October 2020
(IND) (ENG below)
Sejak awal pendiriannya, InterSastra selalu mendukung upaya penerjemahan karya sastra, terutama karya-karya yang menyuarakan kisah-kisah mereka yang sering dipinggirkan atau dibungkam, sebagai upaya untuk memusatkan kisah-kisah tersebut dalam perhatian masyarakat.
Kami menyadari bahwa, untuk mempromosikan kisah-kisah itu seluas mungkin, dan sastra Indonesia pada umumnya, kita membutuhkan lebih banyak lagi penerjemah sastra yang mumpuni. Oleh karena itu, tiap penerbitan serial InterSastra, kami selalu menggandeng penerjemah awal karier, selain untuk menerjemahkan karya-karya dalam serial tersebut, juga untuk menerima bimbingan dari penerjemah senior. Kali ini, penerjemah senior pembimbing itu adalah editor terjemahan kami, Tiffany Tsao. Dengan begitu, selain menerbitkan karya-karya penulis secara dwibahasa, kami turut mencetak penerjemah sastra baru yang siap bekerja untuk memajukan sastra Indonesia di kancah dunia.
Pada 2019-2020 kami telah melakukan pembimbingan untuk 15 penerjemah prosa dan puisi awal karier, yang berasal dari berbagai provinsi di Indonesia serta luar negeri. Berikut kesan-kesan beberapa dari mereka tentang pengalaman tersebut:
Madina Malahayati Chumaera merasa tertantang untuk menerjemahkan semua rujukan religius dalam puisi-puisi Ebi Langkung dengan baik ke bahasa Inggris. Pun dengan penggunaan lagu kanak-kanak “Balonku Ada Lima” dalam puisi Abdee Wahab. “Puisi-puisi Ebi dan Abdee telah menyadarkan saya, betapa luwesnya susunan kata dan tata bahasa Indonesia ketimbang bahasa Inggris—sehingga banyak sekali kalimat-kalimat yang bisa dimengerti dalam bahasa Indonesia, tapi tidak dalam bahasa Inggris,” katanya.
Soal proses pembimbingan penerjemahan, Madina berkomentar, “Saya sungguh, sungguh berterima kasih atas proses penyuntingan bolak-balik yang boleh saya alami bersama Tiffany. Ketika saya menyerahkan naskah terjemahan mentah saya, biasanya saya menandai frasa-frasa dan stanza-stanza yang saya tidak yakini maknanya—termasuk pilihan kata, penyusunan kalimat atau ketukannya. Memiliki seorang rekan diskusi untuk bertukar pikiran sungguh-sungguh membantu saya untuk meredam semua keraguan yang mungkin bisa menghambat proses kerja saya.”
“Kadang-kadang saya merasa bahwa nama Madina dan Tiffany perlu dicantumkan sebagai penerjemah,” lanjutnya, “karena Tiffany telah membantu saya dalam membuat terjemahan saya menjadi lebih ajeg. Adanya seseorang yang bisa memeriksa hasil penerjemahanmu dan memberi masukan sungguh memperluas kapasitasmu sebagai seorang penerjemah. Proses ini selalu bisa membuatmu sadar akan hal-hal yang sebelumnya tidak terpikir olehmu sebagai seorang penerjemah, sehingga sekali lagi, saya sungguh bersyukur atas pembimbingan yang diberikan Tiffany.”
Dhania Sarahtika merasa mendapat kehormatan menerjemahkan dapat puisi-puisi Cyntha Hariadi, juga Budi Winawan. “Karya-karya mereka mewakili suara-suara yang jarang didengar, atau bahkan dibungkam. Karya-karya mereka menemukan pantulannya dalam diri saya, karena mereka mengetengahkan masalah yang juga menjadi kepedulian saya dengan cara yang sangat cerdas,” katanya. “Cyntha membeberkan bagaimana masyarakat kita meromantisasi pengalaman menjadi seorang ibu, sementara Budi membicarakan masalah gender, seksualitas, dan kesetaraan dengan cara yang begitu gamblang dan lugas, tapi sekaligus bermain-main.”
Ia pun berkata bahwa menerjemahkan naskah-naskah untuk InterSastra “mengubah cara berpikir yang saya pakai untuk menerjemahkan/menyunting naskah… Saya perlu meningkatkan keluwesan berpikir saya, memastikan bahwa saya sudah benar-benar memasuki alam pikir yang tepat untuk setiap tugas yang saya lakukan tersebut.”
“Saya juga telah banyak belajar dari Tiffany tentang bagaimana caranya menjadi editor yang lebih baik,” sambungnya. “Saya baru belajar bahwa ternyata peranan seorang editor tidak hanya terbatas pada memperbaiki kesalahan-kesalahan yang ada dalam teks, tetapi juga untuk membantu para penulis untuk bisa mengembangkan teks mereka. Lebih dari itu, Tiffany juga menunjukkan pada saya bahwa menjadi editor tidak serta-merta membuatmu memaksakan apa yang kamu pikir adalah benar kepada orang lain; kamu juga mengajak si penulis/penerjemah berdiskusi dalam proses penyuntingan.”
Ruby Astari, penerjemah “Marsiah Dipenjara” by dan “Desa Para Malaikat”, juga merasa sangat terbantu dengan pelatihan dari Tiffany, karena ia membebaskan penerjemah untuk menggunakan gaya bahasa yang menurutnya sesuai, meskipun tetap membimbing lewat saran-saran pilihan kata lain yang kira-kira mungkin lebih cocok. Ruby mengaku masih butuh bantuan editor dalam menerjemahkan tulisan. “Dalam hal ini, bahkan saya juga membutuhkan perspektif penulis aslinya agar hasil terjemahan terasa lebih luwes, tapi tetap mudah dipahami,” tambahnya.
Zoë McLaughlin memilih untuk menerjemahkan cerpen “Dalam Tubuhku” dan “Darah” karena “mereka mengetengahkan tema kekuatan perempuan, juga bahaya-bahaya yang kerap kali dihadapi oleh perempuan dalam masyarakat. Saya pun merasa karya-karya ini menampilkan citraan-citraan memukau yang ingin bisa saya sampaikan dalam bahasa Inggris.”
Proses bimbingan penerjemahan baginya sangat menyenangkan. “Saat menerjemahkan teks, saya seringkali paham bahwa saya perlu membolak-balik susunan kalimat saya, mengubah penekanan atau menggunakan pilihan sinonim yang lain, tetapi saya tidak selalu berani mengambil risiko itu. Sungguh menyegarkan bagi saya mendapatkan editor yang dapat membaca naskah dalam bahasa aslinya dan mendukung pilihan-pilihan terjemahan saya yang lebih berisiko.”
Temukan daftar nama dan bio penerjemah-penerjemah serial Melawan Represi di akhir artikel ini. Untuk pekerjaan penerjemahan, hubungilah mereka secara langsung atau melalui kami di InterSastra.
Untuk memastikan kami dapat terus menerjemahkan, menerbitkan, dan membimbing penulis serta penerjemah awal karier, menyumbanglah kepada kami melalui rekening InterSastra: Bank Mandiri 1660000463299 a/n Noerhayati // Eliza Vitri. Terima kasih.
(ENG)
Since its inception, InterSastra has always engaged with literary translation, especially of works that voice the experiences of those who are often marginalized or oppressed, as an effort to center these stories in the public's attention.
We realize that, in order to disseminate those stories, and promote Indonesian literature in general, as widely as possible, we need more qualified literary translators. Therefore, for its every publication, InterSastra always works with early career translators, who also receive guidance or mentoring from established translators. This time, the mentor is our translation editor, Tiffany Tsao. That way, in addition to publishing works bilingually, we will also have trained new literary translators who are ready to work to advance Indonesian literature on the world stage.
In 2019-2020 we have mentored 15 emerging literary translators, who come from various provinces in Indonesia and abroad. Here are some of their testimonies of the experience:
Madina Malahayati Chumaera felt challenged to make sure that all the religious references in Ebi Langkung’s poems translate well into English. Also the reference to nursery rhymes in Abdee Wahab’s poem. “[Translating Ebi’s and Abdee’s poems] made me realize how loose Indonesian syntax and grammar is compared to English—a line would make complete sense in Indonesian but not in English,” she said.
About the translation process, she said, “I'm so, so thankful for the back-and-forth editing process with Tiffany. When I submit my raw translations I usually mark phrases or stanzas that I'm still unsure about—whether it's the diction, phrasing, or rhythm. Having somebody to pass your thoughts back and forth helped me so much—it quelled any ‘what if...’ thoughts I had that might hold me back.”
Sometimes she even feels that the credit should go to both herself and Tiffany, “because she helped me so much into making the translation solid,” she continued. “Having another person look at your work and comment on it makes your capacity for translation wider too—there's always the "oh! I haven't thought about that!" moment, so I'm always so, so grateful for Tiffany's mentoring.”
Dhania Sarahtika felt honored to be translating Cyntha Hariadi’s poems. Also Budi Winawan’s poems. “Their works represent voices rarely heard, or worse, are suppressed. Their works resonate with me the most because they address issues that are of my concern and they do it in a really clever way,” she said. “Cyntha talks about how society has largely romanticized motherhood. and Budi talks about gender, sexuality and equality in a very straightforward, yet cheeky, manner.”
She also said that translating for InterSastra made her rethink how she is used to translating and editing works. More used to translating academic texts, Dhania finds translating literature requires a very different headspace. “Literary texts involve readers in a kind of dance. Sometimes we leave everything out in the open. Sometimes we create gaps for them to fill in. Other times we conceal things on purpose, playfully teasing and testing the readers whether they can follow the trail of clues.”
She continued, “I’ve also learned a great deal from Tiffany on how to become a better editor. I’ve learned that the editors’ role is not merely correcting mistakes in a text but also to help writers expand on the text. Besides, Tiffany has also shown me that being an editor is not about forcing what you think is right upon others, but it’s about accommodating discussions. Sometimes I received suggestions about how some lines could be translated, but I had my own interpretation of them. Then I elaborated my interpretation, and in the end, the modification/correction of my translation did not change my interpretation of those lines but solidified it or made it flow better.”
Ruby Astari, translator of "Marsiah Imprisoned" and "Village of Angels", also felt that Tiffany has helped her greatly in her translations. “She gave translators complete freedom to use the linguistic style they find suitable, yet still guiding us with her advice on word choices which might suit the context more appropriately.”
Finally, Zoë McLaughlin, who translated “In My Body” by Indah Darmastuti and “Blood” by Sri Utami, said she was drawn to both stories because of their similar themes regarding women’s strength as well as the dangers faced by women in society. “Plus, I thought they both had striking images that I wanted to try to render in English,” she said.
The mentoring aspect of the translation process was really great for her. “It’s nice to receive critiques on a translation in general, but I found it to be particularly invigorating to receive critiques from someone who could also read the original text. When translating, I often know that I should switch around the word order, or change the punctuation, or use more synonyms, but I don’t always feel brave enough to take that risk. It gave me a lot of confidence to have people who read my work and the original and still agreed with some of my riskier choices.”
Please find the names and bios of the all the translators involved in InterSastra’s Unrepressed series at the end of this article. For translation work, please contact them directly or through us at intersastra@gmail.com. To ensure we can continue publishing, translating, and mentoring emerging Indonesian writers and translators, please donate to InterSastra via Paypal. Thank you.
TRANSLATORS’ BIO
ADITYA RAMADHAN’s accidental encounters with words have caused him to write some poems and short stories. His works, among others, are “Jean Evans,” published online in Detik, and “Myung-Hee,” published in a short story anthology together with other Kelas Menulis Cerpen Kompas 2018 alumni. He also writes songs, SEO articles, and sometimes translates journal articles. His album debut, entitled, “It’s Mayn,” was put together with his former band. You can find him on Instagram @adityasrgr or contact him at adityasrgr@gmail.com.
CLARISSA GOENAWAN is an Indonesian-born Singaporean writer and translator. Her award-winning short fiction has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies in Singapore, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, the UK, and the US. Rainbirds, her debut novel, has been published in eleven different languages. Her second novel, The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida, came out in March 2020.
DAVID SETIAWAN was born in West Java. He studied Russian Literature at Padjadjaran University, as well as Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Political Science at Gajah Mada University, but did not complete his degrees. His foray into translation began in 2012, when he took up translating subtitles, and in 2017, he started translating literary works, including texts by Gordimer, Borges, Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Conrad. In addition to translating, he edits and curates manuscripts for Yogyakarta-based publishers.
DHANIA SARAHTIKA currently works as an editor/translator for a Jakarta-based socioeconomic research institute. Prior to that, she was a journalist for over two years. Her writings have been featured in the Jakarta Globe and Manual Jakarta. Some articles she is most proud of include “Is Indonesian Literature Written in English Still Indonesian Literature?”, which sparked debates among Indonesian writers and literary critics, and “Wanted: More Women Film Critics”, which addresses the lack of women’s voices in the Indonesian film criticism scene. When Dhania is not working her nine-to-five job, she occasionally translates films to be sent to international festivals.
JULIA WINTERFLOOD has called Indonesia home since 2014. She is a freelance writer, editor, translator and media consultant. Julia’s writing has been published in Nikkei Asia, The Diplomat, Mekong Review, Travel Weekly Asia, Coconuts Bali, Coconuts Jakarta and by Asialink Arts. Prior to this she spent three year as international media consultant for Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.
LISWINDIO APENDICAESAR was born in Bogor in 1992. Once he was a reviewer and editor for the Journal of Asian Medical Students’ Association (J-AMSA), but the medical field has never really been for him. Currently he lives and learns to be a good English teacher in Surakarta (Solo). He writes prose, poetry, and op-ed articles. His works can be found in media outlets such as The Jakarta Post, Magdalene, Tempo, and Pijar Psikologi. He has authored a collection of short stories titled Malam untuk Ashkii Dighin (Night for Ashkii Dighin). He is an active member of Komunitas Sastra Pawon and Komunitas Supernova, also a member of the editorial board for Buletin Sastra Pawon. Becoming a professional translator is one of his dreams because it sounds cool. He also loves Cardcaptor Sakura and Grey’s Anatomy very much.
MUTHIA SAYEKTI is a freelance writer who has penned three books: Berdamai dengan Diri Sendiri (Psikologi Corner, 2017), The Art of Listening (Psikologi Corner, 2018), and Gue Tantang Loe Move On (Psikologi Corner, 2019). Sometimes she also works as a freelance translator, mostly of academic texts, and as an interpreter for various seminars, forums, or other events. Her articles have been published by Voxpop.id, Ublik.id, and Solopos, a local newspaper in Surakarta, Central Java. Currently she volunteers with Difalitera, which produces audio versions of Indonesian short stories and poems for blind and visually impaired people.
NATAYA BAGYA has been a playwright since 2007, a screenwriter since 2010, and translator and writer for the longest time. She also founded Heha Production (@hehaproduction) in April 2019, a theater company and a non-formal acting and performing arts studio for aspiring and skills-hungry actors.
NICOLAUS GOGOR SETA DEWA, known as Gogor, is a freelance photographer and translator based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He mostly translates movie subtitles since 2013. In 2017 he worked as a journalist for Kompas. Now he takes pictures, translates, and struggles to write a novel in his free time.
NOVIA RIKA PERWITASARI is a banker who is passionate about poetry. She has won first prize in several Indonesian poetry competitions held by Majelis Sastra Bandung (2016), Keluarga Studi Sastra Tiga Gunung (2017), Writers on Vacation (2019), etc. She is the founder of the website, Poetry Prairie, which led her to become one of Indonesia’s delegates at the 19th World Festival of Youth & Students in Russia (2017). Her poems have been published in various poetry anthologies in Indonesia, and her English poems have also been published in international platforms such as Dying Dahlia Review, Optimum Zine, and “Haiku Masters” by NHK TV Japan.
RUBY ASTARI was born in Jakarta, in November 1981. She writes fiction and non-fiction in addition to translating texts from Indonesian to English and vice-versa. A number of her works have appeared in kaWanku, SPICE!, and Story Magazine, and online in Jendela360.com, Magdalene.co, Lakilakibaru.or.id, Konde.co, Empuan.id, and Voxpop.id. A freelance columnist for Guesehat.com and freelance writer for Kontenesia.com, she has written a YA thriller novel called Reva’s Tale (published by Ice Cube, Gramedia). Her English-language poetry collection, A Phoenix Speaks, is in the process of being published.
SARITA SUPRATMAN was raised in Bandung. She currently lives in Amsterdam, and works in finance. She is passionate about literature.
SEBASTIAN PARTOGI has been working as a reporter and copywriter for Indonesia's English language daily The Jakarta Post since 2013. He has translated novels by Ratih Kumala, Djenar Maesa Ayu, and Sindhunata. Translating literary works have helped him apply the English language skills he has acquired as a journalist for the greater good.
NI MADE SUNNY REKEN was born in Australia, raised in Indonesia, underwent schooling in Australia, and takes any and every opportunity she can to return to Indonesia. Sunny embraces her multicultural heritage and loves the way translating has helped her maintain that connection. Still very new to the field, she hopes to contribute to making Indonesian literature more accessible to the rest of the world.
ZOË MCLAUGHLIN is a writer, translator, and the South and Southeast Asia librarian at Michigan State University. She was a Shansi Fellow in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and a Darmasiswa scholar studying traditional Javanese dance in Solo, Indonesia. Her research interests include current trends in traditional Javanese performance, the portrayal of Chinese-Indonesians in contemporary literature, and decolonial practices within area studies librarianship. She was an American Literary Translators Association mentee. Her creative writing has been published in Wilder Voice, Nowhere, and Prairie Scooner’s blog.
MADINA MALAHAYATI CHUMAERA is a 19-year-old computer science undergraduate in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her interests lie in the intersection between the humanities, the sciences, and everything in between. She can be found on Twitter at @falsecatch and other places at malahayati.carrd.co/.