Metaphors in the Palm-Leaf Manuscript of Cilinaye Written in Sasak Language and their Translations into Indonesian

Abstract

Several translation experts still argue whether metaphors can be translated or not as they cannot be separated from their cultural contents. The aim of the writer of the palm-leaf manuscript of Cilinaye to use metaphors is that there are many  ideas, feelings and objectives which cannot be understood if they are literally expressed, as expressed in the symbols used in the metaphorical expressions. This current study is a product-oriented translation study in which the qualitative descriptive approach was applied. This approach was used to explain the types, functions and meanings of metaphors, and the problems of metaphoric translation in the palm-leaf manuscript of Cilinaye from the Sasak language into the Indonesian language. Based on the results of analysis and discussion, several conclusions can  be  drawn as follows. First, the metaphors in the Sasak language using the same symbols can be used to express different meanings. As an illustration, if  the prefix ‘be-‘is added to the expression ‘lauk daye’, it will become  ‘belauk bedaye’, causing the meaning expressed in SL to be  different  from  that expressed in TL. Second, the concept proposed by Ching. Ed. (1980) that metaphors can be divided into Human, Animate, Living, Objective, Terrestrial, Substantial, Energy, Cosmic, and Being metaphors are not complete yet. The reason is that in the text used as the data source of the current study, the researcher also found the metaphors using directions such as  down-up, front- back, east-west, south- north, and so forth. Third, several metaphors were also found to be used to express the same meaning, for example, the concept ‘anak’ (child) was expressed using a number of different metaphors; they are nune, Pegeran buaq ate ngaji, and Dende Pati Anaq kaji. Apart from that,  the researcher also found that the concept ‘gadis’ (gir ) was expressed using  a  number of metaphors; they are Duh mas mirah kembang mete, Duh mas mirah serining kasur, Duh mas mirah buaq bulu, Neneq bini, Duh den dare masku, Dendare, dende, and  Duh mas mirah dende ayu.