Applying ‘Soft Tools of Translation’ in Translating Four O Henry Short Stories

This paper was written based on the practice of translating four O. Henry stories into Bahasa Indonesia. The translated stories are “A Harlem Tragedy”, “A Lickpenny Lover”, “The Last Leaf”, and “The Pendulum”. The strategy of translation and the techniques proposed by Molina and Albir were applied, combined with the the application of theories of meaning, grammatical equivalence, and stylistic devices. In this study these aspects are termed as ‘soft tools of translation’. By applying the soft tools, the witticism, clever wordplay, unexpected ‘twist’ ending and epic life moment of ordinary people, as the characteristics of O Henry’s short stories, and foreign culture elements were pursued to preserve in the translation. Key terms: translation, soft tools, short stories, charateristics, culture elements, preserve This paper is a study to translation attempting to gain closer insight into the translation practices. It presents the practice, illustrating the applying the soft tools of translation to deal with the problems of translating a texts of short stories with the characteristics of the witticism, clever wordplay, unexpected ‘twist’ ending and epic life moment of ordinary people. In this paper the term soft tools of translation is used to cover the following: translation strategy, translation process, kinds of meaning, grammatical equivalence, translation techniques, and translating stylistic devices. Translation strategy Both domestication and foreignization were applied in the process of translation. The example of domestication in the level of words are the use of ‘Kak Sam’ from ‘Brother Sam’ in “Pendulum” and ‘Bu Maggie’ from ‘Mrs Fink’ in “Tragedi

Harlem". 'Kakak/Kak' is a common calling for 'elder brother' in Bahasa Indonesia. Although there is no note that 'brother' in the story is elder or younger brother, the word 'Kak' is a suitable word in Bahasa Indonesia and related to the story. In addition, 'Mrs Fink' becomes 'Bu Maggie'. It is unusual for a wife to be called by her husband's family name/last name in Indonesia. Instead of using family name, the first name of the wife is used following before by a calling 'Ibu/Bu'.
In contrast,, foreignization in the level of words was applied in translating cultural words such as food, clothes, currency and street's name. For example 'satchel' and 'dolar' in "Pendulum", 'plum duff" and 'oxford' in "Tragedi Harlem", 'juniper' in "Daun Terakhir", and 'Eight Avenue' in "Pecinta Picisan". To make Indonesian people understand, some words are added as notes.

Translation process
The concept of process from Nida and Taber (1982) was applied. It consists of analysis the message in SL, transfer into TL, and restructuring of the message.
Analysis the message in SL both grammatical and semantic will be discussed in sub chapter 'kind of meaning' and 'grammatical equivalence'. The second and third process involve techniques and stylistic devices. Both of them will be discussed in sub chapter 'techniques of translation' and 'stylistic devices'.
In short when analyzing through reconstructing the texts, meaning, grammar, technique and stylistic devices in both SL and TL cannot be separated. The figureFigure 1 Process of translation Jangan lupa juga kirim surat ke perusahaan gas tentang meteran gasnya, dan kaus kakimu yang bagus ada di laci paling atas.
There is cold mutton in the ice box. Ada daging domba dingin di lemari es.
'Socks' are pieces of clothing which cover foot and ankle and are worn inside shoes. It is translated into 'kaus kaki' which is the same goods. 'Drawer' is a part od desk, chest, or other piece of furniture that is shaped like a box and is designed for putting things in. Based on context, the word is translated into 'laci' which is "kotak kecil (pd meja dsb) yg dapat ditarik dan disorong, tempat menyimpan benda-benda kecil" (Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia Offline 1.5.1, (n.d)). Likewise 'mutton' and 'ice box', they are translated into the equivalent goods.
The second is expressive meaning such as translating feeling or attitude.  (Baker, 1992).

Example of expressive meaning
In order to reach the naturalness, the TT is quite different. However, it does not mean that the words or phrases shoud be translated freely. The TT should either convey the message or make readers feel the same intention.

Grammatical equivalence
Number, gender, person, tenses and aspect, and voice are five diversity in grammatical in translation as stated by Baker (1992). In the present final project all of the diversity can be found. For example, the use of man/men and child/children in number, son/daughter in gender, 1 st or 3 rd in person, part/present in tenses and aspect, and passive or active in voice. Examples of each category is displayed as follows. Although'para gadis' or 'gadis-gadis'are plural, they are inappropriate to be used in the context because the word 'gadis' is followed before by the total of the girls.

Grammatical equivalence
Futhermore, 'women' is plural and translated as 'wanita' which can be used for singular or plural based on context. 'Wanita' is enough to be used in the sentence.
'Gents' is plural and 'para pria' is also plural. The use of 'para pria' is suitable. In the third sentence, 'children' is plural and translated as 'anak'. 'Anak' can be used as plural or singular based on context. 'Anak' is better to be used because it is followed before by the number of the children.
In gender category, 'selleslady' is classified as feminime word and the opposition of 'sellesman'. However, 'selleslady' is translated as 'pelayan toko' which is the neutral word in Bahasa Indonesia. In the second sentence, 'waiter' is actually masculine word. Today, the word 'server' is frequently used as neutral word of 'waiter'. It is translated by neutral word 'pelayan'.
In person category, 'we' is the first person and translated as 'kita', not 'kami'because the writer wants to engage readers in the text. 'He' is the third person and translated as 'John'. It is uncommon in Bahasa Indonesia to use reference word.
'You' is the second person and the word is omitted in target text.
In tenses and aspects category, the first sentence is simple past tense. It used 'came' as verb and it is translated as 'menghampiri'. In TT, there is no indication whether the sentence past or present in verb. In the second sentence, the tense is past continuous tense and translated by adding the word 'sedang'in the past progressive and no additional or differences in the past tense.
In voice category, the first sentence is simple past tense with active voice. The example and explanation of each technique is presented as follows.

Adaptation
Adaptation is a technique to replace cultural specific in SL with another from in the TL and cultural specific can be ecology such as flora and fauna, social culture such as work and leisure, material culture such as food and clothes, concepts such as political and religion, and gesture and habits. In the Error! Reference source not found., the first example was replacing words 'delicatessen'. Delicatessen is a shop that sells high quality food such as cheeses and cold meats that have been imported from other countries. It was translated into 'swalayan' which has the image of selling good quality and imported product, although the real meaning of the word is selfservice.
The second example is '10x12 parlor'. It was translated into 'ruang tamu berukuran 3x3.5 meter'. The measure feet in parlor was changed into meter, making readers more familiar. In the last example, 'white mouse' is actually imagery but it is adapted into 'sayang manisku'. Both of phrases are common calling for someone special.

Amplification
Amplification is used to add details/information which is not stated in the SL.
Description is added to the words for making readers understand and avoiding ambiguity. In this study, this technique was identified in translating cultural words, which supports the aim of the translator to enrich readers with foreign cultures. Additional information about 'Aurora' and 'pilsener' is added directly in the text. However, the additional information about juniper is added indirectly. Both of strategy are amplification. 'Aurora' and 'pilsener' is uncommon in context if they are translated without any additional information.

Borrowing
Borrowing is used to take expression/word from the SL. It can be pure or naturalized. Pure is without any change, and naturalized means the spelling is fitted in the TL The example of borrowing is in the sentence "… anjing sky terrier-nya sedang menuruni tangga…"

Calque
Calque is used to translate words or phrases literally but different with literal technique.

Generalization
Generalization is used to choose general words or neutral words because the concrete words in the SL is not exist in the TL.

Examples of generalization ST
TT who regarded himself as especial mastiff-in-waiting to protect the two young artists in the studio above.
Didn't know they ever indulged.

Bukannya hubungan mereka baik-baik saja?
At the second example "And now I must see another case I have downstairs." 'another case' in this sentence was translated into 'pasien lain'. In fact, case in the sentence was a case of healthy. Implicitly, it means that there was another patient. In the TT, the ST was translated explicitly, 'another case' became 'pasien lain'. So that by changing the focus 'case' into 'patient'. It showed the example of modulation technique.

Particularization
Particularization is used to choose more precise or concrete words. The more precise or concrete words in the present final project not only used to make the message clear but also to make the works more prosaic. The example of particularization for example in sentence "She drew down the collar of her kimono and revealed another treasured bruise." 'Kimono' in TT itself have two kinds, one has function like pajamas and the other like towel. By looking at the context in the story, 'kimono' was translated into 'kimono tidur'or kimono for sleeping.

Reduction
Reduction is used to suppress words/expressions in SL to TL. It could be identified that this technique was applied in translating. feeling or attitude. Some factors affect the use of reduction including the prosaic factor. The translator applied this technique automatically to pursue naturallness in TT.
It was a meaningless cry, the kind of cry that only a woman knows about, a cry from no particular cause, altogether an absurd cry; the most transient and the most hopeless cry in the repertory of grief.
Carter had never before encountered a situation of which he had not been perfect master.

Transposition
Transposition is used to change grammatical category or structure. In translating simile, Larson (1984) proposed the follwing techniques: keep the same simile, replace the simile into another one but should keep the original meaning, and keep the same simile but using the similarity from simile in SL and TL. In "Pendulum", there is sentence "she was like the air he breathed-necessary but scarcely noticed. The simile in that sentence is Katy was similar to the air. It was translated into " Katy selalu ada di hidupnya seperti udara yang ia hirup, penting tapi amat jarang ia perhatikan." The technique of translating simile used was keep the same simile.

Example of transposition
To translate idioms and fixed expression, the strategies are using an idiom in TL with similar meaning and form, using an idiom with similar meaning but different form, translating by paraphrase, and translation by omission (Baker,1992). In "Pendulum", there is idiom "I'm just dying for a cup of coffee" which means that the person is really inpatient to do or to stop something. Instead of translating with idiom, the sentences was translated by paraphrase, "Aku benar-benar tak sabar ingin pulang ke rumah". The translor could no find the equivalent idiom in TL. Aku benar-benar tak sabar "I'm a double-dyed dub,"

Example of stylistic devices
Aku benar-benar bodoh Oh, ain't you the kidder!" Jangan bercanda! Other stylistic devices besides metaphor, simile and idiom were found.
In applying various translation techniques, translating word by word or sentence by sentence was avoided. By using transposition technique, the form was changed. However, not-ST element was added to reach the goal of translation. For example, by using the amplification technique means that not-ST elements were added.
Furthermore the idiom and intention in the SL were translated to the equivalent idiom and intention in the TL and used grammatically acceptable expression of the TL.

Conclusion
This study has illustrated that, in translating, applying strategy, theory of meaning, translation techniques, grammar equivalece and stylistic devices translation, was intended to pursue preserving the foreign culture elements and the characteristics of witticism, clever wordplay, unexpected 'twist' ending and epic life moment of ordinary people and at the same time maintaining the fluent readership. This is in accordance with the belief and aims of translation.