Translating technical metaphors from English into Malay: possibilities (and challenges)

Abstract

Metaphors are very difficult to derrne, classify and translate as stressed by Fuertes-Olivera, P. A. et aI. (1998) above. Therefore, it is not surprising for the translation of technical metaphors to have its own set of challenges. Translating technical metaphors from English (source language. or SL) to Malay (target language, or TL) requires more than just reformulating the metaphor in onc language (le. English) as a metaphor in a different language (i.e. Malay). There are two main problems the translator faces in translating the English technical metaphors in to Malay: i) complexities in understanding, interpreting and recreating the technical metaphors that are unique in the SL culture; which have to be explained and described in TL whe.re such practices and customs are non - existent ii) the ST technical metaphors appear in a ,'ariety of types and have a distinct denotative ~d connotative meaning and reference; most often. it is difficult to find a standard equivalent which totally matches the original meaning or concept Due to these problems most often, the ST technical metaphors are either not translated or translated as a non-metaphor in the TL This paper discusses the possibilities and chaUenges of translating technical metaphors from English into Malay using some examples extracted from my PhD research. The technical metaphors were extracted from an English engineering textbook - Holtzapple and Reece and its translated version in the Malay ~auage (Holtzapple and Reece,2010, translated by Juneta Zawawi). Analysis reveals that translatability and the choice of TL technical metaphor equivalents is a difficult process and that equivalents are largely determined by 1. linguistic, cultural and technical metaphorical competencies; 2. competency in dealing with the direction of the translation process ie., whether from Ll into L2 or vice versa; 3. the type of technical metapbor identified in the SL text and 4. The degree of lencalization and comprehensibility of the technical metaphor. The results reveal that tbe technical metaphors were either: 1. substituted and translated into a non - metaphor; 2. not translated (i.e. reproduced in the TT exactly as how it appeared in the ST)) and 3. translated as a metaphor but of a different type and class.