Compensation

The essence of compensation is clearly revealed in F.V.Fyodorov’s book “Basics of general theory of translation”:

„У практиці перекладу трапляються окремі випадки, коли не відтворюється зовсім або замінюється формально далеким той чи той елемент оригіналу, оминається те чи те слово, словосполука тощо, та неможливість передати окремий елемент, окрему особливість оригіналу також не суперечить принципу перекладності, оскільки останній стосується твору як цілого. Звичайно, ціле існує не як якесь абстрактне поняття – воно складається з конкретних елементів, які, проте, є суттєвими не кожний окремо й не в механічній своїй сукупності, а в системі, яка створюється їх поєднанням і яка складає єдність зі змістом твору. Звідси можливість замін і компенсацій у системі цілого, яка відкриває для цього різноманітні шляхи; отже, втрата окремого елемента, який не відіграє організуючої ролі, може не відчуватися на фоні широкого цілого, він начебто розчиняється в цілому або замінюється іншими елементами, іноді й не заданими оригіналом“ (Fyodorov: p.p. 169-170).

Compensation is not as much a transformation but rather a general principle of rendering stylistic peculiarities of a text when there is no direct correspondence between stylistic means of SL and TL. This transformation is widely used to render speech peculiarities of characters, to translate puns, rhyming words, etc. Its essence is as follows: it is not always possible to find stylistic equivalents to every stylistically marked word of the original text or to every phonetic and grammatical irregularity purposefully used by the author. Therefore a general stylistic balance based on compensating some inevitable stylistic losses by introducing stylistically similar elements in some other utterances or employing different linguistic means playing a similar role in TL, should be kept. Let us take some examples:

1. Suppose a character uses the word “ fool-proof ” which is certainly a sign of the colloquial register. In Ukrainian there is no colloquial synonym of the word “ надійний ” or “ безпечний ”. So the colloquial “ fool-proof ” is translated by the neutral “ абсолютно надійний ” and the character’s language loses its stylistic coloring. This loss is inevitable, but we have to find a way of compensating it. It is quite possible to find a neutral utterance in the same character’s speech that can be translated in a colloquial manner, e.g.: “ I got nothing ”. Taken separately it is translated “ Я нічого не отримав ” or “ Мені нічого не дали ”, but it allows to make up for the lost colloquial marker: “Мене пошили в дурні”, “Я залишився з носом”, “Мене обвели як немовля” or at least “Я залишився ні з чим”, etc. In such a way the number of neutral and colloquial utterances both in the original and the translated texts is preserved.

2. In political language of the USA the phrase selling candidates like soap is well known. Literally it means: продаючи кандидатів як мило. Where has this comparison come from? There was a period in the USA when some sorts of soap disappeared from the counters. This phrase may be translated:

„Рекламуючи політичних кандидатів як ходовий товар“.

Compensation is often used where purely linguistic peculiarities of original must be rendered (dialectal words, individual peculiarities of speech, incorrect language forms, pun, play upon words, etc.), which not always have direct correspondence in translation language.

When translating contaminated speech, translator should not be bound to the same translation devices, which are used by a foreign author. Translator has full right to replace language devices by others (grammatical into lexical, phonetic – grammatical, etc. according to the norms of contamination in Ukrainian or Ukrainian).

Thus, when in the original text language is contaminated by a foreigner, then traditional ways of rendering foreigners’ speech in Ukrainian may be applied. It is well known that foreigners, even living for long in Ukraine, experience difficulties in correct expression of the aspect of verbs in Ukrainian: they replace synthetic form of Future by analytical („ Я буду помирати “ instead of „ Я помру “).

Compensation is one of the ways of gaining equivalence in translation. It is used when we have to restore (“compensate for”) semantic loss, caused by the fact, that some unit remains un-translated fully or partially, and a translator renders the same information in another way, and not necessarily in the same place of the textт, as in original:

My parents would have about two haemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.

У моїх предків, мабуть, трапилось би по два інфаркти на кожного, якби я став теревенити про їхні власні справи.

At the first sight one may have an impression that this translation is not quite equivalent, because the words parents and tell have neutral stylistic character (colouring), and Ukrainian предки(батьки) and теревенити belong to unceremonious and casual register:

He made a speech that lasted about ten hours.

Він штовхнув спіч годин на десять.

However this example as well as all other similar cases should be considered as equivalent. The point is that the use of stylistically marked words предки,теревенити,штовхнути спіч instead of neutral parents, tell, make a speech are here nothing else but compensation, which compensates for or restores the loss of corresponding stylistic characteristics in other places of the text translated:

If here is one thing I hate, it’s the movies ( the word „кіношка“ appeared later).

Якщо я щось ненавиджу, то це кіно.

She had on those damn falsies that point all over the place.

У неї... в ліфчик щось було підкладене, щоб стирчало в усі боки.

English words movies, falsies belong to unconstrained register; however in Ukrainian there are no such words, which would coincide with them stylistically. Therefore the translator had to render them with the help of neutral words кіно, ліфчик. This loss of information (replacement of stylistically marked words by the neutral ones) takes place repeatedly through the whole translated text and requires compensation. One more example:

“Why don’t you write a good thrilling detective story?” she asked. “Me?” exclaimed Mrs. Albert Forrester for the first time in her life regardless of grammar (S.M. The Creative Impulse).

– А чому б вам не написати детективний роман, такий, щоб аж моторошно було? – Шо? – вихопилось у місіс Форестер, яка вперше в житті забула про гарні манери.

Here in original Mrs. Forrester in elliptical sentence uses the form of so called objective case of the pronoun Me instead of I, which many people consider grammatical carelessness (without sufficient reason, by the way, as the form me in such cases has long ago become the norm in colloquial literary language). Since in Ukrainian the system of personal pronouns has nothing of this kind, the translator compensated this loss through culturally incorrect pronoun form Шо. (In Ukrainian translation grammatically incorrect form of the pronoun Що – Шо was used).

Compensation clearly illustrates one of the basic statements of the translation theory – the adequacy of translation is gained not in separate elements of a text, but in a text as a whole. In other words, untranslatable details do exist, but there are no untranslatable texts.

In translation practice cases are known when the description of absolutely different situations becomes equivalent in original and translation. Such replacement of situation in translation may be stipulated by various reasons. It can be connected with differences of cultural traditions and life experience of recipients. Thus, in translation of the phrase from A. Cronin’s “The Citadel” it turns out, that the procedure of preliminary official announcement of the names of the people going to get married (banns) is unknown to contemporary Ukrainian reader:

“Don’t stand there like a Presbyterian parson about to forbid the banns”.

Word-for-word translation seems strange for our ear and sounds as follows:

„Не стійте тут як пресвітеріанський проповідник, що збирається виголосити заборону молодятам одружитись “.

The equivalence of the translation may be rather secured by mentioning a different church custom (another situation), having the same color in Ukrainian, i.e. unpleasant for those, against whom it is exercised, e.g., “оголосити анафему (проклинати)”:

„Не стійте як пресвітеріанський священик, що готується оголосити комусь анафему “.

The full or partial change of the situation described may also touch upon its separate elements. This phenomenon is very often found in translating contaminated speech, used by the author in original for characterizing a speaking character. Thus, one of the heroines of G. Galsworsy’s “The End of the Chapter” Jin Tesbury is constantly compared with “leopardess”. The absence in Ukrainian and Ukrainian of a special name for a female leopard made translators (Y. Korneev and P.Melkov) replace it by “тигриця”.

The she-servant of little Davy in Ch. Dickens’s novel “David Copperfield” often pronounces English words incorrectly. In some cases this feature of her language may be considered insignificant and resign to the fact, that it becomes not rendered in translation. However, in the next sentence this peculiarity becomes the aim of the utterance:

“I ought to have made it, perhaps, but I couldn’t azackly,” – that was always the substitute for exactly, in Peggotty’s militia of words – “bring my mind to it”.

The phonetic form of all possible Ukrainian equivalents for “exactly” is too simple to be pronounced incorrectly by illiterate people. The more important here not the meaning of this word but the fact, that Peggotty pronounces incorrectly difficult words. By compensation the translator refuses to render directly the meaning of this unit in original, but compensates for this loss by using absolutely another word, which is natural for a person of little education to pronounce incorrectly from the view-point of translation:

«Може, я й мусила це зробить, та кітагорично – мовою Пеготі це завжди означало „категорично“, – не могла зібратись з духом». (Пер. О. Кривцової та Є. Ланна).

There is one more example – translation of the abstract from Jack London’s novel “Martin Eden” by S. Zayanitsky. Little educated sailor Martin Eden is talking with highly educated girl Ruth:

“It was just an accident”, he said, putting his hand on his cheek. “One night, in a calm, with a heavy sea running, the main boomlift carried away, an’next the tackle. The lift was wire, an’ it was threshin’around like a snake. The whole watch was tryin’ to grab it, an’ I rushed in an’ got swatted”.

„Випадок стався такий, – сказав він, проводячи рукою по щоці. – Якось уночі, у велику хвилю, зірвало грот з усіма снастями. Трос, бач, був дротяний, він і став звиватися і хльостати кругом, як та гадина. Уся вахта намагалася його спіймати. Ну я кинувся й закріпив його, тільки ж при цьому мені він так заїхав по щоці, що мало не здалося“.

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