Mission Impossible?
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 Language is an expression of culture and
individuality of its speakers. It influences the
way the speakers see or perceive the world.
This principle has a far-reaching implication
for the latest research on translation
theories.
 It has been long taken for granted that translation
deals only with language. Cultural perspective,
however, has never been brought into discussion. This
can be seen in most of the following definitions.
The first definition is presented by Catford (1965: 20).
He states that “Translation is the replacement of
textual material in one language by equivalent textual
material in another language”. In this definition, the
most important thing is equivalent textual material.
Yet, it is still unclear in terms of the type of
equivalence. Culture is not taken into account.
 Next, Nida and Taber (1969) explain the process of
translating as follows.
Translating consists of reproducing in the receptor
language the closest natural equivalent of the
source language message, first in terms of meaning
and secondly in terms of style.
 Nida and Taber themselves do not mention the aspect
of culture in translation process. Following their
explanation on "closest natural equivalent", however,
we can infer that cultural consideration is considered.
They maintain that the equivalent sought after in every
effort of translating is the one that is so close that the
meaning/message can be transferred well.
 The concept of closest natural equivalent is rooted in
Nida's concept of dynamic equivalent. His celebrated
example is taken from the Bible, that is the translation
of "Lamb of God (anak domba Allah)" into the Eskimo
language. Here "lamb" symbolizes innocence,
especially in the context of sacrifice. As a matter of
fact, Eskimo culture does not know "lamb". Thus, the
word does not symbolize anything. Instead of "Lamb
of God", he prefers "Seal (anjing laut) of God" to
transfer the message. Here he considers cultural
aspects.
Instances of cultural translation
 (1) SL: Dalam masyarakat Jawa bila seseorang wanita atau
istri sedang hamil, menurut tradisi perlu diadakan
bermacam-macam selamatan dan upacara-upacara
lainnya. Hal ini perlu dilaksanakan dengan maksud agar
bayi yang dikandung akan lahir dengan mudah dan
selamat sehingga si anak akan mendapat kebahagiaan
hidup dikemudian hari. (Bratawidjaja, 1996: 11).
TL: In a Javanese community, based on traditions, a
pregnant woman or wife should be celebrated with various
kinds of selamatan (traditional fiest?) and rituals. These
should be done so that she can give a birth to a child easily
and safely and the newly-born will get happy life later.
 (2) SL: Upacara siraman dilakukan pada pagi hari sekitar pukul
09.00. Upacara siraman dilakukan oleh ibu dari anak yang diruwat
dengan air kembang setaman. Setelah dibersihkan anak itu
mengenakan busana adat Jawa yang secara khusus dibuat. Anak yang
diruwat diajak oleh Ki Dalang serta didampingi oleh para pisisepuh
(neneknya, budenya, dan lain sebagainya) untuk bersujud di hadapan
ayah dan ibunya (Bratawidjaja, 1996: 49)
TL: Siraman (showering?) ceremony is held in the morning around
09:00 o’clock. This ritual is led by the mother of the child being
"ruwat"(cleansed?) by showering him with "kembang
setaman" (flower??)water. After being cleansed, the child is dresed in
Javanese traditional clothes specially designed for him. The ("ruwat")
child is then guided by Ki Dalang (the puppeteer??) and accompnied
by the elders (the grandmother, aunts, etc.) to pay a homage to by
bowing down to earth in front of the father and mother.
Translation Procedures to Translate
Culturally-bound Words or Expressions
 It is widely known that perfect translation of
culturally-bound text is impossible. The translation
focusing on the purpose of the SL text writing is,
however, always possible. This can be proven with the
translation of so many literary works into other
languages. One of them is the translation of
Mangunwijaya's Burung-burung Manyar into English
by Thomas M. Hunter. Hariyanto (1997) surveys both
groups of SL and TL readers and comes up with the
result saying that the readers get the same impressions
in terms of the meaning, message and style.
 Based on the result, Hariyanto (1999) studied further
the appropriate procedures used to translate
culturally-bound sentences, words, and expressions
which are embedded in Javanese culture into English
using the same novel translation as a case. The result
shows that to translate culturally-bound words or
expressions, the translator used addition, cultural
equivalent, descriptive equivalent, literal translation,
modulation, reduction, deletion, and combination.

Recognized translation is best used to translate
institutional terms whose translation are already
recognized, such as TNI, kabupaten,
kecamatan, and Kowilhan. The use of new translation with
whatever procedure will make the readers may
misinterpret, especially if they already have some degree of
knowledge of the source language. The establishment of
this recognized translation by the Indonesian Language
Center or the people themselves has, of course, undergone
a certain process of creation and acceptance. When
something about language has been accepted, it means it is
a convention: that is the heart of language or vocabulary.
 Professions are appropriately translated with cultural
equivalents as they exist in both Javanese and English
cultures. There are some differences between the two, but
they are so minute. The examples can be seen in the
following quotations. The SL is Indonesian and the TL is
English.
 SL: Dan nah, tentu saja tak mau ketinggalan si gelatik
cantik tetapi pencuri-pencuri padi yang nakal itu, dengan
pipinya putih dan picinya biru hitam. (p. 17)
TL: And not to be left out were the Java finches. With their
white cheeks and their velvet-like caps of deep blue, they
were lovely to look at, but as rice thieves they were a
troublesome bunch.
 Descriptive equivalents are appropriate to translate culturally-
bound words or expressions that are not found in the English
culture but considered important enough in the text. When they
are not, synonyms will do. See this example.SL: Langsung
ia berbahasa ngoko kepadanya, seperti kepada jongos
(Mangunwijaya, 1989: 106-107)
TL: He rudely ordered Karjo about, using language that one
might use with a servant. (Mangunwijaya, 1993: 136)The example
of this case is berbahasa ngoko which is translated intowith
language that one might use with a servant. If this expression
was not considered very important, the synonym with hostile
language could be used.
 Literal translation can be used to translate a Javanese word that refers
to a general meaning such as sinyo Londo, which is translated into a
Dutch boy. This procedure, however, should not be used to translate
proper name.
Expansion is found not very significant. It means that without it, the
translation was still acceptable. See the following quotation
 .SL: Mana Si Karjo. Dikunjungi malah lari. Mandi barangkali. Atau
menggodog teh barangkali (p. 156)
TL: Where was Karjo? A person comes to visit and he disappears. May
be he was taking a bath, or boiling water for tea?
 In the above example, instead of translating menggodog
teh into boiling water for tea, the translator actually could translates it
into preparing for tea, which is more idiomatic.
 Next, modulation can be used best to handle a word that
has no exact equivalent in the TL and the context demands
the translator to emphasize the economy and smoothness
of the sentence flow. This situation usually happens in a
direct quotation where cultural notes are impossible. In
addition, with this procedure the translator can still
recreate the smooth flow and beauty of the text. The
example is the translation of mbak
ayu into you and kakangmu into
SL: Mbakayu itu macam-macam saja usulnya.
TL: You do come up with some strange suggestions
sometimes," Mbok Ranu commented.

SL: Maka Kakangmu pikir: ah, tidak baik membebani orang
dengan perkara-perkara yang lebih memberatkan
TL: So I thought to myself that it wouldn't be right to do
something that might make even more trouble.
Bahasa Indonesia:
A: Eh, tumben kamu di sini.. Janjian ketemu sama orang?
B: Ngga, iseng aja. Udah lama ngga ke sini.
English:
A: Hi! I didn't expect to see you here. Meeting someone?
B: Nope. Just thought I'd come here. Been a long time.
Now, how would you translate the indonesian word
"tumben"? what about "iseng"? you don't. you just look at
the whole exchange and find expressions that best convey
 We should consider these items:
 1) the meaning;
 2) the level of formality/the context; and
 3) the natural way of expressing points 1) and 2) above
in both languages.
 The conversation is not complicated enough, if, say, we
know from the context in the original text that A and B
are ex-lovers, the setting is in a place where they used
to spend hours just being with each other, and
therefore the meeting above is a weirdo or an awkward
one, then the lines that follow the openers above
should reflect that awkwardness, NATURALLY, in the
target language.
as translators, the last thing we want is for the message
to be "lost in translation", right?
conclusion
Finally, it can be concluded that theoretically a text
which is embedded in its culture is both possible and
impossible to translate into other languages. If
practicality is considered first, however, every
translation is possible. The degree of its closeness to
its source culture and the extent to which the meaning
of its source text to be retained is very much
determined by the purpose of the translation. To close,
it is suggested that in the translator considered the
procedures explained above to translate culturallybound words or expressions.