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II The chronicle texts 25
With a greater appreciation of the nature of the chronicles, the processes
of composition and transmission, and the likely patterns of changes in content
and structure as the patturioloang tradition evolved, we can now turn to
the issue of translation itself.
Translating Makassarese texts
Scholars recognize that translation is not a mechanical process in which a
source text is mirrored in a translated text that can be straightforwardly
pronounced adequate or inadequate, faithful or deficient, definitive or preliminary.
1 If the standard of success is ‘equivalence’ we must ask, equivalence
of what? Word, phrase, text, effect, grammar, lexicon? Denotative meaning,
connotation, stylistic arrangement, syntax, spoken rhythm? What is of primary
importance varies from text to text depending on the translator’s background,
intent, translation style, and intended audience.
Thus there are abundant choices for any translator of Makassarese chronicles
to make before beginning work. Deciding which paths to tread and
which to shun is partly a matter of personal style. Each translator re-
writing the work of another inevitably translates within the frame of his or
her own strengths and preferences as a writer. But this must be balanced
with sensitivity to the nature of the material in the source language. To take
an extreme example, it would be possible (I suppose) to translate the United
States Constitution into a series of the paired and rhymed couplets known in
Malay as pantun, but this curious choice would obviously come at great cost.
The translator’s style and the work’s character must both speak. For remarkably
sound advice on how to do this, I turn to a passage by the poet-translator
Jane Hirshfield (1997:65).
A translator’s first obligation is to convey each poem’s particular strengths [...]
If music and intricacy of form are the greatest pleasures in the original, this is
what the translator should try to capture; if a startling directness of language is
at the heart of the work, then straightforwardness should govern the new version
as well. Imagery, sensibility, feeling, sound, ideas ‒ any of these can become the
through-line of a poem’s unfolding.
What then are the main features or strengths of the Makassarese chronicles?
Some have long been noted, including their frank character. With a few
notable exceptions ‒ especially the opening segments of the Gowa chronicle
‒ Makassarese chronicles are indeed straightforward, avoiding complex
1
Bassnett 1991; Becker 1995; Munday 2001; Venuti 1995.