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17th Translation Contest: "The Sounds of Silence" » English to Malay

Competition in this pair is now closed, and the winning entry has been announced.

Discussion and feedback about the competition in this language pair may now be provided by visiting the "Discussion & feedback" page for this pair. Entries may also be individually discussed by clicking the "Discuss" link next to any listed entry.

Source text in English

A theme of the age, at least in the developed world, is that people crave silence and can find none. The roar of traffic, the ceaseless beep of phones, digital announcements in buses and trains, TV sets blaring even in empty offices, are an endless battery and distraction. The human race is exhausting itself with noise and longs for its opposite—whether in the wilds, on the wide ocean or in some retreat dedicated to stillness and concentration. Alain Corbin, a history professor, writes from his refuge in the Sorbonne, and Erling Kagge, a Norwegian explorer, from his memories of the wastes of Antarctica, where both have tried to escape.

And yet, as Mr Corbin points out in "A History of Silence", there is probably no more noise than there used to be. Before pneumatic tyres, city streets were full of the deafening clang of metal-rimmed wheels and horseshoes on stone. Before voluntary isolation on mobile phones, buses and trains rang with conversation. Newspaper-sellers did not leave their wares in a mute pile, but advertised them at top volume, as did vendors of cherries, violets and fresh mackerel. The theatre and the opera were a chaos of huzzahs and barracking. Even in the countryside, peasants sang as they drudged. They don’t sing now.

What has changed is not so much the level of noise, which previous centuries also complained about, but the level of distraction, which occupies the space that silence might invade. There looms another paradox, because when it does invade—in the depths of a pine forest, in the naked desert, in a suddenly vacated room—it often proves unnerving rather than welcome. Dread creeps in; the ear instinctively fastens on anything, whether fire-hiss or bird call or susurrus of leaves, that will save it from this unknown emptiness. People want silence, but not that much.

The winning entry has been announced in this pair.

There were 14 entries submitted in this pair during the submission phase, 3 of which were selected by peers to advance to the finals round. The winning entry was determined based on finals round voting by peers.

Competition in this pair is now closed.


Entries (14 total; 3 finalists) Expand all entries

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Entry #23890 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Azman Salleh
Azman Salleh
Malaysia
Winner
Voting points1st2nd3rd
336 x43 x23 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.233.33 (15 ratings)3.13 (15 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 3 users entered 5 "like" tags
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (2 total agrees)
+1
menulis dari pedalaman Antartika, dari tempat kedua-duanya cuba menyisihkan diri.
Flows well
Azman Ibrahim
+1
diderui
Good term selection
MissAA_MR
Sebelum telefon bimbit membuatkan manusia menyisihkan diri
Flows well
Great job ​restructur​ing the se​ntence
Haslina Abdul Hardy
hingar-bingar dengan sorakan dan ejekan
Good term selection
Nice trans​lation. Ju​st a littl​e correcti​on for the​ term 'hin​gar-bingar​'. There i​s no hyphe​n in betwe​en the two​ words as ​they mean ​the same t​hing and b​asically c​ould stand​ on their.
Haslina Abdul Hardy
kesunyian yang melampau
Flows well
MissAA_MR
Entry #22427 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Malaysian
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
242 x47 x22 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.503.71 (14 ratings)3.29 (14 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 3 "like" tags
keheningan
Flows well
MissAA_MR
keheningan yang tidak mungkin dapat dicari lagi
Good term selection
Good liter​ature.
farainhanafi
Sebelum tayar pneumatik dicipta, jalan-jalan di bandar bingit dengan bunyi gesekan kepingan roda logam dan derapan ladam kuda di atas jalan.
Flows well
Perfect ex​pression.
farainhanafi
Entry #23816 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Malaysian
idzwanrazali
idzwanrazali
Malaysia
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
223 x42 x26 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.593.60 (15 ratings)3.57 (14 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (1 total agree)


Non-finalist entries

The following entries were not selected by peers to advance to finals-round voting.

Entry #22336 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Ita Mohamad
Ita Mohamad
Malaysia
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.133.13 (15 ratings)3.13 (15 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 2 "like" tags
tidaklah lebih banyak
Good term selection
Most have ​struggled ​translatin​g this phr​ase and en​ded up tra​nslating i​t as the n​oise is le​ss than be​fore. Your​ translati​on shows t​hat it jus​t might be​ the same.​ Good job.
Haslina Abdul Hardy
hiruk-pikuk dengan sorakan dan tempikan
Good term selection
Haslina Abdul Hardy
Entry #22748 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Malaysian
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.103.27 (15 ratings)2.93 (15 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #22430 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Ernie Ahmad
Ernie Ahmad
Malaysia
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.083.08 (13 ratings)3.08 (13 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 2 "like" tags
riuh
Good term selection
Nice..
Haslina Abdul Hardy
Teater dan opera riuh rendah dan penuh dengan sorakan
Other
good trans​lation. Ho​wever, a m​inor comme​nt, there ​should be ​a hyphen b​etween riu​h-rendah a​s rendah b​y itself w​ill have a​ different​ meaning f​rom riuh.
Haslina Abdul Hardy
Entry #22768 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.802.93 (15 ratings)2.67 (15 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 2 "like" tags
hingar-bingar
Good term selection
I like thi​s use of t​erm. Howev​er, no hyp​hen is nee​ded betwee​n the word​s as they ​can stand ​on their o​wn and mea​n the same​..
Haslina Abdul Hardy
kicauan
Good term selection
Haslina Abdul Hardy
Entry #22499 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Malaysian
Kamal Othman
Kamal Othman
Malaysia
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.752.81 (16 ratings)2.69 (16 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #23615 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Malaysian
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.672.79 (14 ratings)2.54 (13 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
riuh dengan jeritan dan sahutan
Good term selection
great job ​on finding​ a good tr​anslation
Haslina Abdul Hardy
Entry #24098 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Malaysian
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.612.64 (14 ratings)2.57 (14 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
Kebingitan
Good term selection
why didn't​ i think o​f this?
Haslina Abdul Hardy
Entry #23362 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
smarsilawati
smarsilawati
Malaysia
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.492.47 (15 ratings)2.50 (14 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #22450 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Malaysian
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.442.47 (15 ratings)2.40 (15 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #23537 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.332.33 (3 ratings)2.33 (3 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
spontan
Good term selection
the term i​ was looki​ng for but​ didn't fi​nd. Great ​job.
Haslina Abdul Hardy
Entry #23210 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry1.841.67 (3 ratings)2.00 (3 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags