ABSTRACT Language is an expression of culture and individuality of its speakers.

It influ ences the way the speakers perceive the world. This principle has a far-reaching implication fro translation. If language influences thought and culture, it mea ns that ultimate translation is impossible. The opposite point of view, however, gives another perspective. Humboldt s "inner" and "outer" forms in language and C homsky s "deep" and "surface" structures imply that ultimate translation is anyhow possible. In practice, however, the possibility depends on the purpose and how deep the so urce text is embedded in the culture. The more source-text-oriented a translatio n is, the more difficult it is to do. Similarly, the deeper a text is embedded i n its culture, the more difficult it is to work on. Related to translation, culture manifests in two ways. First, the concept or ref erence of the vocabulary items is somehow specific for the given culture. Second , the concept or reference is actually general but expressed in a way specific t o the source language culture. In practice, however, it is suggested that a tran slator should take into account the purpose of the translation in translating th e culturally-bound words or expressions. The translation procedures discussed sh ould also be considered. Key words: culture, language universals, translation purpose, translation proced ure, translation possibility 1. Cultural Consideration in Translation It has been long taken for granted that translation deals only with language. Cu ltural perspective, however, has never been brought into discussion. This can be seen in most of the following definitions. The first definition is presented by Catford (1965: 20). He states that translat ion is the replacement of textual material in one language by equivalent textual material in another language. In this definition, the most important thing is e quivalent textual material. Yet, it is still vague in terms of the type of equiv alence. Culture is not taken into account. Very much similar to this definition is that by Savory (1968) who maintains that translation is made possible by an equivalent of thought that lies behind its d ifferent verbal expressions. Next, Nida and Taber (1969) explain the process of translating as follows. Translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and second ly in terms of style. In Translation: Applications and Research, Brislin (1976: 1) defines translation as: "the general term referring to the transfer of thoughts and ideas from one langu age (source) to another (target), whether the languages are in written or oral f orm; whether the languages have established orthographies or do not have such st andardization or whether one or both languages is based on signs, as with sign l anguages of the deaf." Identical with the above definition is the one proposed by Pinhhuck (1977: 38). He maintains that "Translation is a process of finding a TL equivalent for an SL utterance".

In the definitions appearing in 1960s-1970s, some similarities have been found: (1) there is a change of expression from one language to the other, (2) the mean ing and message are rendered in the TL, and (3) the translator has an obligation to seek for the closest equivalent in the TL. Yet, there is no indication that culture is taken into account except in that of Nida and Taber. Actually Nida and Taber themselves do not mention this matter very explicitly. F ollowing their explanation on "closest natural equivalent", however, we can infe r that cultural consideration is considered. They maintain that the equivalent s ought after in every effort of translating is the one that is so close that the meaning/message can be transferred well. The concept of closest natural equivalent is rooted in Nida's concept of dynamic equivalent. His celebrated example is taken from the Bible, that is the transla tion of "Lamb of God" into the Eskimo language. Here "lamb" symbolizes innocence , especially in the context of sacrifice. As a matter of fact, Eskimo culture do es not know "lamb". Thus, the word does not symbolize anything. Instead of "Lamb of God", he prefers "Seal of God" to transfer the message. Here he considers cu ltural aspects. The inclusion of cultural perspective in the definition of translation unfortuna tely does not continue. The later ones keep on not touching this matter. See the following definition. "Translation involves the rendering of a source language (SL) text into the targ et language (TL) so as to ensure that (1) the surface meaning of the two will be approximately similar and (2) the structure of the SL will be preserved as clos ely as possible, but not so closely that the TL structure will be seriously dist orted (McGuire, 1980: 2). In the following definition, Newmark does not state anything about culture. "Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message a nd/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language" (Newmark, 1981: 7). Finally, Wills defines translation more or less similarly as follows. "Translation is a transfer process which aims at the transformation of a written SL text into an optimally equivalent TL text, and which requires the syntactic, the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of the S L" (Wills in Noss, 1982: 3). It is known that out of 8 definitions above only one takes cultural aspects into account, the one by Nida and Taber. This definition is actually a specific one, rooted from the practice of the Bible translation. By nature, it is understood that the translation should be done to every language. As the content addresses all walks of life and culture plays an important role in human life, culture, th erefore, should be considered. The other definitions, however, are meant to explain the experts' view on transl ation theory to be applied in the translation of all types of material, includin g scientific or technical texts which are not deeply embedded in any culture. Th us, it can be momentarily hypothesized that cultural consideration must be taken if the material to translate is related to culture. For material that is not ve ry much embedded into a specific culture, cultural consideration may not be nece ssary. According to Snell-Hornby (1988: 39), however, this exclusion of cultural aspect

from the discussion of translation theory is due to the view of the traditional approach in linguistics which draws a sharp dividing-line between language and "extralinguistic reality" (culture, situation, etc.). The contemporary approach, according to her, sees language as an integral part of culture. This view can b e seen in Hymes (1964) and Halliday and Hasan (1985), for example. 2. Language and Culture Culture in this discussion should be seen in a broad sense, as in anthropologica l studies. Culture is not only understood as the advanced intellectual developme nt of mankind as reflected in the arts, but it refers to all socially conditione d aspects of human life (cf. Snell-Hornby, 1988: Hymes, 1964). In practical word ings, Goodenough (1964: 36) puts: "As I see it, a society's culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and do so in any role that they accept for any one of themselves. Culture, being what people have to learn as distinct from their biological heritage, must consist of the en d product of learning: knowledge, in a most general, if relative, sense of the t erm. By definition, we should note that culture is not material phenomenon; it d oes not consist of things, people, behavior, or emotions. It is rather an organi zation of these things. It is the forms of things that people have in mind, thei r models of perceiving and dealing with their circumstances. To one who knows th eir culture, these things and events are also signs signifying the cultural form s or models of which they are material representation." It can be summarized that this definition suggests three things: (a) culture see n as a totality of knowledge and model for perceiving things, (b) immediate conn ection between culture and behavior and events, and (c) culture's dependence on norms. It should be noted also that some other definitions claim that both knowl edge and material things are parts of culture. See, for example, Koentjaraningra t (1996: 80-81) and Hoijer (1967: 106) According to Snell-Hornby (1988: 40), the connection between language and cultur e was first formally formulated by Wilhelm Von Humboldt. For this German philoso pher, language was something dynamic: it was an activity (energia) rather than a static inventory of items as the product of activity (ergon). At the same time language is an expression of culture and individuality of the speakers, who perc eive the world through language. Related to Goodenough's idea on culture as the totality of knowledge, this present idea may see language as the knowledge repre sentation in the mind. In 1973, Humboldt's view was echoed by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in th eir Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. This principle states that thought does not "precede " language, but on the contrary thought is conditioned by it. The system of hono rific style used in Javanese, for example, affects the speakers' concepts of soc ial status. Halliday (in Halliday and Hasan (1985: 5) states that there was the theory of co ntext before the theory of text. In other words, context precedes text. Context here means context of situation and culture (Halliday and Hasan, 1985: 7). This context is necessary for adequate understanding of the text, which becomes the f irst requirement for translating. Thus, translating without understanding text i s non-sense, and understanding text without understanding its culture is impossi ble. Humboldt's idea, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and Halliday's idea have a far-reaching implications for translation. In its extreme, the notion that language conditio ns thought and that language and thought is bound up with the individual culture of the given community would mean that translation is impossible. We cannot tra

nslate one's thought which is affected by and stated in language specific for a certain community to another different language because the system of thought in the two languages (cultures) must be different. Each language is unique. If it influences the thought and, therefore, the culture, it would mean that ultimate translation is impossible. Another point of view, however, asserts the opposite. Ironically this also goes back to Humboldt's idea bout inner and outer forms of language. Later it is deve loped into the concepts of deep structure and surface structure by Chomsky. Inne r form and deep structure is what generally known as idea. Following this concep ts, all ideas are universal. What is different is only the surface structure, th e outer from. If it is so, translation is only a change of surface structure to represent the universal deep structure. Accordingly, translation is theoreticall y always possible. All in all, we are faced with two extremes. Which one is right? The answer, acco rding to Snell-Hornby (1988: 41) lies not in choosing any of the two. If the ext remes are put at the ends of a cline, the answer lies between the two. In brief, theoretically the degree of probability for perfect translation depends on how far the source language text (SLT) is embedded in its culture and the greater th e distance between the culture between SLT and target language text (TLT), the h igher is the degree of impossibility. See the following excerpts for illustratio n. The source language (SL) is Indonesian and the target language (TL) is Englis h. (1.) SL: Sebuah lembaga penelitian mengadakan penelitian tentang jumlah tabungan perbulan dari para buruh sebuah perusahaan negara di ibukota. Penelitian terseb ut menggunakan sampel yang terdiri dari 100 keluarga dan hasilnya dinyatakan seb agai persentasi dari jumlah pendapatan per bulan. (Anto Dajan, 1974: 18) TL: A research institution conducted a research on the amount of saving deposite d by workers of a company located in a capital city. The research took 100 famil y as a sample and the result was presented in percentage of their monthly wages. (2) SL: Dalam masyarakat Jawa bila seseorang wanita atau istri sedang hamil, men urut tradisi perlu diadakan bermacam-macam selamatan dan upacara-upacara lainnya . Hal ini perlu dilaksanakan dengan maksud agar bayi yang dikandung akan lahir d engan mudah dan selamat sehingga si anak akan mendapat kebahagiaan hidup dikemud ian hari. (Bratawidjaja, 1996: 11). TL: In a Javanese community, based d be celebrated with various kinds . These should be done so that she and the newly-born will get happy on traditions, a pregnant woman or wife shoul of selamatan (traditional fiest?) and rituals can give a birth to a child easily and safely life later.

(3) SL: Upacara siraman dilakukan pada pagi hari sekitar pukul 09.00. Upacara si raman dilakukan oleh ibu dari anak yang diruwat dengan air kembang setaman. Sete lah dibersihkan anak itu mengenakan busana adat Jawa yang secara khusus dibuat. Anak yang diruwat diajak oleh Ki Dalang serta didampingi oleh para pisisepuh (ne neknya, budenya, dan lain sebagainya) untuk bersujud di hadapan ayah dan ibunya (Bratawidjaja, 1996: 49) TL: Siraman (showering?) ceremony is held in the morning around 09:00 o clock. Thi s ritual is led by the mother of the child being "ruwat" (cleansed?) by showerin g him with "kembang setaman" (flower??) water. After being cleansed, the child i s dresed in Javanese traditional clothes specially designed for him. The ("ruwat ") child is then guided by Ki Dalang (the puppeteer??) and accompnied by the eld ers (the grandmother, aunts, etc.) to pay a homage to by bowing down to earth in front of the father and mother.

Reading the texts, we can imagine that translating the first text is easier than the second, and the second is easier than the last. The difficulty is caused by the culturally-bound words (concepts) found in each text. Practically, however, the depth of embededness of a text into its culture is not the first consideration. The purpose of translating is the first determinant. I f the purpose of translating text (2) and (3), for example, is to give general i ntroduction of a certain type of text or culture, the TL should not carry all th e meaning possessed by the SLT. The words underlined and put in the brackets wil l do. In this case there are a lot of possibilities for the TL. However, if the purpose is to present the Javanese culture before the English re adership, the italicized words should be used and accompanied with a lot of expl anation. Supposed the two paragraphs are parts of a novel, and the translator wa nts to keep the local color, only the italicized words should be used. These dif ferent purposes govern the choice of translation procedures. Yet, if the purpose of translating text (2) and (3) is to present all the meaning, beauty, and styl e contained in it, then, translation is impossible. 3. Translation Procedures to Translate Culturally-bound Words or Expressions From the previous discussion, it is known that perfect translation of culturally -bound text is impossible. The translation focusing on the purpose of the SL tex t writing is, however, always possible. This can be proven with the translation of so many literary works into other languages. One of them is the translation o f Mangunwijaya's Burung-burung Manyar into English by Thomas M. Hunter. Hariyant o (1997) surveys both groups of SL and TL readers and comes up with the result s aying that the readers get the same impressions in terms of the meaning, message and style. Based on the result, Hariyanto (1999) studied further the appropriate procedures used to translate culturally-bound sentences, words, and expressions which are embedded in Javanese culture into English using the same novel translation as a case. The result shows that to translate culturally-bound words or expressions, the translator used addition, componential analysis, cultural equivalent, descri ptive equivalent, literal translation, modulation, recognized translation, reduc tion, synonymy, transference, deletion, and combination. Some, however, are typi cally appropriate for certain classification of cultural words. For detailed des cription about the translation procedures, see Newmark (1988) or Hariyanto (1999 ). The brief description on the procedures can be seen in Appendix 1. On the appropriateness of the procedures to translate culturally-bound words and expressions, these conclusions are taken. Recognized translation is best used to translate institutional terms whose trans lation are already recognized, such as TNI, kabupaten, kecamatan, and Kowilhan. The use of new translation with whatever procedure will make the readers may mis interpret, especially if they already have some degree of knowledge of the sourc e language. The establishment of this recognized translation by the Indonesian L anguage Center or the people themselves has, of course, undergone a certain proc ess of creation and acceptance. When something about language has been accepted, it means it is a convention: that is the heart of language or vocabulary. Professions are appropriately translated with cultural equivalents as they exist in both Javanese and English cultures. There are some differences between the t wo, but they are so minute. The examples can be seen in the following quotations . The SL is Indonesian and the TL is English. SL: Dan Nah, tentu saja tak mau ketinggalan si gelatik cantik tetapi pencuri-pen

curi padi yang nakal itu, dengan pipinya putih dan picinya biru hitam. (p. 17) TL: And not to be left out were the Java finches. With their white cheeks and th eir velvet-like caps of deep blue, they were lovely to look at, but as rice thie ves they were a troublesome bunch. (p. 27) The other professions and the translation found in the novel are the following. The SL words The translation (4/1) babu-babu nursemaids (8/1) sepandri privates (22/4) jongos bellhop (24/1) sepandri atau serdadu krocuk corporals or privates (36/2) abdi dalem maid servants (85/2) abdi servant (101/2) pencuri- pencuri padi rice thieves (103/2) penjahit tailor (106/1) pemburu angkatan air force fighter (122/1) tukang kebun gardener (124/1) garong, perampok thieves and robbers (135/5) Pak Lurah village chief udara

(145/2) jongos servant (157/1) carik clerk (157/2) ulu-ulu the waterworks overseer (178/1) Pak Bupati the regent (178/2) bupati penjabat acting regent (191/2) maling thief Descriptive equivalents are appropriate to translate culturally-bound words or e xpressions that are not found in the English culture but considered important en ough in the text. When they are not, synonyms will do. See this example. SL: Langsung ia berbahasa ngoko kepadanya, seperti kepada jongos (Mangunwijaya, 1989: 106-107) TL: He rudely ordered Karjo about, using language that one might use with a serv ant. (Mangunwijaya, 1993: 136) The example of this case is berbahasa ngoko which is translated into with langua ge that one might use with a servant. If this expression was not considered very important, the synonym with hostile language could be used. Literal translation can be used to translate a Javanese word that refers to a ge neral meaning such as sinyo Londo, which is translated into a Dutch boy. This pr ocedure, however, should not be used to translate proper name. Expansion is found not very significant. It means that without it, the translati on was still acceptable. See the following quotation. SL: Mana Si Karjo. Dikunjungi malah lari. Mandi barangkali. Atau menggodog teh b arangkali (p. 156) TL: Where was Karjo? A person comes to visit and he disappears. May be he was ta king a bath, or boiling water for tea? In the above example, instead of translating menggodog teh into boiling water fo r tea, the translator actually could translates it into preparing for tea, which is more idiomatic. Reduction is found to be useful to translate traditional address + proper name c onstructions as the terms of address are not found in the TL and an explanation is not possible. The examples are the translation of Kang Glati into Glati. See the following excerpt.

SL: Pelpolisi Belanda dan resisir mantri polisi dengan cepat melacak Si Bajingan dan Kang Glati masuk bui. (p. 111) TL: ... the Dutch detectives and constables had tracked him down and thrown Glat i into Jail. (p. 141) Transference is very useful to translate tradition title, terms of address, and proper name. In the context, a reduction of the title or term of address would n aturally distort the meaning or message. Few of the examples can be seen below: The SL words The translation (37/1) Gusti Nurul Gusti Nurul (43/2) Den Ayu Den Ayu (53/3) Mbok Naya Mbok Naya (57/1) Mbok Ranu Mbok Ranu (119/1) Meener Antana Meener Antana (123/1) Mbok Nem Mbok Nem Next, modulation can be used best to handle a word that has no exact equivalent in the TL and the context demands the translator to emphasize the economy and sm oothness of the sentence flow. This situation usually happens in a direct quotat ion where cultural notes are impossible. In addition, with this procedure the tr anslator can still recreate the smooth flow and beauty of the text. The example is the translation of mbak ayu into you and kakangmu into I. SL: Mbakayu itu macam-macam saja usulnya. (p. 15) TL: You do come up with some strange suggestions sometimes," Mbok Ranu commented . SL: Maka Kakangmu pikir: ah, tidak baik membebani orang dengan perkara-perkara y ang lebih memberatkan (p. 160) TL: So I thought to myself that it wouldn't be right to do something that might make even more trouble. (p. 196)

In the following example the translator also employs modulation and the combinat ion of modulation and addition. Read it closely.

SL: Bila mereka berkomentar ayam itu gemuk dan bertanya apa betul itu ayam Kedu sungguh, maka petang harinya seorang anak disuruh ayahnya mempersembahkan ayam i tu kepada mereka. Tetapi bagaimana bila mereka memuji Si Tinem atau Piyah cantik ? (p. 109) TL: Or if one said that a certain hen looked plump and ready for the pot, that s ame evening the owner would order his son or daughter to offer the chicken to th e soldiers. And, because it hadn't been possible to evacuate all the young women of the village, what about when the soldiers began to praise one of the marriag e-age girls? (p. 139)

Ayam Kedu in the SLT which means a type of chicken renown for its tasty meat is replaced with ready for the pot. One sense is replaced with another; this is an example of modulation. In the following sentence, the modulation is combined wit h addition. The reason for the action is added in. Si Tinem or Si Piyah are gene ral names which are here used to refer to grown-up single women. The translator replaces them with the referent marriage-age girls. Some other modulations are of different types. See the following example. SL: Mereka meminta Mbok Rukem, janda nakal yang biasanya mereka gerutui untuk me nampung lahar birahi tentara itu. (p. 109) TL: They went to Mbok Rukem, a divorcee whose rumored or real dalliances had so often been the target of their complaints, and asked her assistance in soothing the soldiers' passion. (p. 139)

In the example above, the phrase mereka gerutui is an action, a cause. In the tr anslation the translator gives the effect, the consequence of the action, i.e. t he target of their complaints. This is also a modulation. Finally, there are some culturally-bound words deleted or dropped during the tra nslation process. The translator seems to take this strategy if the word's meani ng is not found in the TL culture and the importance is minor. Anyhow, he should try to transfer to meaning or message, especially if it is not merely terms of address. Such words or expressions that have been deleted are: The SL words (160/4) ngono ya ngono, ning aja ngono (168/3) lamat-lamat (179/1) kepangrehannya (213/1) basa-basi (213/2) jiwa raga (223/4) akal trenggiling (235/1) berambut ijuk (236/2) bermata bandeng

4. Conclusions Finally, it can be concluded that theoretically a text which is embedded in its culture is both possible and impossible to translate into other languages. If pr acticality is considered first, however, every translation is possible. The degr ee of its closeness to its source culture and the extent to which the meaning of its source text to be retained is very much determined by the purpose of the tr anslation. To close, it is suggested that in the translator considered the proce dures explained above to translate culturally-bound words or expressions.