The Art of Recreating A Different Same Thing, My Journey in Translating

Once we are attracted to foreign language, we’ll be pulled directly or indirectly into the world of vocabulary. That leads us to our first engagement with the act of translating because starting from there we’re going to be directed to open the dictionary (online or printed). As we all know, finding the definition of a certain word in another language is one of the basic steps in learning a new language. Basically we are already used to it, it doesn’t even have to be another country’s language, the closest example is translating the regional language to the lingua franca language (Javanese to Indonesian). Sometimes we even have to translate certain words into the same language using the synonyms or rephrase the sentences to make them more clear. People also have different reasons for why they have to translate, from daily purposes, study, to work. Translating is one of those important things in life, whether it is for personal or professional use.

The interesting side about translating, especially for books, and specifically for literature works, is when you have to deliver the same story, the same feels but with another language that probably has different formulation principles and cultural background. Those things really do influence a lot, for example with word plays because some words can be catchy in one language and not in another, right? It also happens with phrases, due to different cultural and historical background certain phrases that have equal “vibes” might not exist in another language. Translators are also required to do proper research regarding the stuff inside the story. To retell the intended story they perform a “multilayer” approach by  combining language formulation, the research result and creativity. It is as if the translators have the same responsibility as a messenger in a warzone. The story will not be successfully received if the translators don’t do their homework well. It would be such a waste if a good story is not delivered well, right? There are people out there, who are still underestimating the workload of language study graduates because they think language is an easy catch and they think they can just do it by themself. Translating words or sentences is a thing but translating a story or message is something else that’s more than just copy pasting words from dictionaries.

So, what makes me experience the translation process differently? First of all, I’m not a translator or interpreter* by profession, I’m a book editor. But my job desk also includes editing translation results hence for some instances I got to do some translating as well. Why and how? I’m going to answer the “how” first because the how is basically just the same as the regular translation process, but what makes it different is the source, sometimes I kind of have to “retranslate” a translation (if that makes any sense somehow, hahaha). To do so, I keep the thesaurus close to my heart, because when the specific word is difficult to adjust inside the sentence or paragraph, I’m going to spend a lot of time face to face with the thesaurus. Digging for more suitable synonyms in the thesaurus while at the same time trying my best to not change the hard work of the translators can be “quite a ride”. In other cases I have to do some research because I have to recheck the translated information so if it’s needed I can better build the translation. Sometimes the translation for specific terms or names in certain fields is not that well known in public or simply does not exist in the target language. My most memorable experience is when I had to look for certain animal or plant classification just to find what kind of animal it is in Indonesian, if the animal or plant doesn’t exist here then we’re going to chose the closest family of them and add “a kind of” or just put the latin name of them. Another moment is when I have to find the terms for parts of a large propeller and I have to ask a friend who studies in this field. To gain more knowledge outside the field we’re working for is kind of interesting.

Another surprisingly fun thing I’ve been doing as an editor is using various dictionaries as references both for editing and translating. There’s something about opening those diverse dictionaries and being not only nervous but also excited at the same time of what I could find inside them. There are moments when I need to find similarities between the dictionaries but there are also moments that I wish something would happen otherwise. When I’m  in need of vocabulary options, of course I wish the dictionaries would provide me with that, but sometimes I just want the dictionary to support my choice of words, hahaha.. It’s also a really satisfying feeling to be able to use various dictionaries, from language-foreign language dictionary (Indonesian-English dictionary, German-Indonesian dictionary), thesaurus, same language dictionary (KBBI, Oxford english-english, Duden German-German), categorized dictionary (medical dictionary, law dictionary, picture dictionary) and even still in need for online dictionary because sometimes they provide everything at once. In certain conditions having various dictionaries available helps a lot when I can’t get the intended meaning directly, for example: I can better understand certain German words through their English translation before I finally translate it into Indonesian.

I’ve been involved in this “recreating a different same thing” for quite some years now. Many times I ended up blank staring at the computer monitors or closing my eyes while mixing words here and there inside my imaginary head space trying to recreate the same vibes with a different approach in writing the translated sentence. Recreating a different same thing might sound static at some point, but I think it doesn’t work that way in terms of the translation procedure. It also takes lots of consideration and creative process, even though to keep on the similar track is the main goal. Isn’t it unique? Only in translation people won’t get mad or bored if something is similar, hahaha..

*translator : a person who translates written materials

*interpreter : a person whos translates spoken/verbal materials