People with different beliefs and religions around the world discovered that Quran enlightens the way of life. Therefore, it results in emergence of progressive efforts of translating this sacred text into many languages that has been carried out particularly in 20th century. However, translating sacred text is far more difficult than other type of texts. There are religious culture-specific-items that carry peculiar meaning and must be translated into appropriate equivalent in target culture. Thus, the meaning encompassed in that equivalent, and the description that characterized the meaning will be compatible with its original. Moreover, translating these items by applying domestication strategy will bring the text close to the target reader. It is because the equivalent provided in target language is familiar and well-known to the readership. Yet, this strategy puts the cultural gap to its intended meaning, especially when the text is related to the religious culture-specific-item, which is only known to the source readership. Therefore, the present article aims to investigate the domestication strategy in translating religious cultural elements into English. This study is qualitative, and the data are analyzed descriptively using document analysis. Disclosing the meaning of domesticated equivalent, the study adopts componential analysis by Newmark (1988). The study contributes to enhancing the procedure of componential analysis by validating the cultural element categorization with experts and referring exegesis as main source in identifying the characteristic of meaning. It is found that domestication strategy can only provide the adequate meaning to the closest when it comes together with compensation strategy.

E-Translasi atau terjemahan mesin merupakan salah satu teknologi yang diguna pakai oleh penterjemah dalam menghasilkan terjemahan pantas. Penggunaan e-Translasi dianggap penting untuk digunapakai seiring dengan arus globalisasi ini yang memerlukan akses kepada informasi secara cepat dan efektif, di samping memudahkan proses terjemahan. Namun, e-Translasi tidak semestinya menghasilkan output berkualiti tinggi kerana penterjemahannya dilakukan secara kata demi kata atau literal. E-Translasi tidak dapat menandingi kepakaran manusia dalam menghasilkan terjemahan yang berkualiti. Oleh itu, penterjemah perlu melalui proses penyuntingan hasil e-Translasi untuk menghasilkan teks sasaran yang lebih baik. Lazimnya dalam proses penyuntingan penterjemah akan mempunyai kesukaran kerana hasil e-Translasi lebih bersifat literal. Kajian ini bertujuan mengetengahkan pandangan pengamal penterjemahan atau penterjemah terhadap masalah dan cadangan penyelesaian dalam isu penyuntingan teks yang diterjemahkan melalui salah satu aplikasi e-Translasi, iaitu Google Translate (GT). Kajian ini berbentuk kualitatif dan mengguna pakai kaedah Protokol Pemikiran Verbal (Think-aloud Protocols-TAPs) secara restrospektif, yang bertujuan menyingkap apa yang terdapat di dalam minda penterjemah semasa proses penyuntingan dilakukan. Berdasarkan dapatan kajian, penulis merumuskan bahawa terdapat empat aspek utama yang perlu diberi perhatian semasa proses penyuntingan terhadap hasil terjemahan e-Translasi dilakukan oleh penterjemah iaitu: perkataan dan frasa, struktur ayat, teks dan tatabahasa. Hal ini kerana GT ada kalanya tidak dapat menghasilkan padanan atau terjemahan yang menepati sistem dan struktur bahasa sasaran ekoran perbezaan linguistik dan budaya antara bahasa sumber (BSu) dengan bahasa sasaran (BSa), serta kekurangan dalam sistem terjemahan GT itu sendiri yang lebih bersifat literal. Semua aspek tersebut harus diberi perhatian secara menyeluruh apabila melakukan penyuntingan terhadap hasil terjemahan e-Translasi untuk mengelakkan kekeliruan atau ketaksaan dalam memahami mesej sebenar teks sumber.

Many translation scholars have proposed various approaches when dealing with culture-specific items. It shows that to achieve a good quality and successful translation work, suitable and functional translation approach should be applied by the translator. Borrowing is one of the approaches applied in various texts’ genre such as sacred text which has culture-specific items. It becomes frequently used in translating word with no equivalent in target language. However, it resulted in some of translations which have applied this kind of approach did not supply adequate meaning and fallout the irrelevant text towards readership. The reason is that borrowing approach stands alone without providing compensation strategies. Therefore, this present article investigates the functionality of borrowing approach in translating Qur’an non-existent cultural elements in Malay culture. This study is qualitative, and the data are analysed descriptively using document analysis by adopting Relevance Theory initiated by Sperber and Wilson (1986). It is suggested that the relevancy of translated text can be achieved not only through borrowing as an approach, but at the same time providing adequate meaning by means of compensation strategies. Thus, the study assumes that the less the effort processing is produced to understand the meaning, the higher the contextual effect of meaning is sufficiently provided. On the other hand, if the effort processing is less produced and the contextual effect is highly provided, the optimum relevancy of translated text can be achieved. It is concluded that the combination of borrowing approach and compensation strategies can help better understanding the meaning of non-existent religious cultural items in Malay culture.