Technology Aspired through Accurate and Acceptable Literary Translation

Abstract

This research investigated the strategies used by translators of literary works to find equivalence for information on technology. The accuracy and acceptability of the translation were further studied by collecting data from respondents adapting Nababan’s measurement of translation quality. Perceptions of quality and acceptability were further analyzed using Baker’s notion of translation strategies. Corpus used for this study were Indonesian translations of Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen and Glass Sword. Results showed 164 occurrences of technology-aspired information from Red Queen and 153 from Glass Sword using different translation strategies. It was found that respondents perceived that both translations were accurate and acceptable. The accuracy rate was 54.8% of the total responses. Meanwhile, acceptability was shown by 50.2% of the total responses. Interestingly, while there was no problem with translation, possible improvements in translations were seen as personal taste, including respondents’ background knowledge of the technology. It could be concluded that translation strategies used were resorted to more general terms and descriptions, which could be rendered by the translators for readers of such different backgrounds of knowledge. Implications for further study and application of translation studies in the classrooms were also provided.