SPN: language experiment

[whynot]

This is an experiment. This ficlet is written in two languages, French and Indonesian, or Bahasa Indonesia, or whatever we're calling it these days. Yes, it's one fic, just 'cos. 'Cos I don't wanna write a ficlet per language, I guess. I'm not that comfortable yet, so I'm just gonna ease into it and scrabble this one out.

If you speak either of these languages, please feel free to correct my grammar and stuff! I'm quite rusty in both. I'm not quite sure what to think of the fact that I seem to be more comfortable writing in French. I'm that estranged from my mothertongue, it seems.

So I guess this is about Dean and Cas on a road trip through an apocalyptic landscape.



L'Apocalypse, ça crainte.

Dean n'a pas dormi depuis Connecticut, il y a deux états. Il est fatigué, mais il ne veut pas dormir. Non, peut-être c'est plus précis à dire qu’il ne veut pas avoir envie de dormir.

"Laisse-moi conduire," dis Cas.

Dean dis, "Ta gueule."

Son père lui a donné cette voiture, et elle est sa famille, la seule, ici. L'Apocalypse est de la crotte du chien, et sans l'Impala, Dean ne saurait pas quoi faire.

+

Semuanya beda, sih, sekarang. Sekarang cuma ada Dean dan Cas, sendirian bersama, dan sekitar mereka, Kiamat membara. Sekitar mereka cuma ada kematian dan sampah dan kesengsaraan. Orang gampang patah hati di dunia seperti ini, jadi mungkin memang lebih baik hatinya Dean sudah patah dari dulu.

+

Ils dorment dans une maison abandonnée, et le prochain matin, quand Dean se reveille, le café est déjà fait.

“Pas de sucre, quoi?” il demande.

“Notre seul condiment, c’est le sel,” dis Cas.

“D’accord, j’aime bien le café salé,” Dean grommele.

“Mange-le,” Cas dis, et lui donne un pomme.

“Cette nourriture vient d’où?”

“Le Ciel.”

Quelquefois Dean regrette d’enseigner à Cas la sarcasme.

Cas hausse ses épaules, et dis, “Ça nous fait égal, non?”

Dean boit son café. C’est le fin du monde et tout les fait égal.

Comments

[tevere]

Katanya fanfiction Supernatural dlm bahasa Indonesia lumayan populer nih, tapi gw blm pernah baca...

[whynot]

YANG BENERRRRR. Sekarang gw penasaran banget nih. Bikin latihan bahasa negeri sendiri lebih asyik! Ada yang seperti fanfiction.net bahasa Indonesia nggak ya?

[whynot]

http://supernaturalfanficindonesia.blogspot.com/

I'm so excited I don't even know what to say.

[tevere]

ahahahaha! "Warning: Self-Insert." It's totally FF.net. But there's even Dean/Castiel!

I started in Supernatural fandom when I was in Indonesia just because there were so many pirate DVDs of it around. It was always playing on Star TV, too (with Malay subs). Far as I could tell from cursory inspection, biggest fandoms in Indonesian were SPN and manga/anime...

Kalo lo mau terus tulis SPN ff, gw pasti akan baca... gw harus berlatih juga sih, atau akan lupa bahasa Indonesia semuanya...

Hey, gw ke Bali pd bulan April-- apa ada maunya? Buku2--? Gw bisa beli & kirim kpd AS kalo mau... (Lo berada di AS sekarang, kan?)

[whynot]

I'm confused by Indonesian literature. I've read some, and is that bahasa sastra is 100% no street vernacular allowed, even when it's appropriate? I have read some awkwardly translated Goosebumps books. Sometimes I think I should just go back to the old country and be a subtitler for TV.

KEBENARAN, gue mulai nulis dikit-dikit SPN fanfic tadi siang. Sepertinya casefic, tapi nggak tahu sih. Got no plot, cuma iseng aja. But I'll post it later.

Hwaaaa, sangat generous, you! I'm fine though, thank you! There's nothing that comes to mind right now.

Hey, do people still say "trims" for thank you? My worry is that when I try to write slang, I'll sound like a grown-up trying to be cool.

[tevere]

I have read some terrible English-to-Indonesian translations, but on the other hand, I've read some good ones. For instance, I read 'Eat, Pray, Love' in Indonesian, and the translator clearly didn't understand English vernacular and idioms-- they were translated literally. (e.g. Gilbert had something that in English must have been '[My ex-husband] was like my albatross', i.e. bad luck, omen of doom, right? and the translation was '[My ex-husband] was like a six-foot migratory seabird.') People who've read the book in English say it's slangy and conversation and fun. (I have Issues with the book as a whole, but that's another story.)

On the other hand, I read a very good translation of a YA English book called 'Ways to Live Forever' (In Indonesia it's called 'Setelah aku pergi') which is from a young boy's POV, and it's really well done-- informal and fun. I have some friends who translate, and they're usually done really fast and for nearly zero money-- quality inevitably suffers.

I think in Indonesian there's also that normal divide between genres of books like there are in English-- there's that super-popular chick lit (those thin little books), and they are so slangy that I have trouble understanding them. Then you have Pramoedya Ananta Toer type stuff, which I have trouble understanding because it's sometimes kind of archaic. I guess people who want to be taken seriously as literature authors tend to write more formally, but there are also contemporary(ish) social pieces like Opera Kecoa-- a lot of street slang.

My slang sucks-- I only really learnt formal. I still say 'saya' most of the time and my husband tells me off for sounding lame! And I'd just gotten into the habit of saying gue/lo, but then we got married and now it's aku/kamu-- argh!

I haven't heard people say 'trims', like, EVER, but I did get a text message the other day with it. And googling still turns it up.

[whynot]

Haha, gue punya komik-komik Donal Bebek and the translations are HORRENDOUS. I didn't care when I was a kid, of course. Donald Duck = always my favorite. Dulu aku nonton Alice in Wonderland pake subtitles and OH MAN, Alice in Wonderland must be a bitch to subtitle in any language.

Slangku aku dulu belajar dari majalah Kawanku hahaha.

I never got into the habit of gue/lo because I never grew with teman sebaya di Indo, sih. My family and I usually call each other and ourselves in the third-person. And I'm kind of crap at knowing when to use kau, kamu, anda, beliau, or just the third-person.

I have three Indonesian books with me, one is Pramoedya's "Mereka Yang Dilumpuhkan", the other is "Petualangan Celana Dalam", and one is "Sang Radja Jin" which is a translation of Kirschner's book. Buku ketiga itu, aku beli di Gramedia dan the advertising for it was like, "by a Jew who converted to Islam!" Heh. I have not made huge inroads in any of them at all. Tapi mungkin sekarang harus deh, untuk latihan! I hope my head doesn't explode too much when I write slash in Indonesian.