this research uses descriptive

comparative method. The major purpose of

descriptive research is description of the state of

affairs as it exists at present (Kothari, 2004). The

translation phenomena which are to be described are

studied using theories of translation procedures given

by Newmark which is elaborated by Ordudari (2007).

Ordudari specifies the approach used to translate

culture-specific concepts (CSCs) including culture-

bound terms (CBTs) which refer to concepts,

institutions and personnel which are specific to the SL

(Source Language) culture. There are three proposals

offered by Ordudari;

Graedler’s procedures,

Harvey’s

techniques, and Newmark’s translation procedures

(Ordudari, 2007). This research focuses only on

Newmark’s.

4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The analysis and discussion is about how cultural

words in the source text are translated into the target

text using functional equivalent and descriptive

equivalent. What information involved in both

equivalents is also discussed here. The order of data

discussed is based on the order of the page number

they are found.

(1) Dia menamatkan SPG bertepatan

dengan pemberontakan G30S, … (p.6)

‘Her graduation from teaching school

coincided with the happening of the

communist uprising in 1965.’ (p.6)

The context involved in data (1) is the situation

when the main character, Alif, is explaining the

educational background of his mother and her

dedication as a teacher relating to a situational politic

in Indonesia. There are two specific terms used that

need certain kind of translation procedure to be

implemented in order that the message in the source

language text can be similarly received by the

readership of the target language text. The first one,

SPG which is translated into ‘teaching school’ and the

second one is G30S which is translated into ‘the

communist uprising in 1965’. Both of them can be

classified as functional equivalents. The Indonesian

term SPG which stands for Sekolah Pendidikan Guru

‘School for Teacher Education’ is a name for one of

vocational schools in Indonesia. It prepares its

students to become a teacher and the level of

education is similar to senior high school. The term

SPG here is translated into ‘teaching school’ which

makes it functional as the word ‘school’ there

generalizes two things; it does not refer to a name of

school, so it can be any school, and it does not refer

to the level of education either. The information given

in the phrase ‘teaching school’ can be for other level

of education, like higher

education

university

level.

The second phenomenon is G30S which is translated

into ‘the communist uprising in 1965’. The term

BELTIC 2018 - 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference

290

G30S, Gerakan 30 September, is actually the political

as well as historical name of a movement happened

in Indonesia. It refers to the blowing up of a

movement done by a communist party, exactly in

September 30

, 1965. When the translator translates

this into ‘the communist uprising in 1965’, she makes

use of functional equivalent by generalizing the

information specifically mentioned in the source text,

that it is the movement done in September 30

, 1965,

not during 1965. The kind of information given in the

equivalent can cover the general idea about G30S,

that it is a political movement, and that it is done by a

communist party, and that it happened in 1965.

However this equivalent can actually be extended by

adding some more specific information that can

change the equivalent into descriptive equivalent. If

the translator takes this step, this may help the

readership of the target language to get the complete

information needed relating to the term G30S.

(2) Bekalku,sebuah tas kain abu-abu kusam

berisi baju, sarung dan kopiah serta

sebuah kardus mie berisi buku, kacang

tojin dan sebungkus rendang kapau yang

sudah kering kehitam-hitaman. (p.14)

‘My provisions were an old grey cloth bag

with a shirt, sarong, and kopiah prayer cap

inside, and an empty noodle box

containing Tojin peanuts and a package of

dried, blackish rendang – spicy meat.’

(p.14)

The context of situation shown in data (2) is a

situation when the main character of the novel, Alif,

is making a preparation for leaving his home town in

order to continue his study to a pesantren in Java. As

he is not from a rich family, his clothes to be taken to

Java are not kept in a more proper bag but an old grey

bag and his other things like books, and cooked food

are packed inside a used to be noodle box.

As in data (1), here we can also see two cultural

words translated using functional equivalents, only

this time in data (2), the words (kopiah and rendang)

are firstly transferred through a borrowing process,

then secondly followed by their equivalents. Kopiah

is actually a term for a specific cap mostly black in

colour and mostly used by Moslems for praying,

though it is now used widely, not only by Moslems

but also by government officials during official

meetings or programs. Moslems can also use other

kind of cap for praying called peci haji ‘haj cap’

which is white in colour. The equivalent for the word

kopiah, prayer cap, shows the function of it that it is

to be used for praying. By this context, it generalizes

the users that the prayer cap can be for anybody when

praying not only for Moslems. The next word

is rendang which is a culinary name for a specific

food from Minang culture in Indonesia, made of beef

meat, made use of various Indonesian ingredients

so it is spicy. However mostly all Minang food is

considered to be spicy too, and not only rendang is

made of beef meat, there is other like dendeng.

Therefore the translator here generalizes the

meaning of rendang when she uses spicy meat as

the equivalent for it, as there are many other more

made of beef which are spicy, and moreover there is

one other fact occurs that rendang is now can be

made of chicken meat as well not only beef meat.

With these functional equivalents the readership of

the target language text can get general ideas about

the two words, kopiah a cap for praying and

rendang, a kind of food made of beef which is

spicy.

(3) Hampir semua tempat makan di pinggir

jalan lintas Sumatera dan Jawa memakai

tanduk dan bertuliskan “RM Padang”.

(p.23)

‘Almost every roadside restaurant through

Sumatera and Java had roofs with upward

curving, pointed sides, sporting water

buffalo horns that read “RM Padang”

(Padang Restaurant). (p.23)

The context of situation shown in data (3) is the

situation when the main character, Alif, experiences

new things on the way to Java by bus, the view along

the road where he can see Padang restaurants there. It

describes the existence of Minangkabau or just

Minang culture which is considered to be popular

even outside West Sumatra that people can see many

Padang restaurants along the way from Padang to

Java. The author needs to put emphasis on the shape

of roof on top of Padang restaurants along the way to

Java, like a horn, buffalo horn to be exact as one of

the characteristics of a traditional house in Minang

culture.

The word tanduk itself actually is not a part of

cultural word but since it is related to the specific

shape of roof in a traditional house of Minang culture,

the translator needs to give a description to that.

Tanduk in data (3) is translated into ‘roofs with

upward curving, pointed sides, sporting water buffalo

horns’ which automatically makes it a descriptive

equivalent. The focus of the description is on the

certain shape of roof which does not exist in any other

culture. The information is needed as NOT to make

the readership of the target language text get

confused, like about how come a horn is used in a

building, a restaurant building, how it is placed, and

Functional and Descriptive Equivalents in The Land of Five Towers

291

how big this horn is. With the description given in the

equivalent, the readership of the target language text

will get the similar information or message about the

shape of roof in Minang culture as the readership of

the source language text. What the translator does by

implementing this descriptive equivalent is the best

effort she can do.

(4) Pagi mulai beranjak dhuha. (p.25)

The morning started to approach dhuha,

the time whe the sun starts to rise in the

morning, but it’s not yet afternoon.’ (p.24)

The context of situation involved in this data is the

situation when the main character, Alif, struggles to

survive in a very long journey from his home town to

East Java as if it never ends, night and day, and it

comes another day when he describes the nature is

changing.

The word dhuha in data (4) is actually not

originally Indonesian word. It is usually related to the

time in the morning to perform optional

shalat‘prayer’ called dhuha. As it is specifically

related to Islamic terminology, all Moslems in the

whole world will know it yet it does not guarantee that

this word is listed in any English dictionary. The

translator needs to give a description to this word,

dhuha in the target language text first by keeping the

word in transference technique before the description.

The descriptive equivalent of dhuha as mentioned in

data (4) is the time when the sun starts to rise in the

morning, but it’s not yet afternoon. The information

given focuses on the allocation of time. As to make it

more acceptable, kind of information mentioned in

the last clause of the sentence, but it’s not yet

afternoon, is actually not needed as the verb starts to

rise has already made a clear understanding about the

word dhuha.

(5) Kiai kami bilang, agar menjadi rahmat

bagi dunia dengan bekal ilmu umum dan

ilmu agama. (p.31)

The leader of the pesantren, our Kiai says,

armed with general and religious

knowledge, we will be blessings for the

world. (p.29)

The context of situation in data (5) is during a

school tour given by a senior student to the new

students. The senior student explains everything that

needs to be learned in the pesantren including what

the Kiai says to them.

In data (5) the word Kiai is translated into ‘the

leader of the pesantren’ which is functional. Kiai is a

respectful term to call a senior Islamic preacher who

mostly leads an Islamic organization or Islamic party

including a pesantren, Islamic boarding school. This

word, Kiai when translated into the leader of the

pesantren tends to be generalized as the leader of a

pesantren does not have to be a Kiai. For this choice,

the translator makes, it has covered the general idea

of what Kiai is, that mostly the leader of pesantren is

a Kiai and yes it is proper and acceptable as the leader

of Madani Pesantren (the major setting of the novel)

is a Kiai.

(6) Di sini semua murid shalat berjamaah

dan mendalami Al Qur’an. (p31)

‘Here, all of the students perform the

Friday congregational prayer together and

study the Al-Qur’an. (p.30)

Similar to the context of data (5), this utterance

takes place during the school tour guided by a senior

student of Madani Pesantren. He is explaining a big

mosque in the school complex and the function of that

for all students and all teachers there.

In data (6) we can find more descriptive

equivalent. The description to replace the phrase

shalat berjamaah is the Friday congregational prayer

together. In Islam the congregational prayer is not

only performed on Friday. All five obligational

prayers in a day are recommended to be done in

congregation, either it is in a mosque or in any other

places, like home. However the Friday prayer is a

specific case as it is congregational as well, yet it is a

must only for males and it has to be done particularly

in a mosque in a normal situation. When the translator

uses this description, she tends to limit her focus that

the only congregational prayer done together in a

mosque is the Friday prayer.

(7) Aku menyikut Raja. “Singkat sekali, mana

petuah seorang kiai,” tanyaku. (p.49)

I nudged Raja, “So short!” Where’s

the religious advice of a Kiai? (p.47)

The utterance in data (7) occurs when the new

students of the Madani Pesantren meet the leader of

the pesantren for the first time. They expect the leader

says more not just a brief introduction.

The word petuah in data (7) is actually not too

cultural. In The Bahasa it refers to advices given by a

person, commonly older than the addressee,

considered to be respectfully wise, experienced,

highly educated, having control on others like a great

leader. As in data (7) it is a Kiai, the leader of the

Madani Pesantren which is being discussed, therefore

the translator adds specific information to the core

meaning advice into religious advice. As advice is

considered to be something good, especially given by

BELTIC 2018 - 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference

292

the leader of a pesantren, a Kiai,this equivalent

generalizes the meaning that anything which is good

in his advice has to be religious therefore it is

functional equivalent implemented in this data. This

equivalent has fulfilled the general idea about the

term petuah that it is an advice that leads to religious

activities as it is given by a leader of Islamic boarding

school.

(8) Akhirnya dengan membaca Al-Fatihah

dan Ayat Kursi, kami menguatkan diri dan

berduyun-duyun menuju ruang pengadilan

angker ini. (p.73)

‘Finally after saying our prayer, we

gathered our courage and flocked to the

daunting courtroom. (p.68)

The context of situation occurs in data (8) is when

the main characters of this novel are asked to see

school court relating to the wrongdoing they have

made. They come late for 5 minutes to gather in the

mosque in the afternoon.

In data (7) there are one piece of information

which is considered very unique, Al-Fatimah dan

Ayat Kursi and it has no direct equivalent in English

for sure. It is a part of the Holy Qur’an which is

usually used in a du’a, a prayer to ask for God’s

mercy and help especially when people are afraid of

something bad will come. It will need a very long

description when a translator wants to use a

descriptive equivalent instead. The choice is

functional equivalent, our prayer, this can represent

the two Al-Fatihah and Ayat Kursi as our prayer in

what they are saying as in a du’a. It therefore

generalizes the meaning. The prayer does not only

contain of the two ayahs, it can contain other ayahs

which can be very specific depending on what reason

we are asking for in our prayer. However the

functional equivalent used by the translator here is

able to represent the general idea of saying Al Fatihah

and Ayat Kursi.

(9) Aku semakin panik, azan Ashar

berkumandang tapi kartuku masih kosong.

(p.82)

‘I grew more panicked, the call to

afternoon prayer was already echoing but

my card was still empty.’ (p.76)

The context of situation involved in data (9) is a

situation when the main character feels so worried

that he has not yet fulfilled his duty while the deadline

is almost due.

The phrase azan Ashar can be classified as a

cultural term for it is a specific term used only by

Indonesian to indicate the call to perform a shalat

namely Ashar which is done in the afternoon around

3 o’clock. The word azan itself is for all calls to

perform 5 obligational shalat ‘prayers’ in a day.

When the translator translates azan Ashar into the call

to afternoon prayer, she makes use of a functional

equivalent by generalizing the specific praying in the

afternoon called Ashar. Shalat ‘prayer’ in the

afternoon is not only Ashar, there is one other more

shalat which is before Ashar namely Dhuhur. The

time is around 12 o’clock. Therefore when azan

Ashar is translated into ‘the call to afternoon prayer’

it is then a functional equivalent. It gives a general

idea about azan and afternoon prayer though not

specific to which prayer the author mentions in the

source language text.

(10)

Tangannya cepat bergerak

membagikan kepada setiap orang dua

kertas berukuran dua kali lipat KTP.

(p.75)

‘His hands moved quickly to distribute

two papers twice size of an ID card to each

of us. (p.70)

The context of situation of data (10) is the

situation when the main characters are asked to come

to the school court after making the wrongdoing and

they are there to receive more punishment.

There is one piece of information in data (10),

KTP which is translated into ‘an ID card’ by

implementing a functional equivalent. In Indonesia

what is named by KTP (Kartu Tanda Penduduk) is a

multi- function card to identify one is really

Indonesian citizen. This KTP contains personal

information of the holder, photograph, the citizen

number, the date and place of birth, gender, complete

home address, religion, wedding status, the

occupation, the citizenship, and the expired date of

the card. When the translator translates this into

English, an ID card, it generalizes the meaning of the

KTP itself that in the concept of the target language

there is no ID card like KTP in Indonesia. The concept

of ID card in the target language can be of several

identifications, like driver’s licence, passport. By

implementing this functional equivalent, the

translator has fulfilled the general idea about

Indonesian KTP, Indonesian ID card, to the

readership of the target language text.

(11) Di malam Kamis aku bergolek-golek

resah menunggu subuh datang. (p.88)

‘I grew more panicked, the call to

afternoon prayer was already echoing but

my card was still empty.’ (p.76)

Wednesday night, I tossed and turned,

waiting for dawn to come. (p.82)

Functional and Descriptive Equivalents in The Land of Five Towers

293

The context of situation in this data (11) is when

the main character goes back to his memory about his

child life in his home town by IdulAdha where

Moslems who are capable to buy cow or sheep

sacrifice one of the two in the name of Allah to show

solidarities among Moslems and all humankinds by

distributing the meat from the two animals. The

situation leads to the excited feeling of the main

character as he is going to be taken by his father to a

place where people can buy the best cow or sheep for

the Idul Adha.

In data (11) more functional equivalent has been

implemented to translate the word subuh into ‘dawn’.

Subuh actually can refer to two things; the dawn time

in general and the obligational shalat called subuh,

the first shalat which is daily performed at dawn by

Moslems. By using this functional equivalent, the

translator actually has fulfilled the general idea

contained in the word subuh itself although the

specific information contained, shalat, ‘prayer’, is not

delivered.

(12) Suhasti kependekan dari Sukarno Hatta

Simbol Rakyat Indonesia. (p.97)

Suhasti was short for Sukarno (first

President of Indonesia) Hatta (first vice

President of Indonesia) and Symbol of

Indonesian People. (p.92)

The context of situation in data (12), the last data

for this paper, is when the main character is

explaining some processes of giving name in his

culture, Minang culture. One of the naming processes

is by shortening the names of the parents and this

related to the last data of this research.

Here in data (12), we can find a descriptive

equivalent implemented in the translation of Sukarno

Hatta. Other cultures may not know that Sukarno

Hatta is actually an expression which consists of two

names, very important names to Indonesian people.

The translator needs to use this kind of equivalent in

order to give specific information to the readership of

the target language text in the form of description.

She elaborates the information about the two most

important persons in Indonesia, Sukarno, the first

president of Indonesia and Muhammad Hatta or

Hatta, the first vice president of Indonesia. This

description fulfils all the information needed relating

to the term Sukarno Hatta in data (12).

5 CONCLUSIONS

From all information discussed in this paper we can

come up with some points of conclusion.

1. “The Land of Five Towers” as the

translated novel from “Negeri Lima

Menara” is about the life of a pesantren

in the perspective of teenagers which

involves various cultural words both

relating to Islam and to the background

culture of its main characters. Since it is

related to the life of a pesantren, it

automatically

deals with Islam religion. As

what Nida &Taber did when translating

the Holy Bible, the translator of this novel

tends to play safe, by being faithful to the

source language text, using only the

closest natural equivalent.

2. From 12 data used for this paper, 7 data

use functional equivalents and 5 data use

descriptive equivalents. We can find out

that the functional equivalents can be used

when the general idea or information

contained in the words of the source

language text can be obtained through the

words or

expressions

in the target language

text. On the other hand, descriptive

equivalents are only for a very specific

term or word that cannot be replaced by any

other word in the target language text

therefore the description contained

additional specific information has to

be implemented. The knowledge of a

translator is challenged in order to make

any information summed up into a factual

and natural description.

REFERENCES

Abdelhamid Elewa 2014, 'Features of translating religious

texts, J Transl, vol. 10, pp. 25–33.

Catford, JC 1969, A linguistic theory of translation,

Oxford University Press.

Daghoughi, S, Hashemian, M 2016, 'Analysis of culture-

specific items and translation strategies applied in

translating jalal al- ahmad’s by the pen. engl. lang.

teach', vol. 9, pp. 171–185. available

from: https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n4p171

Erlina, 2016,

Translation

studies: basic

guidelines

for

students of translation major, Sastra Unpad Press &

CV Semiotika, Bandung.

George, M 2008, Elements of library research.

Harnowo, 2014, 'Widodo sutiyo pengabdian tiga dekade

untuk negara dan bangsa, J Penerjemahan, vol.1, no.

Hilman, EH 2015, 'The translation of indonesian cultural

lexicons in the novel saman', J Lingua Cult, vol. 9, pp.

67–74.

Jayantini Sri Wa, Ig 2016, The art of translating: theory

and analysis, Cakra Press, Denpasar.

BELTIC 2018 - 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference

294

Kothari, C.R 2004, Research methodology methods and

techniques, New Age International Publishers,

Jaipur.

Mashhady, H, Pourgalavi, M, Fatollahi, M 2015,

'Newmark’s procedures in persian translation of

golding’s. int. j. engl. lang. transl. stud. vol. 31, pp.

57-69. Available from: Httpwwweltsjournalorg 3, 57–

69.

Munday, 2001, Introducing translation studies, Theories

and Application, Routledge.

Newmark, 1988, A Textbook of Translation, 1st ed,

Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd.

Nida, 1982, Helps for translators the theory and

practice of translation published for united bible

societies, E.J. Brill.

Ordudari, 2007, 'Translation procedures, strategies,and

methods', Transl J, vol. 11.

Panou, 2014, 'Equivalence in translation theories: a critical

evaluation', Theory Pract. Lang. Stud. 4. Available

from: https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.3.1.1-6

Functional and Descriptive Equivalents in The Land of Five Towers

295