The Application of Translating Strategies in Subtitling ‘Musa Kalimullah’

This study discussed the application of translating strategies from Arabic language to Bahasa Melayu in the form of audiovisual, which is the subtitling of an Arabic animated drama entitled “Musa Kalimullah’. Poor quality of subtitling, and low competency of both the subtitlist’s source language and viewers’ foreign language are the challenges in this field. Public’s lack of understanding on the process and problems in subtitling and the difficulties of translating idiomatic language and cultural elements also triggered this study to be conducted in order to improve the quality of subtitling. The objectives of this research is to identify translating strategies applied by the subtitlist in interpreting Arabic dialogue, besides analyzing the most commonly used translating strategies in audiovisual translation. This study is qualitative in nature which used content analysis to gather data. It is based on Newmark’s translating strategies. The corpus used for this study are two episodes, which are the ninth and thirteenth episode. A total of three scences containing 22 sampels of dialogues and subtitles are used. Findings revealed the applied translating strategies are literal translating, transposition, synonyms, omission, reduction, functional matching and cultural matching. Based on the selected samples, the application of literal translating is the highes. This study also found that the subtitlist tend to apply written textual translating method in audiovisual translation by applying literal translating stratigies in each dialogue, whereas indirect translating strategies such as omission and reduction are rarely used.


Introduction
Translation is an effort to create communication and understanding between two races. In fact, it is regarded as a bridge of knowledge that connects these two races, which are varied in language and culture. Therefore, the process of translating requires correct method, appropriate strategy and effective technique in order to produce a perfect translating product while transferring the original message.

Audiovisual Translation
Translating these days are not restricted to written materials such religious manuscripts, books, academic journal articles or literary texts only. The advent of science, technology and telecommunication also contributes to the expansion of translation. Rapid digital technology growth creates demands in the field of translating for audiovisual materials such as TV (Television), movies, computer, VCD (Video Compact Disc) and DVD (Digital Versatile Disc). The process of producing translation for these materials is known as audiovisual translation.
According to Newmark (1992: 72), when language is used to accompany action or used as symbols of articulated gestures, it should therefore be viewed as a form of communication.
Communication theory emphasizes translating aspect as a form of interpersonal communication. Hasuria (2006: 65) stated, Newmark's (1988; Mavridis (2014) method of communication is regarded as the most appropriate form of translation for audiovisual media because it pays lesser regard on uttered words. Instead, it focuses on the speaker's articulated intention. Amizah (1998) also showed that communicative translating method are often used in subtitling. Hansuria (2006: 320) explained further, the communicative approach is a communicative process which takes place and based on targeted receiver or reader. The expression of source language is appropriately replaced by target language as according to situational and cultural context. This approach also does not emphasize meaning matching between target language and source text. Instead, it prioritizes message reception by target audience.

Definition of Strategy
The word translating strategy originally refers to translating procedures. The word 'procedure' can be defined as a common way to carry out a task, steps or way of working or doing things (Kamus Dewan Edisi Keempat, 2007: 1235. In the context of translation on the other hand, Newmark (1988: 81) stated that translating procedures are used to translate sentences and smaller parts of sentences such as clause and words. The word 'strategy' on the other hand, is defined as "a plan that is used in order to achieve" or "the act of planning how to do or achieve" (New Oxford Dictionary 2012: 818). Kamus Dewan Edisi Keempat (2007: 1525) on the other hand provides the definition of strategy as an organized plan to achieve a goal or success. Finally, subtitling is defined as a form of translation from articulated or written source dialogue in the form of audiovisual into target language, added on by images of the original product, which is placed at the lower part of the screen (Gottlieb, 1998: 247). Subtitling is one form of audiovisual translation which is binded by restricted space and screening time to the audience.

Newmark's Translating Strategies
Newmark's translating strategies in general is a translating procedure which is outlined during the process of translating a source text to a target text. There are 15 recommended strategies. However, this study will not discuss all fifteen. It chooses seven strategies to be discussed in the analysis on the application of translating strategies, which are literal translating strategy, synonyms, transposition, functional matching, cultural matching, reduction and omission. Among these seven strategies, literal translating strategy is a direct translating method while the others are categorized as indirect translating method (Majdi, 2009) and this characterizes the communicative approach which is supposed to be applied in subtitling. The nearest matching in target language for words in the context of source text. Transposition It involves substituting one class of word with another without changing meaning of the message, which includes the change of grammar from source text to target text.

Functional matching
The word does not embody cultural nor tending to be general in nature.

Cultural matching
The word contains cultural element in the original text, which is translated to a word that contains target cultural element.

Reduction
Subtitlist reduces the number of words and provides subtitles filled with important messages only. Omission Subtitlist omits unnecessary sentences which do not give great impact to the viewers or tending to be wordy.
Past findings (Karthigesu, 1994;Amizah, 1998;Maserah, 2005;Dood, 2007;Hasuria, 2007;Radiah & Hasuria, 2009;Roslina, & Maryani, 2011) identified several issues regarding subtitling in the audiovisual translation. Poor quality of subtitling, low competency of the subtitlist's source language and viewers' foreign language are the challenges in this field. Public's lack of understanding on the process and problems concerning subtitling and its difficulties of translating idiomatic language and cultural elements also triggered the study of subtitling to be conducted in order to improve the quality of subtitling.

Objectives and Research Methods
This study aimed to examine the application of translating strategies or methods to translate dialogues of ancient history in the form of films. This study is qualitative in nature which employed content analysis method. The corpus of this study is based on two episodes from the drama 'Musa Kalimullah', which are ninth and thirteenth episode. This study chose three scenes only, which contain 22 dialogue samples and subtitles to observe its application of translation. An analysis of translating strategies was carried out based on Newmark's translating strategies.
Analyses on the application of translating strategies on the subtitles 9 th Episode (Scene 1) In the above subtitling, transpositional strategy, besides literal translation, is used in the first subtitle where passive action sentence ‫)يطرق)‬ is translated to active action sentence (mengetuk pintu/ knocking at the door). Cultural matching strategy on the other hand, is used in the fourth Synomym and sixth subtitle. The word ‫الفتيات‬ which is general in nature is given a match, which is Malay in culture, which is dayang-dayang (maid). While the expression ‫وطاعة‬ ‫سمعا‬ which means Saya dengar dan saya patuh (I submit and I obey) is matched with a Malay regal expression, which is Menjunjung perintah Tuanku (As you command, Your Majesty).

th Episode (Scene 2)
Based on the above table, literal translating strategy is applied in dialogue 1, 2 3, 5, 6, dan 7. The fourth dialogue employed the strategy of synomym, where the word ‫أرجوك‬ which originally means Saya harap awak (I hope you), is given a match Dinda merayu kanda (I beg you). The subtitlist also applied cultural matching strategy by using a suitable pronoun to appropriate Malay regal presence, which are Dinda (me) dan Kanda (you). The eighth subtitle also used the strategy of synomym in translating. The phrase ‫ح‬ ‫ي‬ ‫ر‬ ‫أست‬ ‫ي‬ ‫لك‬ which means supaya saya dapat berehat (so that I can rest) is given the closest match to its original meaning, which is so that supaya Kanda boleh merasa tenang (I can feel at peace).

No. Dialog
Translation Strategies In the above subtitle, several indirect translating strategies are used besides literal translation. In the second dialogue, transpositional strategy is used by translating the source text into a negation based on a statement. In the third sentence, the word ‫فمه‬ ‫من‬ is omitted in the translation. Reduction strategy is used in the fourth dialogue, where the phrase ‫اللثغة‬ ‫هذه‬ ‫سبب‬ is matched with the expression sebabnya (because of that). The application of functional matching strategy, on the other hand, is identified when the word ‫ياقوت‬ which means batu permata (gemstone) (Kamus Besar Arab-Melayu Dewan 2006: 2712 is translated to barang berharga (valuable item). The strategy of synomym is applied when the word ‫ائع‬ ‫ر‬ which means menarik (attract) is given a suitable matching based on the context of the prophet Musa as a toddler, who was lucu (funny).

Conclusion
This research shows Arabic dialogues in 'Musa Kalimullah' was translated combining direct and indirect translating methods. The subtitlist did not confine the efforts of translating into only one translating strategy. Instead, several strategies were applied as according to situational needs, meaning appropriacy and delivery of message. Nonetheless, literal translating strategy dominates in the application of translating strategies. Omission and reduction strategies were seldom used, even in long dialogues. In most subtitles, the subtitlist seemed to retain meaning and loyalty to the original dialogue by matching the nearest word to each of source word in the sentence. Despite his loyalty to the source dialogue, the subtitlist was able to find exact matching words and fashion the expression as according to the original style and structure of the target language to a point where the subtitle is organic with the target language and does not seem to appear like a translated work