CHAPTER ONE
1.0
Background of the Study
We often hear remarks from the older generation that young people nowadays are
not fond of reading. The latter would claim that they are not interested in reading, but the
obvious truth is that they just need to find the right book that catches their interests. That
means choosing the right genres of reading material that they fancy. In attempt to attract
people to read more, translating popular novels and books written by international or
best–selling authors has turned into a crucial phenomenon. There is always a slight
unavoidable difference in the original and the translated texts. The focus here being the
translation itself. Translation is a delicate work of transferring a message from one
language to another, therefore, numerous issues have arisen regarding to what is lost in
the translation. The question remains whether the translated text is able to convey the
same message to readers as the original one and it is often found in comparing the same
Malay and English texts, the former always consists of longer sentences.
A good translation must achieve the same intent in the target text as the source
did, for in many cases, like the American poet and critic Robert Frost had once said;
“Poetry is what gets lost in translation” (Shi Aiwei, 2005, Translatum Journal). This
research mainly focuses on the second Harry Potter novel in English language, Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and its translation in Malay, Harry Potter dan Bilik
Rahsia.
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1.1
Problem Statement
The translated versions of English literary works always have some major
differences with the original in various aspects such as the storyline, the names of the
characters, and etc. For example in the Spanish translated version of the Harry Potter
books, the name of the main villain; Tom Marvolo Riddle was changed to Tom Sorvolo
Ryddle. The change was made in the translation due to the fact that the anagram of Tom
Marvolo Riddle is “I am Lord Voldemort” and so Tom Sorvolo Ryddle in Spanish is;
“Soy Lord Voldemort”. Sometimes minor changes are necessary to get the message
across in translation.
Readers whom are already familiar with the source texts would expect that the
target texts are in line with the original ones. Therefore, the translator must have a depth
knowledge and understanding of both languages in order to produce a satisfactory and
well-accepted translation work.
The problem lies in the competency of translators in the translation field as well
as several factors regarding the text itself. This research aims to see how the translation is
considered as acceptable or if it is not, in what ways can it be improved.
Numerous studies have been done on translation using various books including
the Harry Potter saga, but almost none of them covers and tackles it in the aspect of both
Malay and English languages.
1.2
Purpose / Objectives of the Study
The purpose of this study are to compare the translation of the selected English
book with the translated one in Malay language.
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The objectives of this study are to:
a) Investigate if the translation of the selected English work is acceptable the way it is or
can be further improved.
b) Identify if the cultural elements in the original work are thoroughly preserved in the
translation or adapted into the target language.
1.3
Research Questions
There are two research questions of this study:
a) In what ways the translation text of the selected English novel can be considered as
acceptable or if not, is it possible to be improved?
b) How does the translator translate the cultural elements in the book into the target
language?
1.4
Significance of the Study
The significance of this study is to create awareness on the inadequacy of truly
skillful translators in this country as well as attracting the interest of people towards the
original works. As for the translated versions, it is done so that people would be able to
understand it better. If more people are aware of this matter, it may fascinate them to
dive into the translating field, consider the possibility to be a good and professional
translator. Thus, by using one of J.K. Rowling’s works—Harry Potter and the Chamber
of Secrets; it is hoped that the people who are passionate in reading and the translation
field and want to produce a good translation for the readers out there will be interested to
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step into the world of translation.
The study can also be utilised by students majoring in translation or literature studies,
and other Harry Potter scholars. There are universities overseas that offer courses where
the Harry Potter books are used in the same standard as that of Shakespeare’s works in
classes. This research may also be useful for students who want to do a related research
on the books or translation.
1.5
Scope of the Study
This study is inspired by an article in the The Star Online about several literary
works being translated without the proper context and understanding of the books
(Edward Is No Pontianak, 2010). The scope of this study is to analyse and compare the
book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the translated version, Harry Potter
dan Bilik Rahsia. This research will be using references from books, journals and online
articles.
1.6
Limitations
This research is limited only to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and its
translated version, Harry Potter dan Bilik Rahsia. There are few specific and prominent
researches conducted on the subject matter.
There are countless of books, articles, and journals written revolving around Harry
Potter which are accessible through the internet, bookstores, libraries and from the
researcher’s own collection. Nevertheless, not all of the references are easy to attain,
because most of them focus on the literature point of view. Some of them studied the
books from the perspective of psychology, philosophy and even law. Not to mention that
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the library that is within reach of the researcher does not have that many relevant
references. Other alternatives are to purchase these materials online, go to other libraries
or at any bookstores, some are quite expensive. For the kind of purchase that is made
online might have taken a long time to get, and time is another luxury besides money, that
the researcher cannot afford.
CHAPTER TWO
2.0
Review of Literature
Translation of reading materials; be it for the purpose of academics or leisure, has
become a must so that people would have a lot of options and wider perspectives about
everything. There have been complaints from scholars and avid readers about having not
enough good translation of English works into Malay, such as novels, comic books and
especially educational materials. Translation is a way for Malaysian readers to broaden
their range of knowledge, as well as improving the reading habits of Malaysian society
today. Lee (2010) wrote in her article that there are not many what is considered to be
decent translation of English books to Malay, and it is regrettable because if there are
more good work of translation, we would have more options on what to read.
There are people who are used to reading books in English and they would most
likely prefer the original works. They do not have any problem understanding the works
from the original language. But what about the people who do not understand English
well? They would look for the translated works in order to understand more about what
they are reading or curious about.
Translating English novels into Malay is starting to pick up in the recent years,
particularly popular books such as Harry Potter and Twilight. Readers of the original
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works are often not satisfied with the translated version, as they are more familiar with
the original versions. On the other hand, a certain number of new readers may turn to
the translated versions in order to understand the story if they have trouble
understanding the original books.
This research will focus on the second book of the series; Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets, and its translation in Malay, Harry Potter dan Bilik Rahsia.
2.1
Cultural Convention in Harry Potter
J. K. Rowling started writing Harry Potter in 1997 and since then the series has
gained immense popularity worldwide. It has also been translated into more than sixty
languages, including Malay. The world of Harry Potter is a world of magic, with its
own culture and terminology and if not translated correctly, will lose its pragmatics
aspect and feel. In the very same article Lee (2010) wrote that a translator is required
to be aware of the representation of ‘cultural conventions’ in the source text.
There are several translation methods present in the Malay version of the book.
For instance, transference; where a word in the source language is transferred in its
original form into the target language. Since Harry Potter is a world of its own, the
terms used are exclusive to it. The meaning is of course explained in the book itself.
2.2
Different Categories of Cultures
There are five categories of culture from the perspective of translation, namely
universal culture, religious culture, social culture, academic culture and legal culture.
For Harry Potter books, there are three representations of cultures which are religious,
social and academic.
From the perspective of religion, there is not much that is obviously stated.
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The things that stand out are for instance, the celebration of Christmas and
Halloween. This part is translated rather faithfully since this is celebrated in almost
every country.
The social culture in Harry Potter is a complex one, since it involves many
different forms of creatures. For example, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,
we are introduced to house-elves. House-elves are non-human creatures which their
status is considered lower than wizards even though they possess their own brand of
magic (p. 27, Chamber of Secrets). To translate that whole concept on the surface
would be very complex indeed.
Another thing that was introduced is the idea of ‘Purebloods’, ‘Half-bloods’,
and ‘Muggles’. The Purebloods consist of those who are purely born of witch and
wizard parents, Half-bloods meaning that one of the parents is not magic, and
Muggles are non-magic ordinary people. There is an offensive term to the witches or
wizards born of Muggle parents, which is ‘Mudblood’ (p. 89, Chamber of Secrets).
The academic culture in Harry Potter is obvious in the way that the book itself
is about Harry’s adventures in the wizarding world, especially his school; Hogwarts
which is invisible to the eyes of ordinary people. The idea that it is a boarding school
seems to reflect some of the schools in Britain. Most boarding schools in Britain have
‘houses’ for students where students compete in anything such as debates, sports and
good behaviour, for a chance to win the Best House. Hogwarts uses the same rule,
with its four houses being Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin
(Chamber of Secrets, p. 61). Another point is the addressing of the teachers. All the
students address the teachers at Hogwarts as ‘Professor’. Literally, the term is Latin
meaning ‘a person who professes’, and usually means teacher. But in most English
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speaking countries, the title is awarded to those who hold a departmental position,
especially head of departments, or a personal title awarded to that person. Teachers at
Hogwarts however, no matter what qualifications they have, are called Professor, with
the exception of the flying instructor and school Quidditch match referee, Rolanda
Hooch, who goes by the title Madam.
2.3 Translation Procedures and Methods
There are several methods proposed in the book Text-Wise in Translation (2006).
Under literal translation, there are borrowing, transference, and calque, with literal
translation being a safe translation procedure as it does not deviate much from the
source language. Under oblique translation, there are transposition, modulation,
equivalence and adaptation. The oblique translation procedure is done when the
meaning of the source text cannot be literally rendered into the target language. In
translating Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, more than one method is used.
i.
The method of borrowing is used when the word does not have an equal in
the target language or was simply done so that it sounds easy or pleasing to the
readers. For example, the word ‘bacon’ was simply translated ‘bakon’.
ii.
Transference is used when there are terms exclusive to the text and cannot be
understood unless there are explanations, and given that the world of Harry
Potter is a magical one, there are of course many terms that exist in it, for
example, Muggle and Parselmouth.
iii.
Calque is a method that is usually used to translate proverbs in the source
language into the target language. Translators using this method would follow
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the expression as it is in the source language into the target language.
iv.
Transposition method replaces a word class in the source text into another
class without affecting the meaning. The translation of a descriptive sentence
may not follow the exact structure of the original sentence. This method deals
more with grammatical parts and structure of the text.
v.
Modulation method is almost the same as transposition except that it changes
completely the source language grammar and perception of things, action and
state to the target language so that it has acceptable meaning to the target
readers.
vi.
Equivalence is usually done for words or a unit of translation. Most of
equivalent translation uses a dictionary, and is called natural equivalence. It is
usually something that already has the meaning present in the target language.
Another type of equivalence is the cultural equivalence, where the source text
is translated into the target text with the target readers in mind. An example
would be in phrases like ‘Good Lord!’ which is translated into ‘Ya, Tuhan!’.
vii.
Adaptation is the freest form of translation, where the source text may have
situations that exist only in one culture. Materials translated with this method
sometimes differ greatly with the original version.
Translators may also have to combine several methods to achieve the required
result, and sometimes have to give the explanation of a concept from the source
language into the target language. But a word may be omitted if it is of little
importance in the source text.
2.4 Problems in Translation
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The cultural elements, written accents, dialogues, idioms and jokes are some of
the challenges encountered while translating English works into Malay. Quoting from
the book Text-Wise in Translation;
“The differences of languages and cultures can be the raison d’etre of translation
problems, studies and research.”
(Tengku Sepora and Mohamed Abdou Moindjie, 2006)
The cultural elements in Harry Potter are as mentioned above in point Cultural
Conventions in Harry Potter. While in terms of the text itself, the accents, dialogues,
idioms and jokes pose the challenge. Obviously by accents, translators may find
Rubeus Hagrid’s (he was born and raised in West Country of England, thus his accent
is very thick) dialogues to stand out among all the other dialogues in Harry Potter. Yet
when translating that part, the translator had simply made it into common speech, that
is, in Malay, there is no distinction between Hagrid’s dialogues and the other
characters in the book.
Idioms unique to the Harry Potter world would be first in the motto of the
Hogwarts School: Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus, which is Latin for ‘Let
Sleeping Dragons Lie’. It was inspired by the famous saying ‘let sleeping dogs lie’,
meaning that we should not deliberately do something that may cause ourselves any
harm. Other examples include ‘no use crying over spilt potion’ and ‘hold your
hippogriffs’ (magical creature, head of an eagle and body of a horse with wings).
Sometimes, a translator would encounter roadblocks, such as the meaning of
phrases is unclear or unknown. In that case, sometimes a translator would have to put
in the best guess for such phrases. Gerding-Salas (2000) claims that one of the
greatest qualities of a translator is the “contextualized intuition”, meaning that a
translator would be able to find the nearest common sense interpretation of the phrase
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within the context.
Another method is as proposed below,
“…regarding the methods the translator should use to get the closest
approximation of the source language, including using footnotes to illuminate
cultural differences when close approximations cannot be found.”
(Rubel and Rosman, 2003)
A translation is considered successful when readers are able to understand and
get the feel of it as would the reader in the original language. Rubel and Rosman
(2003) said that one should identify with the person in the source language,
understand his or her customs, manner of thought, and means of expression.
Mistranslations can occur if a translator did not give the most accurate
meaning to the text. Of course, with the complexities of the English language, its
rules, exceptions and having several different meanings to a word, it is almost
impossible to accurately translate everything that is in the book. Sometimes, a
translator has to give a general meaning to a sentence or phrase because its equal
phrase in the target language does not exist.
2.5
Characteristics of a Good Translation and Translator
A good translation should accomplish the same intent in the new language as
the original did in the source language (Rubel and Rosman, 2003). This is how a
translation should be. Gerding-Salas said that the quality of translation depends on the
translator, that is, on his/her knowledge, skills, training, cultural background,
expertise, and sometimes mood. Ainon Muhammad (1985) said the translator needs to
master both source language and target language, has knowledge on the subject of
translated work as well as on the theory and practice of translation. Newmark (1995b)
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discerns the same characteristics, adding that a translator should have sensitivity to
both mother tongue and foreign language as well as being competent to write the
target language dexterously, clearly, economically and resourcefully. But to find a
translator that fits these descriptions, that is another matter. As Edith Grossman put it,
“…for the most fundamental description of what translators do is that we write—
or perhaps rewrite—in language B a work of literature originally composed in
language A, hoping that readers of the translation will perceive the text… in a
manner that parallels and corresponds to the aesthetic experience of its first
readers. This is the translator’s grand ambition. Good translations approach that
purpose. Bad translations never leave the starting line.”
(Grossman, 2010)
A successful translation must fulfil several requirements. It has to make sense
in the target language as it has been in the source language. It should have the feeling
and manner of the original, evoking the same response in readers of the translation as
it did to readers of the original. It should also sound easy and natural in the target
language.
Professional translators have to assume many roles in their line of work. They
have to be a writer, a diplomat, a linguist and an educated amateur. As a writer, they
write the text into another language. As a diplomat, they have to know and understand
the social and cultural differences in the text they are translating so that they can
address these issues and translate them properly. As a linguist, they have to be able to
properly understand the complexities of the languages they are working on, if there
are other meanings to the text and able to discern which the original author meant, and
also to research terminology and colloquialism. And as an educated amateur, they
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have to know at least the basics and details of what they will be working on.
2.6
Translation as a Profession
The younger generations should be encouraged to learn another language as
much as possible so that they can benefit from all the knowledge available in other
languages. They should also be encouraged to take up translation, as it is a useful skill
that also offers job opportunities. There are four kinds of translation service providers.
They are language schools, universities, freelancers and translation companies.
Translation is not just about books. There are other job opportunities related to
the field. A person can be a lecturer, copy writer, interpreter, document translator,
content and creative writer, editor or proofreader.
Muhammad Haji Salleh, a prolific poet, educator and translator, believes that
translation can be the bridge that that can improve Malaysian readership, and also a
way to offer a wider range of knowledge from around the world in our own mother
tongue.
Translation is not easy, but if there are people willing to take the job, the
translation industry in Malaysia, and subsequently the quality of translation can
improve.
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CHAPTER THREE
3.0
Research Methodology
This chapter discusses the methodology of the research. The main purpose of the
research is to compare between the original version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets and its translated version in Malay, as well as the method used in the translation
process. The data is collected through reading and analyzing the books.
This research is a secondary type of research, by gaining the data through library
research. It involves analyzing the selected books to achieve the objectives of the study that
will be revealed in later chapter. The examining of texts takes the form of close textual
reading. Through close textual reading, the relevant textual qualities will be exposed.
In order to analyse the data, the researcher has gathered a number of books, journals
and articles in the field of translation to support the research. The facts that are gained from
the findings will be discussed in the next chapter. Further discussions will fathom deeper on
the relevance and connections, thus highlighting the importance of the research.
3.1
Research Instrument
This research will use qualitative research design. The research instrument used is the
novel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the translated version, Harry Potter dan
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Bilik Rahsia, by J.K. Rowling. The book tells of Harry Potter’s second year at Hogwarts,
with the introduction of several new characters and ideas that will become some of the major
points in later books.
3.2
Research Procedure
The comparison is done through reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and
its translated version Harry Potter dan Bilik Rahsia. The comparison is shown in the form of
tables, taking several sentences or paragraphs to see the methods employed by the translators
in order to translate it.
3.3
Data Analysis
To analyse the data, the method used are by qualitative methods. The data used is
secondary data, using the novel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets along with its Malay
translated version, Harry Potter dan Bilik Rahsia, and the support from articles and journals,
aiming to compare both versions of the book. The translated version is then analysed to see
the method used for the translation and the explanation on the method.
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Pandangan dan Saranan. Jurnal Penterjemah, 18-36.
Gerding-Salas, Constanza. (2000). Teaching Translation: Problems and Solutions.
Translation Journal, Volume 4, No. 3., from http://accurapid.com/
journal/13educ.htm
Grossman, Edith. (2010). Why Translation Matters.
http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/from-why-translation-matters/
Hidalgo, Cesar A. (1987). Translation Criticism: A Conceptual Framework. Jurnal
Penterjemah, 37-61.
Lee, Daphne. (2010). Edward is no Pontianak, from
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2010/4/25/lifebookshelf/6104975&sec=
lifebookshelf
Mahmoud Ordurari. (2007). Translation Procedures, Strategies and Methods.
Translation Journal, Volume 11, No. 3., from
http://translationjournal.net/journal/41culture.htm
Newmark, Peter. (1995). A Textbook of Translation.
Noresah Baharom and Fadilah Jasmani. (2006). Penterjemahan dalam Penyusunan
Kamus Dwibahasa: Pengalaman DBP. Jurnal Penterjemah, 1-14.
Rowling, J.K. (1998). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Rowling, J.K. (2002). Harry Potter dan Bilik Rahsia.
Roy-Seifert, Utta. (1993). The Translator’s Responsibility Towards the Author of an
Original Text and Towards the Readers of the Translation.
Rubel, Paula G. and Rosman, Abraham. (2003). Translation and Anthropology.
Translating Cultures.
Tengku Sepora Tengku Mahadi and Mohamed Abdou Moindjie. (2006). Text-Wise in
Translation.
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