For methodological purposes it is useful to distinguish four different aspects of compensation:
1. Compensation in kind
Harvey, Higgins, and Haywood 1995: 13 state that “compensation in kind refers to making up for one type of
textual effect in the ST by another type in the TT”. Harvey, Higgins and Haywood 1995: 28 further explain
that: Compensation in kind can be further illustrated by three of
its most typical forms. First, explicit meanings in the ST may be compensated by implicit meanings in the TT.
Second, connotative meaning in the ST may be compensated by literal meaning in the TT. Third, for
example, the humor of the ST hinges on the comic use of calques, the TT may have to derive its humor from other
sources, such as a play on word.
Here is the example: SL: Long days after they had climbed out of the valley and
left the Last Homely House miles behind, they were still going up and up and up.62
TL: Sudah berhari-hari mereka mendaki pegunungan, setelah keluar dari lembah. Rumah Ramah Terakhir
sudah puluhan kilometer di belakang mereka. Tapi mereka terus mendaki dan terus mendaki.72
The translator compensates the word ‘miles’, as a means to state distance, with ‘puluhan kilometer’. If he
insists to translate literary with ‘mil’, the translation will be
far from being natural since the word ‘mil’ is not common in Indonesia.
2. Compensation in place
Harvey, Higgins, and Haywood 1995: 30 points out that “compensation in place consists in making up for
the loss of a particular effect found at a given place in the ST by creating a corresponding effect at an earlier or later
place in the TT”. A simple form of compensation in place may be that of compensating for an untranslatable pun in
the ST by using a pun on another word at a different place in the TT. The following examples from Nicholas Guillen’s
‘Mullata’1976: SL: Tanto tren con tu cueppo,
tanto tren; tanto tren con tu boca,
tanto tren; tanto tren con tu sojo,
tanto tren.
TT: So much fuss ‘bout you’ body So much fuss;
So much ‘bout you’ mouth, So much fuss;
So much ‘bout you’ eyes, So much fuss.
Harvey, Higgins, and Haywood, 1995: 31
3. Compensation by merging
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