CWA TRANSLATION CONVENTIONS
All texts in the first release of the website (6 October 2016) were translated by Miguel Escobar Varela. All Indonesian and Javanese transcripts and translations were proofread by Yosephine Novi Marginingrum and all English translations and notes were proofread by Joey Ong (English) and Yosephine Novi Marginingrum (Javanese and Indonesian). The translations followed the following guidelines.
- All the Javanese/Indonesian honorifics are kept in the translation (“pak”, “mas”, “Sinuwun”). Honorifics that denote high respect are capitalized (“Sinuwun”, “Nerpati”), all others are written in small letters.
- The explanation of allusions and wordplay were elaborated in the notes, not in the subtitles. The objective of the subtitle is to allow non-specialists to follow the video. Notes that contain word play are preceded by the keyword wordplay. Notes that include literal translations use the abbreviation lit. Slang expressions are preceded by the keyword slang term.
- When a Javanese or Indonesian word is explained in the NOTES, it appears in bold in the notes, with the English translation between square brackets [ ].
Gareng purposefully mispronounces two words for comic effect. He says mitsalkan instead of misalkan [for example] and rembuat instead of membuat [to make].
- All the Indonesian spellings of Javanese words are kept in the English translation (i.e., “Baratayuda” instead of “Bharatayuda”, “Astina” instead of “Ngastina”, “dalang” instead of “dhalang”). We also use modern (EYD) Indonesian spellings for historical names (i.e., “Suharto” instead of Soeharto”). The character names have been standardized to 'o' isteand of 'u' (i.e., Kurawa, Durna, Duryudana)
- When the dialogue is too fast to allow for one subtitle line per interlocutor, a subtitle might include more than one interlocutor. This is indicated with a slash and a hyphen, for example “First speaker / - Second speaker”.
But Abimanyu will… /- Enough!
- Stage directions and speakers are not indicated in the subtitles except in cases where confusion about who is speaking might arise. In those cases the speaker's name is written in uppercase letters and the addressee in brackets and uppercase letters.
GARENG [TO PETRUK]: Isn't that so, kang?”
DALANG [TO THE AUDIENCE]: I am asking you”.
- Inaudible fragments are indicated in square brackets as [Inaudible].
And then he took the [Inaudible] and gave it to them.
- When the lyrics of the songs are not directly relevant to the story, the music is not translated and it is just indicated as [Illustration music] following suggestions by the dalangs.
- In the transcripts, elocutions in languages other than Indonesian and Javanese are indicated in italics: foreign word.
Tapi dia pasti enjoy, kan?
- Titles of books, songs, films and artworks mentioned in the performances appear in italics in the subtitle.
- Scientific terms (such as the names of plants) used in the notes appear in italics.
- When the notes elaborate on a particular word or turn or phrase, we specify its part of an identifiable regional variation (i.e., “Eastern Javanese”, “Banyumas dialect”, “Jakartan slang”).