This document discusses the translation of the word "asu" from the short story "Wong Asu" by Djenar Maesa Ayu into English. It notes that "asu" has two meanings in Javanese and Indonesian language - a dog, and a swear word expressing excitement. The translation of "Wong Asu" into "The Dog Man" softens the original meaning. Translating terms with cultural specificity, like views of dogs, between languages presents difficulties in fully conveying the original meaning without additional context. Maintaining cultural identity while creating a natural translation is challenging when source and target languages have different cultures.

1. PRESENTATION IN UC PBI 2013
DOG AND “THE OTHER DOG”
6 July 2013
Putri Ayu Rezkiyana
Sanata Dharma University

2. What do you think when you hear the
word ‘table’?
Nida
„a single word may have number of quiet
different meanings‟ (1975:11).

3.  A First Course in Linguistics about
semantics
„a word is limited to certain context‟ and
„the context decides the meaning of word
may have‟ (Simpson; 1979:177).

4. DJENAR MAESA AYU’S WONG ASU
 Wong Asu (2003), a short story written by
Djenar Maesa Ayu that translated into The
Dog Man (2005), is actually taken from
Javanese language.
Javanese Indonesian English
wong manusia Human
asu anjing dog

5. If the translation becomes The Dog Man,
is it the same with Spiderman, Batman,
or Superman?

6. WORD MEANING AND CONTEXT
 In the short story of Wong Asu, there are two
meanings of understanding the word „asu‟.
Javanese and Indonesian language…
 Asu  a four-legged animal
 Asu  for swearing, feeling of excitement

7. DOG IN CULTURAL CONTEXT
 The context is when the first person (-) tells
the story that lit up the temper of the second
person (+). (see They Say I’m a Monkey!
page 70-71)
Source Text Target Text
Wong Asu That Dog Man
Manusia Anjing That human dog
Anjing The dog
Anjinggg! Doggg!
Benar-benar anjing What a dog!
Anjing, lu.. You dog!

8. DOG IN CULTURAL CONTEXT
 To acknowledge the loss and gain in this
translation, the componential analysis will
see semantic features on both languages.
anjing dog
+ animate + animate
+ human - human
± male ± male

9. DOG IN CULTURAL CONTEXT
 In term of sociolinguistics, dog in English
symbolized loyalty because a dog always
follows the owner. It is different from
Indonesian culture that most people consider
dog as an animal which tends to be avoided.

10. LOSS AND GAIN IN TRANSLATING ‘DOG’
 The first is the intention of A using „dog‟ to
refer human behaviour.
“He behaved like a dog” (p. 70)
• The second is the reaction of B in understanding
the word „dog‟ from A.
anjing!  something annoying, unpleasant

11. Asu
Di saat yang membahayakan itu saya teringat Ayah.
Dulu saya sering menemani Ayah menulis.
Sesekali Ayah terlihat kesal, memukul-mukul
mesin ketiknya dan mengumpat, "Asu!"
Kali lain, saat menemukan puisi bagus di koran,
Ayah tersenyum senang dan berseru, "Asu!"
Saat bertemu temannya di jalan,
Ayah dan temannya dengan tangkas bertukar asu.
Pernah saya bertanya, "Asu itu apa, Yah?"
"Asu itu anjing yang baik hati," jawab Ayah.
Kemudian ganti saya ditanya,
"Coba, menurut kamu, asu itu apa?"
"Asu itu anjing yang suka minum susu," jawab saya.

12. Sementara saya melangkah mundur,
anjing itu maju terus dengan nyalang.
Demi Ayah, saya ucapkan salam, "Selamat sore, asu."
Ia kaget. Saya ulangi salam saya, "Selamat sore, su!"
Anjing itu pun minggir, menyilakan saya lanjut jalan.
Dari belakang sana terdengar teriakan,
"Tolong, tolong...! Anjing, anjing...!"
(Joko
Pinurbo, http://jokopinurbo.blogspot.com/2011/12/asu.ht
ml)

13. COMMUNICATING THE CULTURAL
MEANING
 “Idiomatic translation uses the natural forms
of the receptor language, both in the
grammatical constructions and in the choice
of lexical items. A truly idiomatic translation
does not sound like a translation” (Larson;
1984:16).
 We have to know the meaning of ST and TT
 as natural as possible, to avoid ambiguity

14. COMMUNICATING THE CULTURAL
MEANING
 Even if the criteria of good translation are like
idiomatic translation, the whole meaning of
SL is sometimes unable to be adjusted in the
TL  loss and gain in translation
 The difficulty in translating terms or concepts
from SL to TL demands the translator to write
additional information in order to make the
meaning understandable, if it is necessary.

15. FINAL REMARKS
 The difference influences the translation of Djenar
Maesa Ayu’s Wong Asu in which the essence of the word
‘dog’ in TT has softened the meaning from the original
one.
 The difficulty of translating ‘asu’ into dog comes up
because of the difficulty in ‘defining characteristics of
the natural kind’
 Maintaining cultural identity is actually difficult to create
a translation as natural as possible because culture of
source language is sometimes different from the target
language.

16. THANK YOU…