Should Dr M's 'Doctor In The House' Be Translated Into Malay?
by Zaharan Razak on Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 10:58am
If you are patriotic of the parochial kind like Gapena you would probably say yes. In fact I dare say Gapena secretly rues (or should that be secretly resent or grudgingly admire) the book being written in English in the first place. Heck the very idea of inviting Dr M to be their patron saint would drive all members to resign and form 2Gapena.
You see, the Malay language has a way of turning a deceptively simple but evocative phrase like 'A Doctor In The House' into something that is neither here nor there ... 'Doktor Dalam Rumah'. Translating it into 'Doktor Dalam Dewan Perwakilan' does not improve matters either. It may be technically and literally correct but it sounds contrived and stilted. That is the crux of the Malay language which puts many people off - it sounds contrived and stilted.
Gapena-ers don't know any better so for them it is a case of ignorance is bliss just like the frog under the coconut shell thinks it is living in a wonderful world. The Malay language do have their own evocative power but of the narrow and shallow kind. Thus in describing people who think living under a coconut shell is the better deal they would often use the phrase 'syok sendiri' which of course describes themselves.
So no prize for guessing (pardon the cliche) what my answer to the question is - please do not translate the book. Leave it as it is and retain its wealth of nuances and evocations. Translating it would demean it into a forced to read school textbook recommended by Gapena like 'Interlok'. Interlok? Rendering 'Interlock' as 'Interlok' not only demeans the original word but applying it to mean racial integration is as laughable as translating 'answer' as 'retaliate' as in this actual example I found here at FB: "Asked why, he retaliated that he wished he had taken English seriously so he could read Dr M's book." Except for 'retaliate', I've tidied up the sentence to make it sound more English than the original which you can find and read yourself for its atrocity value.
You see, the Malay language has a way of turning a deceptively simple but evocative phrase like 'A Doctor In The House' into something that is neither here nor there ... 'Doktor Dalam Rumah'. Translating it into 'Doktor Dalam Dewan Perwakilan' does not improve matters either. It may be technically and literally correct but it sounds contrived and stilted. That is the crux of the Malay language which puts many people off - it sounds contrived and stilted.
Gapena-ers don't know any better so for them it is a case of ignorance is bliss just like the frog under the coconut shell thinks it is living in a wonderful world. The Malay language do have their own evocative power but of the narrow and shallow kind. Thus in describing people who think living under a coconut shell is the better deal they would often use the phrase 'syok sendiri' which of course describes themselves.
So no prize for guessing (pardon the cliche) what my answer to the question is - please do not translate the book. Leave it as it is and retain its wealth of nuances and evocations. Translating it would demean it into a forced to read school textbook recommended by Gapena like 'Interlok'. Interlok? Rendering 'Interlock' as 'Interlok' not only demeans the original word but applying it to mean racial integration is as laughable as translating 'answer' as 'retaliate' as in this actual example I found here at FB: "Asked why, he retaliated that he wished he had taken English seriously so he could read Dr M's book." Except for 'retaliate', I've tidied up the sentence to make it sound more English than the original which you can find and read yourself for its atrocity value.
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