STRATEGY IN TRANSLATING SONG USED BY STUDENTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT IN UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG

Ummu Masyithoh
201510100311119

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses some topics related to the background of the study,

the statement of problems, the purposes of the study, significance of the study,

scope and limitation, and definition of key terms.

1.1 Background of the Study

Translation is the product of target language which is semantically accurate,

grammatically correct and textually coherent as the source language (As-Safi,

2011). This opinion is supported by Malkmjaer & Windle (2012), who state

translation as something more than relating two text to each other it involves the

cultural hybridity reproduction. In other words, translation is a series of action of

transferring ideas from a source language to target language by paying attention to

the appropriateness of their meaning and style.

In translation, people usually face difficulties in finding the appropriate

meaning and style from the source language (SL) to target language (TL). They

often translate something with correct meaning but incorrect style and vice versa.

This frequently happened when they translate idiom, poem and especially song.

The aforementioned problem is one of the reason why song still rarely translated.

The other reason is the fuzzy boundaries existed between ‘translation,

‘adaptation’, ‘version’, ‘rewriting’, etc.

 When we translate song we do not only have to pay attention to the meaning

but also the rhymes, syllables, sense, diction, figurative language used in the

verse, and grammar. Based on Low’s ‘pentathlon approach’ there are five aspects

related to song and performance: singability, sense, rhyme, rhythm and

naturalness (Low, 2005).

The importance of this study is to know the strategies used in translating song.

Because there are five strategies that can be applied in translating song and they

also often have to combine more than one strategy and to know the reason

underlying the translator in choosing the translation strategy.

Translation strategy is the way to solve the problems encountered in

translating text or its segment (Baker, 2005). The strategies can be divided into

local which deal with segment text and global which deal with the whole text.

The so-called strategy are (1) Leaving the song untranslated, (2) Translating

the lyrics without taking the song into consideration, (3) Writing new lyrics to the

original song, (4) Adapting the song to the translation, and (5) Adapting the

translation to the song (Franzon, 2008). The translator should mainly use strategy

four and five, but in reality, based on the preliminary observation, it is difficult to

do that and the translator often used strategy 1 up to 3.

In translating song, Gritsensko and Aleshinkaya (2016), states that translation

of song lyrics has never been about lexical precision. Its aim is to convey the

message of a song in a different language by matching words and song or

integrating the verbal component of a song into its rhythm and melody. From that

statement, it can be concluded that the problem in translating song is how to

convey the message of the original song into the translated one without losing the

rhythm and make it still “singable” after the translation.

Furthermore, song is also one of the important media that are used in teaching

English. Many teachers use song to teach their students vocabulary or just to liven

up the atmosphere in the class. According to Aristotle, song has a power of

forming the character and should therefore be introduced into the education of the

young. From that statement, it is clear that song is a crucial part of education and

because of that, the translation of song has to be as accurate and appropriate as

possible.

In addition, there is still a little amount of the correct song translation. For

instance, the Indonesian version of “heavy rotation” or “fortune cookie” which

can be said to be a mess because it’s did not match the syllables from source song.

In this regard, only having right meaning is not enough. Translators still have to

pay attention to other aspects that can affect the final results of translation.

Similar study about translating song is already done by several researcher in

the past. Gritsensko and Aleshinkaya (2016) have done a research on this topic.

Their research is focused in exploring the role of translation as a resource of

meaning-making in popular songs. Another researcher that studied song

translation are Andersson and Ulvaeus (2009), they try to find out the translation

process involved in translating song by investigating to what extent 10 features

occur in a corpus of 12 song lyrics from the songals CHESS, MAMMA MIA!.

Most of their researchs are following the approach in Low’s research (2005) that
explaining the pentathlon approach to translating song. This research is also

similar with Low’s (2008) about how to translate a song that rhyme (2008).

The most similar research is conducted by Franzon (2008) that studies

singabilities in print and sung performances. Franzon studies five choices in

translation that has been mentioned before and mostly focuses on comparing

between the same songs in English, Swedish and Finnish.

There are several differences between this research and the research

mentioned above. The first difference is the object that will be researched. In this

research, the object is students from the translation class in University of

Muhammadiyah Malang. The next difference is the subject. In this research, the

researcher try to figure what kind of translation method that most often used by

the students in translation class in translating song in order to make that song can

be sung. Moreover the songs that being studied are the same songs in English and

Indonesian.

1.2 Statement of Problem

What are the translation strategies appliedby ELED students in translating

songs during their translation 1 course?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

Investigating the translation strategies applied by ELED students in translating

songs during their translation 1 course

1.4 Significance of the Study

1.4.1 Readers and Learners

The researcher expects that this study will be useful to the readers or learners

who want to know what are the strategies implied in translating song and the

reasons behind choosing them. Therefore, they can also translate song by applying

those strategies.

1.4.2 Lecturers and Institution

For the lecturer, it is expected to become additional information in teaching

English. For the institution, the researcher hopes this research can improve the

products of translation from English Education Department students.

1.4.3 Field of Study

Few of people with translation studies background can effectively deal with
meaning derived from melody, pitch, duration, rhythm, timbre, dynamics, stress
or articulation and other aspects in translating song. Thus, the research in
strategies of translating song is needed.

1.5 Scope and Limitation

This study will only focus on analyzing the strategies applied by sixth-

semester students in University of Muhammadiyah Malang and the reason behind

choosing them. The data are taken from the SL and TL that has been translated.

1.6 Definition of Key Terms

1.6.1 Translation:
 Translation, in this research, is defined as a series of action transferring ideas

from a source language into target language. It is similar to the concept stated by

As-Safi (2011) who says that translation is a product of TL that still has the same

meaning as the SL.

1.6.2 Translation Strategies:

Translation strategy is the way to solve the problems encountered in

translating text or its segment (Baker, 2005)

1.6.3 Song:

Based on the definition in Merriam Webster, song is a musical composition

of words and music, a distinctive or series of sounds. This definition also shared

by Low (2006) that mentions song as the combination of words and music which

fully shown in vocal performance.

References:

Andersson B. and Ulvaelus B. (2009). Translating Song Lyrics: A Study of

The Translation of the Three Musicals. Södertörns högskola: Södertörns

university.

As-Safi, A. B. (2011). Translation Theories, Strategies and Basic

Theoritical Issues. Abu Dhabi: Al-Manhal.

Baker, Mona. (Eds.). (2005). Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation

Studies. London: Routledge.

Franzon, Johan. (2008). Choices in Song Translation. The Translator,

14:2, 373-399, DOI: 10.1080/13556509.2008.10799263.

Gritsenko & Aleshinskaya. (2016). Translation of Song Lyrics as Structure-

related Expressive Device. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 231,

171.

Low, Peter (2005) The Pentathlon Approach to Song Translating. In Dinda

Gorlée (Eds.) Song and Significance: Virtues and Vices of Vocal

Translation, Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi.

------ (2008). Translating songs that rhyme. Perspectives: Studies in

Translatology, 16(1–2), 1–20.