Transcript Translation for Institutions: The Role of the Translator

Pelin Irgin
Erciyes University
Spring, 2014
Translation: Etymologies
Hermes in Cratylus
Soc. “… this name ‘Hermes’ seems to me to have to do
with speech; he is an interpreter (hermeneus) and a
messenger, is wily and deceptive in speech, and is
oratorical. All this activity is concerned with the power
of speech. Now, as I said before, eirein denotes the use
of speech; moreover, Homer often uses the word
emisato, which means ‘contrive’.”
Hermes in Richard Palmer
 Hermes is … a mediator. He is the messenger between Zeus
and mortals, also between Zeus and the underworld and
between the underworld and mortals. Hermes crosses
these ontological thresholds with ease. A notorious thief,
according to legend, he crosses the threshold of legality
without a qualm. “Marshal of dreams”, he mediates
between waking and dreaming, day and night. Wearer of a
cap of invisibility, he can become invisible or visible at will.
Master of night-tricks, he can cover himself with night.
Master of sleep, he can wake the sleeping or put the waking
to sleep. Liminality or marginality is his very essence. (The
Liminality of Hermes and the Meaning of Hermeneutics)
 … he [Hermes] is the god of translation and of all
transactions between realms. And it would seem to
be the essence of hermeneutics to be liminal, to
mediate between realms of being, whether
between god and human beings, wakefulness and
sleep, the conscious and the unconscious, life and
afterlife, visible and invisible, day and night. The
dimensions of the mythic god Hermes suggest a
central element in the meaning of hermeneutics:
that is a mediation between worlds.
Hermes in Walter Burkert
 Herma (herm): a heap of stones which served as a form
of territorial demarcation.
 “the immovable boundary stone is surrounded with
tales about the transgression of boundaries and the
breaking of taboos through which a new situation, and
a new, well-defined order is established”. (Greek
Religion Archaic and Classical)
 Hermes, then, like the hermeneus, stands at the inbetween space, on the herm itself, the point of
transgression, and mediates between the before and
the after.
Interpreter: Alfred Hermann
 “irrespective of whether the word ‘interpres’ is
derived from ‘inter-partes’ or ‘inter-pretium’, the
term designates the human mediator positioned
between two parties or values, performing far more
diverse activities than simply providing linguistic
mediation between parties transacting business”
(“Interpreting in Antiquity”)
Power games in translation
 Primary/Secondary
 Invisibility/Visibility
 Self/Other
 Absence/Presence
 Original/Translation
 Inclusion/Exclusion
Role of translator
 “The illusion of transparency is an effect of fluent
discourse, of the translator’s effort to insure easy
readability by adhering to current usage, maintaining
continuous syntax, fixing a precise meaning. What is
so remarkable here is that this illusory effect conceals
the numerous conditions under which the translation
is made, starting with the translator’s crucial
intervention in the foreign text” (The Translator’s
Invisibility 1-2)
 “The violent effects of translation are felt at home as
well as abroad. … translation wields enormous power
in the construction of national identities for foreign
cultures, and hence it potentially figures in ethnic
discrimination, geopolitical confrontations,
colonialism, terrorism, war.” (The Translator’s
Invisibility 19)
Invisibility in Interpreting
 Geography of interpretation
“We must be insistently aware of how space can be
made to hide consequences from us, how relations of
power and discipline are inscribed into the apparently
innocent spatiality of social life, how human
geographies become filled with politics and ideology”
(Keith & Pine “The Politics of Place”)
Power and Interpreting
“From Ancient Egypt to the 21st century, interpreters have
enabled communication between speakers of minority and
majority languages. This has allowed them to either channel
information or act as gatekeepers by exercising their agency.
Interestingly, these powerful individuals have, more often than
not, been depicted as invisible. Why is it that interpreters,
powerful individuals who have occupied center stage ever since
the origins of cross-cultural communication, have traditionally
been portrayed (and even more importantly, have allowed
themselves to be portrayed) as mere language conduits, invisible
parties in the communicative event, deprived of agency, yet
capable of performing complex linguistic and information
processing tasks? More pointedly, why do we assume that all
interpreters, regardless of their own individual differences or the
social interaction within which they work, play their roles in the
same way?” (Revisiting the Interpreter’s Role 1)
“Most importantly interpreters, as persons embedded in
a society that possesses its own values, cultural norms,
and societal blueprints, also bring their individual
social differences to the table. Like any other human
being, they perceive reality through their own social
lenses. It is therefore problematic to believe that an
interpreter, as an individual who brings the self to all
interactions, can be truly neutral. During any
interpreted communicative event, the self and the
other interact. When that happens, the interaction is
colored by an array of social factors, such as class,
gender, age, and ethnicity” (2)
Purposes of UN
 To keep peace throughout the world;
 To develop friendly relations among nations;
 To help nations work together to improve the lives of
poor people, to conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy,
and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and
freedoms;
 To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations
to achieve these goals.
UN official languages
 Originally English and French were established as working
languages at the UN. Later, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and
Spanish were added as working languages in the General
Assembly and in the Economic and Social Council. Arabic,
Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish are the working
languages of the Security Council.
 A delegate may speak in any of the official languages, and the
speech is interpreted simultaneously into the other official
languages. Most UN documents are also issued in all six official
languages. At times, a delegate may choose to make a statement
using a non-official language. In such cases, the delegation must
provide either an interpretation or a written text of the statement
in one of the official languages.