Translate This: wardrobe malfunction

I was browsing the Internet last night, to search news about Donna Summer, who very recently passed away. I searched all homepages that feature the wonderful Disco Queen. But then, I couldn’t help but notice, other links in those pages have something to say about another artist of equal caliber, Janet Jackson. Curiosity got the better of me, so clicked one of those links, and later more of those links.

I bet you know where those links took me to. Yes! What is Janet Jackson good for these days if not for the news of that ‘fateful night’ with another dubiously talented dancing male singer who goes by the name of Timberwood? Sorry, Timberland. No? Sorry again, Timber something.

You don’t remember? Here, to refresh your memory…

Later, she had an about-turn and adorned a hijab.

Errrrr… ok, almost a hijab but definitely more modest (her bf at that time was an Arab).

They immediately and interestingly coined in a term for that incident (like they knew it already and couldn't wait to let the world know), and other similar incidents that strangely follow later were conveniently called, a ‘wardrobe malfunction’.

(The world is strange because after one bizarre incident, for example a soccer player suddenly suffers a heart attack while playing at one corner of the world, triggers a tsunami of soccer players suffering from heart attacks while playing, it happened all over the world. Strange… yeah.)

But, I digress.

I want to know what that term is in Malay. A little more browsing, clicking, page-flipping and eye-squinting should do the trick I guessed, but no… there was nothing on the internet that say the same term in Malay. Time for ‘cari kutu’! (My term for ‘shake that jar and see what comes out’).

I could find no specific description of the term in PRPM, neither can I from any respectable Malay newspapers (is there any, anyway). So I guess, I have to coin in a Malay term myself here. But they do have description for ‘wardrobe’ and ‘malfunction’. Here they are (cut ‘n’ paste as usual):

Wardrobe: n 1. tall cupboard for hanging clothes, almari pakaian: her ~ is full of expensive dresses, almari pakaiannya penuh dgn pakaian yg mahal-mahal; 2. a collection of clothes, koleksi pakaian: she has a large ~ of evening dresses, dia mempunyai koleksi pakaian malam yg banyak; she bought a whole new ~ for her wedding, dia telah membeli koleksi pakaian yg baru utk hari perkahwinannya; 3. stage costumes, koleksi kostum: she is in charge of ~ for the school play, dia bertanggungjawab mengendalikan koleksi kostum utk persembahan drama sekolah itu.

Malfunction: n &vi pincang tugas: we have had several blackouts owing to a ~ in the generator, beberapa kali bekalan elektrik terputus krn pincang tugas pd penjana; his careless use of the computer had caused it to ~, kecuaiannya menggunakan

Now according to my rule of thumb, with reference to the definition from PRPM, wardrobe in this case can be translated into simply ‘pakaian’. It can’t be an ‘almari’ neither can it be a ‘collection of clothes’. She just had one set of costume on her, so it’s her ‘pakaian’, meaning what she is wearing at the time.

Now for ‘malfunction’ I have several options here. It is a noun in this context. The task is to pick the most appropriate one from these: kepincangan, kerosakan, kecacatan, ralat (all shortlisted from the best possible definitions in PRPM). After much deliberation with me and myself, I chose the word ‘ralat’. Here is why I didn’t choose the other three:

Kepincangan: it’s closest meaning normally describe a malfunction of an engine or system, such as an air conditioner or a family. It normally requires another word ‘tugas’ (task) to go together.

Kerosakan: normally means a system or object that is not functioning to the point of not being able to be used altogether, meaning it is more severe than 'kepincangan'.

Kecacatan: refers to malformation to an object rather than, say, a tear to your blouse.

The main reason I prefer ‘ralat’ to the other three is, following a rule of translation, a translation into the target language must be precise, shortest possible and apt. In this case 'ralat' is an error (which seems to be applicable to a wider range of fields in Malay). An error had happened to Janet Jackson’s dress that night (whether she and that Timber guy had premeditated it or not is not the issue here). So, the term can be translated as ‘ralat pakaian’. Let’s see, if it can be used in a sentence:

Janet Jackson telah menyalahkan ralat pakaian atas peristiwa yang berlaku dalam persembahan beliau dengan Justin Timberleg malam tadi. 
(Janet Jackson blamed a wardrobe malfunction on the incident during her performance with Justin Timberleg last night).

It reminds me of another 'ralat pakaian' occured to our Fauziah Ahmad Daud some years ago, when camera-phone existed only in Japanese animation Captain Future. Damn you, technology! Where were you when we needed you!


What?

Wrong?
What wrong? That guy’s name? Haiyaaaa… never mind la.