4

Compensation

In Chapter 3, we spoke of the need to palliate certain TT effects by the use of compensation. To see what is meant by this, we can return to Gianluca and the teacher (pp. 30±1). One way of translating the proverb was `You know the saying: ªHe who sleeps catches no fishº.' `You know the saying' is added to show that the aphorism is an established proverb and not a flight of poetic creativeness on the part of the teacher. Without the addition, the quaint unfamiliarity of the calque would have an exotic quality that is completely absent from the ST, and it would also imply something about the teacher's personality that the ST does not imply at all. Depending on the purpose of the TT, these two effects could be instances of serious translation loss, a significant betrayal of the ST effects. Adding `You know the saying' does not make `He who sleeps catches no fish' any less unfamiliar in itself, but it does make it less likely to have these misleading effects. This procedure is a good example of compensation: that is, where any conventional translation (whether literal or otherwise) would entail an unacceptable translation loss, this loss is reduced by the freely chosen introduction of a less unacceptable one, such that important ST effects are rendered approximately in the TT by means other than those used in the ST. Thus, in this example, adding `You know the saying' incurs great translation loss in terms of economy and cultural presupposition, but this is accepted because it significantly reduces an even greater loss in terms of message content.

Translators make this sort of compromise all the time, balancing loss against loss in order to do most justice to what, in a given ST, they think is most important. Our aim in this book is to encourage student translators to make these compromises as the result of deliberate decisions taken in the light of strategic factors such as the nature and purpose of the ST, the purpose of the TT, the nature and needs of the target public, and so on. In taking these decisions, it is vital to remember that compensation is not a matter of putting any old finesounding phrase into a TT in case any weaknesses have crept in, but of countering a specific, clearly defined, serious loss with a specific, clearly defined, less serious one. Compensation illustrates better than anything else the imaginative rigour that translation demands. The following examples will show some of the forms it can take.

COMPENSATION 35

In discussing the `Blackpool' text in Chapter 3, we suggested that a translator might try to get round the TL drawbacks of the name `Blackpool' by dropping the name and trying to win respect for the shoes by some other means. If the manufacturer were reluctant to substitute an Italian name for `Blackpool', one might compensate for losing the consumerist cachet of the foreign element in the ST like this:

In this TT, there are two features that highlight the uniqueness of the new shoes: `a pair' and `finest of materials'. Saying `a pair' points to the shoes as something apart. Superiority is also suggested in the relatively formal tone of `the finest of materials' as compared with, say, `the finest materials' or `top-quality materials'. From the point of view of literal meaning, these expressions are unnecessary departures from the TL structures indicated by the ST grammar: `you have chosen shoes' and `top-quality materials' would have been perfectly acceptable. These translation losses have been deliberately incurred in order to compensate for the loss of ST `Blackpool' by conferring superiority on the shoes by other means than the exotic.

This compensation has also been calculated to fit in with the implications of another one. In the ST, `realizzate' (as distinct from `prodotte' or `fabbricate') has connotations of vision and fulfilment (cf. `realizzare uno scopo/ un'aspirazione/un progetto', etc.). The English verb `realize' can have the same connotations, but it can hardly be used here, because it sounds very odd with `shoes' as its object: there would be unacceptable translation loss in terms of idiomaticity. The obvious alternative, `made', would incur almost as big a loss, because it does not have the connotations of `realizzate'. This loss is compensated for with the connotations of `crafted'Ðskill, care and exclusiveness. These connotations are different from those of `realizzate', but they have the same communicative functionÐto convince the purchaser that she has made a good choice. And, because they do not clash with the connotations of `a pair' and `the finest of materials', they fit into the context.

Note that none of these departures from literal translation has been forced on the translator by the constraints of TL grammar. The changesÐthat is, the losses Ðhave been deliberately chosen in order to compensate for losing the exotic element in `Blackpool' and the connotations of `realizzate'. Whereas `Blackpool' and `realized' would have betrayed the manufacturer's purpose, the three TT expressions between them convey a similar message to that of the ST: that this, truly, is a superior shoe. This question of choice versus constraint is vital to the understanding of compensation, as we shall see.

The second paragraph of the `Blackpool' text offers another good example of the need for compensation. The lexical translation loss entailed in not translating

38 THINKING ITALIAN TRANSLATION

switch in viewpoint is common in compensation (as indeed in translation in general); there is another example in `proof positive', as we shall see in a moment.

Compensation is also required on the level of sentence structure in this final paragraph. In the ST, the insertion of `calzature di fine lavorazione' after the subject has a rhetorical effect, creating a certain suspense before the climactic predicate finally comes. Ideally, the translator will want to ensure a similar effect in the TT. But calquing the parenthetical ST structure (e.g. `Your new shoes, skilfully crafted, are made ¼') would perhaps be unidiomatic, certainly less convincing than following the subject directly with the main verb (`Your new shoes are ¼'). Hence the use of `are proof positive' instead of, say, `show' or `prove' or even `are proof: inserting the longer expression holds the climax back, and therefore highlights it. In this way, the rhetorical impact of the TT is similar to that of the ST, but it is achieved by different means.

Another reason for choosing `proof positive' is that it connotes careful scrutiny of evidenceÐin this case, the details of the finished shoe. This helps to compensate for the loss of significant connotations in `la stessa particolare cura'. If this phrase is translated literally, the result is a comic calque. Before translating the phrase, the translator has to pin down its function. `Stessa' and `vecchi' together stress the continuity of a traditional craft. `Particolare' denotes `special', `exceptional', but has a strong connotation of `going into particulars', `attention to detail'. In other words, what makes the `cura' special is that it is so painstaking. In so far as `proof positive' connotes careful scrutiny, some of this stress on detail may be saved, by compensation. As we have said, this piece of compensation, like the use of `skilled', involves a change in viewpoint: in the TT it is implied that the purchaser scrutinizes the finished shoe, whereas in the ST the implied scrutiny is the shoemaker's, as he concentrates on creating the shoe. As in the case of `skilled', this change in viewpoint is saved from illogicality or nonsense by the fact that the global message is the same in the TT as in the ST: what is scrutinized in the TT is the triumphant result of the shoemaker's own scrutiny, the superb shoe.

However, the connotation of scrutiny is in itself too slight to convey all the force of `la stessa particolare cura'. This is why we have used the phrase `still flourish': `still' compensates for the loss of `same' or `very' (`stessa'), while `flourish' introduces the notions of vigour and success to compensate for the loss of the ST stress on painstaking attention to detail. All that the two ideas have in common is an implication of `superlative merit', but that is all that is needed for the purposes of this publicity puff.

Finally, `in Italy' was added to compensate for the loss of the exotic dimension contained in ST `Blackpool': the purchaser is reminded that her shoes are Italian-made, and therefore excellent. Purely from the compensation point of view, of course, there would be less need for `in Italy' if the manufacturer called the shoes something like `Sorrento' for the Englishspeaking market. Stylistically, however, there is another reason for adding these words: they supply a