Traversing Tin and Tides: Translation Ideology and Strategies in Berli and the Sea

The children’s story Pilus Rumput Laut untuk Rasi by Nabila Adani and its English translation, Berli and the Sea, foreground the ecological crisis facing Belitung Island, Indonesia, where uncontrolled mining and coastal exploitation disrupt the delicate balance between land and sea. The protagonist, Berli, symbolizes resistance against environmental degradation, a theme mirrored in the translator’s ideological and strategic choices when rendering culture-specific items. This study examines how Venuti’s translation ideologies—domestication and foreignization—and Baker’s translation strategies shape the portrayal of Belitung Island’s identity and its environmental message. Cultural words were analyzed through postcolonial translation studies and Hu’s eco-translatology lens, revealing a predominance of domestication to prioritize target-culture fluency. Strategies such as translation by cultural substitution, followed by translation by a more general word (superordinate), and translation by a more neutral/less expressive word simplified or shadowed sociocultural nuances, while limited foreignization and translation using a loan word plus explanation offered fragmented cultural preservation. The dominance of domestication risks flattening Belitung’s artisanal practices and communal hierarchies into mainland epistemologies, marginalizing the island’s socio-ecological interdependence. However, the translator’s hybrid approach subtly sustains the narrative’s environmental advocacy, educating readers about marine conservation despite cultural erasures. The study underscores the tension between accessibility and fidelity in translating children’s literature. Strategic foreignization, paratextual supplements, and collaboration with cultural insiders are proposed to represent Belitung’s identity ethically. By balancing fluency with cultural specificity, translators can amplify marginalized voices, ensuring that stories like Berli’s critique of ecological exploitation honor the island’s sovereignty in global literary discourse.