!

!

Sabtu, 16 Maret 2013

Unbeknownst to your rapist, I love you



A woolgatherer boy, yup, I thought that name seemed flawless to me. One might indeed say so. However, that was absolutely correct. Here in my town (I lived in the outskirts of a city) it happened a lot, a boy slept and sat in silent mode, and wrote a stick "I didn't have a job". One day, When I sat in my backyard, I saw a girl walked across to me, a petite girl with a dark-blue ribbon upon her head. Wow, I loved her manner of walking, really cute. She was neatly dressed, overall. Okay, I didn't want to let her walk out on me, so I haphazardly walked and tried to talk to her. 

"Hey, would you mind talking with me?" 

"Mm, actually... I mind, but what can I do for you?" 
"Emmph.... You know...... I.......!?" 
"Yes?" 
"I............ I........" 
"Yes?" 
"I HAVE TO GO TO TOILET RIGHT NOW, SORRY!" 
"Hah?" 

SHAME ON ME! Really nervous, I was biting my fingertips every time I saw her baby face. In the next day, I saw her vehemently walking like a horse for its knight. 

"Hey, going somewhere?" 
"Hi sleazy boy! Sorry I've got to tell you that I'm a bit preoccupied at the moment!"

"What? Hey, look! I would be grateful if I may have a few minutes of your time, please!"
"Hospital can't wait any longer for me!" 
"Are you sick?" 
"Reach me at 12 0'clock in the middle of night, when the moonlight sets genially, at the Victoria bridge! I'll tell you what actually happened to me!" 
"Wait... hey you wait up! I don't even know your name yet!" 
"I'll talk to you soon!" 

She seemed like a slacker girl, hmm that's probably because she felt burdened about something that I didn't know. I was wondering what actually she did at the hospital that day. 

At the bridge. 

"Wow, you really waited for me." 
"For the sake of you my mysterious girl" 
"ehh... (rolling her eyes)" 
"So, what?" 
"Here, please take a look of this! 

She handed me something thin and elongated like a sea horse. 

"What? A pregnancy test pack?" 
"Yes, do you see the two lines on it?"
"Don't tell me........?!" 
"YES! I'm pregnant now!" 
"HAHAHA..... you're a great joker haha!"
"I'm not kidding you d*ckhead!" 

Well, I was having a pretty big shock. 

"Are you still in love with me? I suggest you to stop confessing your stupid love to me!" 
"So, you already have a boyfriend? and he did it." 
"Actually, my step father did!" 
"Wowowo... please stop joking with me like an idiot, man!" 
"I'm not joking- shit, he raped me. That guy, ugh, a sly devil if I've ever seen one!" 
"So, what will you do with him?" 
"My sister forced me to marry my rapist, that sh*t!" 
"I'm a sinner now and you're still, well yeah, I can still smell your mother's perfume, haha!" 
She continued 
"Stop laughing! Look, I'm still love you, after all this tim......." 
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH! I HAVE NO DESIRE WITH YOUR LOVE AND YOUR STUPID CONFESSION TO ME! Can I go now?" 
".........." 

For several minutes, she stared at me, steadfastly, then she went out from the bridge to face her rapist. That was so tragic, a tragic love life of mine. And for you, my petite girl over there, Unbeknownst to your rapist, I love both your baby and you. Please take care of your baby. Thank you my failure at first love. 


A loony writing written by a loony writer, 

Turning into dew on the rosebud


Padding your life with my love was my hugest dream, after all this time. Would love to pamper your fluffy body with my hand. When I naughtily stared at you and you only smiled naturally. I loved the way you snored, the way you triumphantly jumped on my laptop (-_-), the way you licked a chocolate. Waw, Loveable! And eventually, these all my love revelations to you. One last word, could I pampered your name within my heart?

#is wiping my cat off

Swaying on the meadow


There was a terrible noise from a flock of paradise birds outside the window, a swarm of bees, a drove of sheep and etc. These all completely woke me up in the middle of night. 

"Okay you really caught my attention" 

I got out of bed quickly and went to look out of the window. As I looked I saw so much grass outside. That was pretty big shock to me to see the truth that my garden had changed to be a MEADOW! 

"Geez, I could swear I'm still in my dream." 
"No pal, this is real" 

A queen bee suddenly told me that I had just arrived in a narrow region of Wonderland. I took a step to leave my room. Then, I asked the queen bee what actually brought me here. She replied: 

"You seemed exhausted, so I brought you here." 

I saw a swing under the tree- the tree grown not merely melancholic flowers but even polka dot leaves. Well, I should say that I succumbed to temptation to sway it vigorously. 

A loony writing written by a loony writer.

A mysterious sarcophagus


 I saw there was so many crows in the school. The crows with their scab. I was wondering what were they doing there? So I decided to move toward the school and beat the silver gate roughly. At first I thought, if I walked, I talked and acted like anyone else in the school, nobody would realized me, after all. As I entered the school, I was very in great surprise of getting so many human corpses in the park of school. I saw the teacher’s corpses, student’s corpses, and I could even see the rabbit’s corpses without their heads.


“GOSH! This is so creepy!”
I say while I promptly shut my mouth.


I was always convincing myself as much as I did of knowing this situation. I mean, For a long time, I had never seen the blood but this was too much blood everywhere. Long before I found the suburbs, before the little rambler hit the Satanic church near from my “ex-friend” house. I saw so many new baby-born corpses outside its thorn gate. That extremely made me nauseated constantly. Anyway, there was a heinous little crow stared at me. Dunno’ why I was moving subconsciously toward the crow. At all once, now I could kind of see what exactly that crow mean.


“Hey u son of Moros,  whom u know this sarcophagus from?”
The Crow say
“I’m sorry, I dunno’”
“Owgh, u half fuckin’ hah!?”


I could swear I had met that one, but dunno where. I was trying to constantly remember, and then...


“HOLY SHIT! Is that 'Yehuda?'”
I suddenly say while shout of my forefinger
“Ow great, I forgot to bring this one to hell and Thank you very much for remembering me, nah”


In this “imitation” grey world, it was routine for the crows to bring the sarcophagus to hell. Neither hereafter nor heaven. Alright, My super-huge question for all of this.....was.......


“What am I doing with the dozen of corpses?”

The Ironic song of Rain



I met a golden Sorcerer at one night.
In the rain.
In the “gloomy” rain.
In the rain that I considered to make prejudice to “Someone”
Whose “someone”?
Course, The Creator one.
By this lucky, I’d like to deliver the whole of my complaint to “him”
Yea, you’re.
Through you,
My majesty,The Golden Sorcerer with a dark-blue Stallion.

Reff:
Oh, rain, rain, rain, rain.
In fact, you’re the trouble maker, after all this time.
Oh, rain, rain, rain, rain.
I pleasantly heard yoa’ laff.
Well, At least, you would never have to worry bout’ getting a “Serpent”.

If you asked a 20-year-old to make a wish,
I certainly made one wish.
What?
What?
Just stopped the rain
For “She” always coming up trough my body.
And of course she’s still in attractive.
My respect for this DAMMIT’ was just emerged a new one of ma’ problem.

Reff:
Oh, rain, rain, rain, rain.
In fact, you’re the trouble maker, after all this time.
Oh, rain, rain, rain, rain.
I pleasantly heard yoa’ laff.
Well, At least, you would never have to worry bout’ getting a “Serpent”.

Flying to outa’ space with Layla


Looking back, I remembered that I had ever flying with my new friend, Layla. Should I describe her? In full detail? Okey, I found Layla in “Pixtoriania”. A leafy jungle in which so many fairies lived in justice. I was exploring lonely when I found out that there was a one blond-curly hair fairy with a couple of glowy wings followed me quietely. At first, I didn’t realize her, but when
 I was trying to play hide and seek with her. I could kind of see that my feeling was mostly true, and then we stared curiously each other.

“Oh my goodness! You’re so beautiful, seductive even!”
 hysteric
“Who are you?” You look different, where is your wings?
Ask her curiously
“Sure, we’re different, I’m a human and u’re a fairy, the most beautiful fairy that I've ever seen”
My Tease to her
“Me? a fairy? I don’t even know what exactly I am, and please return to your guise that you are meant to be in!”
Said her pompously
“No, please! I was thinking about friend, can’t we? I’d like to be ur friend”

“Oh, well, Okay, but promise me one thing! Dunno ever threat me”
Wish of her
“Sure, u can hold my word and I can guarantee you!”

We smile each other. My lucky, she wanted me to accompany her to outer space. At all once, she gave me a couple of temporary wings to fly. And ya, I could fly now. I could feel the wind breezing my hair promptly. GOSH That’s great! She held my hand then we flew up until the outer space. I could see so much stars outside.

“Is that Saturn? Oh wait wait wait, that is the famous Andromeda”

“Bingo! Wanna play around wit’ me? For those who can around the Sun quickly, a kiss will belong to you”
“You really catch my attention, dear!!”


We flew to the prestigious place which was called "Hereafter".

Jumat, 17 Agustus 2012

the first Academic Essay of mine


Euphemisms as the Deceiving Politeness from the Perspectives of Translation and Culture


A.  Introduction
Euphemism is one of the language style that being attention for many authors in the world. The aim is to replace the unpleasant expressions. Euphemism is often interpreted as an expression which is not straightforward. In other words, euphemism used to replace the harsh words to be more polite.
Euphemisms or Pseudo euphemisms is also means a boost motive that behind the development of peroration. If there is no euphemism, it is more likely a depression meaning and a humiliation meaning. However, it can obscure the original meaning which is no longer represented by the form or concept in replacing the words and of course it will give an effect to the society as the language users.[1]
There are many problems in which euphemisms can conduct big mistake. One of those problems is the politeness that is deceiving, where the amateur ones still misunderstood. For example, the word,   busung lapar, can be interpreted to, kekurangan gizi. Of course, there is a part of euphemism that is not captured appropriately by the reader or listener. To be polite, people have a tendency to veil concepts that are delicate or offensive. Communicators use euphemisms in their utterances, spoken or written, to cover up or soften the unpleasant connotations and denotations of some words or expressions.
In principle, encoding and interpreting of these indirect expressions are specific in every culture and language. Consequently, it should be noted that culture would affect the way people accept the restrictions and place them on the translation process in order to use euphemisms instead of directly expressing something unpleasant.


B.  Euphemism

1.      Definition of Euphemism
The word euphemism comes from the Greek word euphemos, meaning “auspicious/good/fortunate speech/kind” which in turn is derived from the Greek root-words eu “good/well” and pheme “speech/speaking”. The eupheme was originally a word or phrase used in place of a religious word or phrase that should not be spoken aloud; etymologically, the eupheme is the opposite of the blaspheme (evil-speaking). From the word’s root of euphemism we can conclude that euphemism is speak in a good way.
Concise Oxford Dictionary as quoted by Enright explains that euphemism is a substitution of mild, vague or indirect expression for rude or direct one[2], Keith Allan & Kate Buridge mention that:
A euphemism is used as an alternative to dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss face: either one’s face or through giving offense, that of the audience or of some third party.[3]
The statement above give a comprehension to us that people use the euphemism term is an alternative expression to avoid mentions the taboo word that will make the listener loss his face. It is done absolutely to keep the relationship between speaker and listener.
The purposes of euphemism are to present words of good omen, to avoid unlucky words with metaphysical harm may befall either speaker or hearer, and to prevent hearer from losing face offending his sensibilities. Besides that it may also substitute a description of something or someone to avoid revealing secret, holy, or sacred names to the uninitiated, or to obscure the identity of the subject of a conversation from potential eavesdroppers. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse.
For example, euphemism words to citied freedom fighter for “terrorist”, firm for “pig-headed”, life insurance replacing “insurance when you are dead”, toddler for “idiot”. In short, euphemism is an alternative to unpleasant expression, and is used in order to avoid possible loss of face.
2.      Types of Euphemism

According to Allan and Buridge, they are mentioned that many euphemisms are figurative can be formed through several ways, such as:

a.    Metaphor used as means of comparing things that are essentially unlike, in metaphor the comparison is implied-that is, the figurative term is substituted for or identified with the literal term, for example: miraculous pitcher for “vagina”.
b.    Rhyming slang is a way of talking in which to use words or phrases that rhyme with the word you mean, instead of using that word, for example: jimmy-riddle for “piss”.
c.    Remodeling is the way of replacing part of the word like sugar, shoot, and shucks for “shit”.
d.   Circumlocution is a roundabout way of thinking (often includes in metaphor or metonymy). It is common in the form of listen (compound or idiom) like little girl’s room for “toilet”.
e.    Clippings is the euphemisms starting off with a modifying then the modifier is dropped as the phrase ceases to be euphemistic. For instance: Jeeze for “Jesus”.
f.     Acronyms are written and pronounced as the words in their own right like or acronym are proper word created from the initial letter or two of the words in phrase, and they are pronounced like others word, for instance snafu for “situation formal, all fucked up”.
g.    Abbreviations are written and pronounced as strings of letters like TS for “though shit”.
h.    Omission fall into:
1.      Quasi-omission substitutes some non-lexical expression for the dispreferred term into daches and asterisk like mmmm, er-mm.
2.      Full-omission seems less common than quasi-omissions found/need to go by omitting “to the lavatory”.
i.        One-for-one substitution is almost synonym and consist of two:
1.        Metonymy (general-for-specific): one name of change for another like the legal term person for “pennies”.
2.        Synecdoche (part-for-whole euphemism) means to take with something else demonstrated in spend a penny for “go to the lavatory”.
j.        Hyperbole is simply exaggeration, but exaggeration in the service of truth, for example, flight to glory for “death”.
k.      Understatement is saying less than one means. It is used to emphasis and to negate the opposite of what we wish to convey. For example, sleep for “die”.
l.        Euphemism through borrowing
The use of foreign language (Latin, France, etc) is considered to counteract taboo term such as bodily effluvia, sex, and the associated acts and bodily organs. The used of perspire instead of “sweat”.

C.  Politeness

Brown and Levinson hold that politeness has a socially basic role: It can control potential conflicts among the communicators.[4] They claim that their theory is a universal feature of all languages. However, the politeness of an utterance is evaluated by norms and values which are culture-bound and vary from culture to culture which actions threats “face” or which politeness strategy is taken in what context will differ across different cultures.
In general, it is strongly recommended that people be polite in their communication with those whom they do not know very well, so that the people feel accepted and valued as a member of a social group.

Brown and Levinson distinguish two kinds of politeness: positive and negative.

1.      Positive Politeness

Positive politeness serves to keep positive face or others. Peccei states that “When we use positive politeness, we use speech strategies that emphasize our solidarity with the hearer, such as informal pronunciation, shared dialect or slang expressions, nicknames more frequent reference to speaker and hearer as we, and requests which are less indirect.”[5] In short, positive politeness wishes to preserve people’s self-image as confirmed and liked member of the society. Some examples of positive face are offering, avoiding disagreement, paying attention to the hearer’s need.

2.      Negative Politeness

Negative politeness is to keep people’s negative face. In this case, those speech strategies will be used that stress the speaker’s deference to the hearer.
According to Peccei, the use of the following strategies will lead to preserve the negative face of other people: (a) avoidance of nicknames, slang and informal pronunciation, (b) using more indirect and impersonal request such as “could you…”  (c) referring to the hearer in the third person instead of second person e.g. students are asked not to put their essays in the staff room), and (d) more frequent use of mitigating devices, which are used to lessen the blow, “such as please, possibly, I’m sorry but…”

D.  Relation of Euphemisms to face-work and Politeness

In the course of interaction, communicators must preserve each other’s face. In other words, they must pay attention to two kinds of related rules: rule of self respect and rule of considerateness. The former is a body of rules through which the participant maintains his or her own face while the latter is a body of rules through which the interact ant preserves the other’s face.

E.  Translation and Culture

When cross-cultural communication occurs, cultural translation will be needed. In such communication, if participants are not aware of each others’ cultures, misinterpretation would take place. To avoid misunderstandings, translators are responsible for the effective and correct intercultural interactions.

F.   Translation of Offensive Concepts

For translating the blunt statements of the facts, translators have four options:

1.      Direct transfer of such concepts from the source language to the target language.
2.      Indirect expression of those concepts by using euphemisms.
3.      Understatement of their concern about.
4.      Omitting them in the translation process.

Translators have to decide when and where one of the above-mentioned strategies should be employed as the best one.

Conclusion
One aspect of this competence is to preserve the face of each other.
In this regard, politeness, a salient element in every culture, is a determining factor. Politeness is a culture-bound phenomenon, which means that a particular behavior or utterance which is polite in one culture might be impolite in another culture.
To be polite and to protect the face of both or all sides of communication, people favor a variety of language which is pleasant and less offensive. Through the statement above, it can be concluded that, to show politeness, people tend to use euphemisms, as a figure of speech, in their daily conversation. However, the degree of avoidance of mentioning certain issues explicitly is not identical in all cultures.
Translators, as mediators between the source and the target languages, must be aware of the cultural differences. Through such knowledge, the translator determines the level of implicitness and explicitness of the harsh and objectionable utterances. When those concepts are left implicit, addresses can interpret the implied intentions through their contextual background knowledge.


References
Allan, Keith & Kate Buridge, Euphemism and Dysphemism Language as Shield and Weapon, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Brown, P & Levinson, L.C., Politeness: Some Universals in Language use, Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1978.
Enright, D.J., Fair of Speech: The Use of Euphemism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Peccie, S.J., Pragmatics. London, the USA, and Canada: Routledge, 1999.
Sudarjah, Sumali, Aspek Pengajaran Kosa Kata Bahasa Indonesia, Batang : Bahagia, 1991.


[1] Sumali Sudarjah, Aspek Pengajaran Kosa Kata Bahasa Indonesia, Batang : Bahagia, 1991.p.48
[2] D.J Enright, Fair of Speech: The Use of Euphemism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.p.13.
[3] Keith Allan & Kate Buridge, Euphemism and Dysphemism language Used as Shield and Weapon. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.p.11
[4] P. Brown & S.C Levinson, Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.p.1
[5] S.J Peccie, Pragmatics. London, the USA, and Canada: Routledge, 1999.p.64