Translation Procedures in Translating English Poem into Indonesian

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the translation procedures applied in poetic translation. A poem as a part of literary work is written for an aesthetic value by the author to convey his/her message to the readers. In poetic translation it is very important for the translator to know not only the two language systems and cultures within which he/she operates but also should acquire the knowledge of literary work of the source language (SL) in order to be able to transfer the message to the closest equivalent to the target language (TL). Poems usually contain many figurative expressions. The ability of the translator in defining the equivalent of the figurative expressions in SL will depend on his/her knowledge to observe their meaning before transferring them to the TL. The data of this study were taken from an English poem entitled `The Nocturne in the Corner Phonebox` written by an Australian poet Andrew Taylor and translated into Indonesian ` Nyanyian Malam di Gardu Telpun` by Sapardi Djoko Damono. The Theory applied is the theory of translation proposed by Newmark (1988: 81-111) related to the procedures of translation. The research is qualitative and the data were descriptively analyzed. The findings show that modulation, shift, equivalent, transposition, descriptive equivalent are utilized as the translation procedures. Some of the figurative expressions such as hyperboles, personifications, were translated into descriptive equivalent and some are converted to the hyperboles and personifications in the TL.