This study analyzes the translation of English collocations into Indonesian in one English populer novel Scruples Two, written by Judith Krantz, translated by Rahmi Don Ali and edited by Irma Kartohadiprodjo. The fundamental question of the study is how the translator transfers the meanings of collocations from English into Indonesian. Since the meanings of collocations are restricted contextually and do not always match between English and Indonesian, I am of opinion that the approach and strategy to translate them should be done through some steps. First, the translator must be able to recoqnize and understand the patterns of collocations along their meanings. Second she has to translate the meanings as close as possible into the receptor language. Third, she has to comunicate the meanings in the natural form (grammatically and lexically) in the receptor language. This approach is in line with the theory of Dynamic Equivalence, Meaning-Based Translation or Idiomatic Translation (cf. Nida 1984, and Larson 1984).
After analyzing the text, the study has found 172 samples of collocations which can be specified as the following: 80,23 percent (132 items) are translated correctly; 11,63 percent (20 items) are incorrectly; whereas, 8,14 percent (14 items) of the nodes (as one of the elements of collocations) are not translated into Indonesian.
As to the strategy to translate the collocational meanings, the study shows that a literal translation results in a nonsense.
For example, the expressions, extra woman and white wedding, are not natural to Indonesian readers if they are translated into wanita tambahan and pernikahan putih.
The study also finds that omitting some nodes of collocations may not cause harmful effect on translation since the translation remains smooth and natural to the readers, but it is not always right to leave out them if they are significant enough to a particular context.
Finally the study concludes that (1) the meanings of English collocations can be translated into a word and phrase in Indonesian; (2) the translator of Scruples Two is still faithful to the form rather than the meaning (the message) of the source collocations, as a result her translation is not natural to the readers. |