Translation Equivalences of Islamic Terms in the Novel (The Land of Five Towers ‘<i>Negeri Lima Menara</i>’)

Abstract

The occurrence of Islamic terms in the novel Negeri Lima Menara ‘The Land of Five Towers’ is related to its theme; the life in a pesantren , an Islamic Boarding School. How students there perform their obligation in their daily lives as Moslems and how they give their best effort to pass all the subjects, all involve terms related to Islam. The Islamic terms used in this research are limited to those which deal with praying and also about the Holy Quran. Mostly the terms of this field are used repeatedly in the source language text. And those which are used for this research is only the same terms used repeatedly. The meaning of the Islamic terms in the source language text is described and compared with the meaning of their equivalences in the target language text, then the equivalences are reviewed using the techniques of translation given by Molina and Albir (2002). What equivalences chosen in the target language text, whether they are “equal-valued” become the object of this research. This study identifies techniques of translation tend to be used; whether the same Islamic terms which are used repeatedly in the text apply the same technique of translation and whether they have the same equivalence or not. The results show that some similar terms used repeatedly in the text are translated using different techniques and having different equivalences, some others are translated using the same techniques but having different equivalences, and there is one which is translated using the same technique and having the same equivalence. The most frequent translation technique used is borrowing.