Interpreters as Diplomats: A Diplomatic History of the Role of Interpreters in World Politics

Introduction

INTRODUCTION No matter who we are or where we live, we are all, thanks to translation and interpretation, contemporaries of every historical period and citizens of every country. The author of this work enables us to discover a collection of fascinatingcharacters who, although they worked in the shadows of some of the world's great figures (but also the not so great), played an essential role in political and diplomatic affairs. Like the translators and interpreters who come back to life in these pages, she takes us beyond our linguistic and cultural boundaries and even beyond the boundaries erected through prejudice and ignorance. Ruth A. Roland's story is embellished with numerous anecdotes, which give a human, realistic dimension to her characters. The interpreters belong to almost all of the subgroups of this age-old profession, from the Pharaohs' first interpreters to conference interpreters, with military,judicial, parliamentary and interpreting brokers in between. Canada's French explorer Jacques Cartier finished his seafaring career as an interpreting broker in the port of Saint-Malo in Brittany. Still today, interpreting brokers in ocean ports are the only ones apart from ship commanders who have the right to translate documents written in foreign languages before commercial courts. They are also the only ones to serve as go-betweens withforeigners. One of the major strengths of Interpreters as Diplomats is that it is the only work to give an overview of other works by interpreters from antiquity to the introduction of a new inter1 INTERPRETERS AS DIPLOMATS pretation method, simultaneous interpretation, by means of modern technology. Greeted with skepticism and even latent hostility by the mandarins of consecutive interpretation, simultaneous interpretation proved to be perfectly suited to the fast pace of modern life, the abolition of distances and the increasing number of international forums. The 20th century has been the age of rapprochement among nations. The global village would not have been conceived of without the cohort of translators and interpreters who give a voice to the main players on the international scene. The invisible men and women wearing headphones, sitting in a dimly lit booth the size of a confessional and who look like they are talking to their microphone, actively participate in turbulent peace talks, in war crime trials, in somewhat calmer trade negotiations and in all kinds of international meetings of experts. Their presence is also required at important gatherings of diplomats endeavoring to settle international disputes. In their own way, modern interpreters contribute to world harmony. The brief historical overview presented to us in Roland's book clearly shows that language has always been more than a simple communication tool: it has also been a mark of national prestige, and interpreters have brought this prestige to the international arena. As everyone knows, language is also a tricky, difficult tool to handle. People can get offended if breakdowns in communication , often unforeseeable, occur. Experienced interpreters know this. Instinctively they put up their guard when tension is in the air, discussions are lively and passions are unleashed. A harmless phrase can provoke a diplomatic incident. "II y a anguille sous roche," a Soviet delegate once said in a speech at the time of the Cold War. With no malice aforethought, the interpreter translated this expression by "There is a nigger in the woodpile." A black man got up immediately and left the room. He was the leader of the American delegation: he thought the Russian was insulting him. If the interpreter had said "There is more than meets the eye" instead, which means the same as "There is a nigger in the woodpile," he would not have offended the sensitive American delegate and would 2 INTRODUCTION have avoided an international incident. Interpreters are linguistic acrobats constantly walking on a tightrope. The interpreter is as much Dr.Jekyll as Mr. Hyde. One day he may have to put himself in the shoes of a Russian foreign minister; the next, in those of a famous surgeon from New York, an oil tycoon from Riyadh, a top-ranking army commander from Brussels or a banker from Geneva.A good interpreter does not settle for a mechanical rendering of the spoken word. Before him stands a living being, sometimes placid, at other times raging with anger, indignation or impatience. The intensity of such feelings, which become one with word meaning, needs to be rendered to a certain degree by the interpreter. However, there are...