The Translation of Aphorisms in Tuan Gatsby

(Terjemahan Aforisme dalam Karya Tuan Gatsby)

Abstract

The novel The Great Gatsby (1925) remains one of the most sought-after classic novels among avid readers to date, whose popularity opened the door for the production of a Malay translation, titled Tuan Gatsby (1988). This masterpiece is made up of diverse literary devices and poetic language which demonstrate the original author's creativity. Among the literary devices present in this well-known work are aphorisms. This term refers to the expressions of differences and similarities in a message, such as idioms, simile, and satire. Aphorisms, however, are rhetorical devices that are rarely discussed by scholars in Malaysia. For this reason, this study was conducted to focus on the translation of aphorisms by comparing the original and translated text. The objectives of this study include identifying the types of aphorisms found in the original work and subsequently assessing the translation of aphorisms in the target text. Besides this, the present study also evaluates the translation approach used by the translator. Based on the analysis conducted, there are six particular types of aphorisms found in the source text which are: aphorisms that hint at a character, confessional aphorisms, metaphorical aphorisms, aphorisms that tease a commonplace, aphorisms that tease out cultural assumptions and aphorisms that hint at questions, as mentioned in Angel-Lara's research (2015). The findings also show that the translation of aphorisms in the target text successfully convey the aesthetic value of the source text. This is due to the fact that dynamic equivalence, as introduced by Nida (1964), was used as the main approach in the translation of the text under study.

Keywords: translation of creative writing, aphorisms, rhetorical style, literary devices, dynamic equivalence