Trying not to say something

nickel

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Trying not to say something
RICKY BLUE
The Chronicle

My wife is a translator. Her clients include executives from the fertile golden peaks of Bay Street, and senior civil servants from the perilous lawyer infested waters of the upper Ottawa River. She translates documents from English, their mother tongue, into French, her mother tongue. On the surface, this would seem to be a straightforward task.

Wrong.

Typically, after spending months concocting a keynote presentation for an upcoming big and important Monday meeting, her employer will suddenly realize that there must be a French translation available. So the document arrives at our house by e-mail or fax on Friday night with instructions that say: "Could you please translate this and send it back in five minutes."

My wife must drop everything else in our life and treat it as if it were a groundbreaking work of financial clairvoyance. But it never is. It is usually a painfully tedious tome crammed with buzzwords the writer had hoped would be an adequate substitute for ideas.

Like: "Third quarter earnings were impacted adversely by the volatility of the market." Instead of: "Companies are losing money because their stocks are falling." Then three paragraphs later: "The volatility of the market was impacted adversely by third quarter earnings." Instead of: "The stock market is falling because companies are losing money."

My wife has to translate this jargon into sense before she can translate it into French. But every once and a while she hits a wall. I see her muttering at the computer with frustration in her face.

"Can I help?" I ask.
"OK, read this." she says.
I do so.
"I cannot understand it," she exclaims.
"I'm not surprised," I say.
"What does it mean?"
"That's a very good question."
"But you speak English."
"I'm not so sure that this is English."
"It's from Toronto. It has to be English."
"I know. But it really doesn't make any sense."
"But it has to make sense. This guy is the head of (a huge government corporation)."
"Maybe so, but he doesn't yet know how to write in a comprehensible way. Look at this sentence. It is a confusing jumble of two different thoughts going in opposite
directions. We need a verb!"
"But I have to translate it now. The kids are waiting for me to take them to the pool."
"OK," I sigh and stare at it again. "Wait a minute. Where is he giving this speech?"
"At the next meeting of (a big government-funding agency)," she says.
"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" I exclaim. "This is probably a political speech."
"So?"
"Well, don't you see? He is not trying to say something. He's actually trying to not say something."
"Excuse me?"
"Well if he says something then he can be pinned down. That would mean trouble. He could be quoted and made to defend what he has said. If he says nothing he is safe."
"So, he is purposely trying to not say anything?"
"Yes, and he is succeeding brilliantly."
"But how do I translate that?"
"I guess you have to not say something in French."
"But what shall I not say?"
"The same thing as he is not saying in English."
"But no one will understand it."
"His intention precisely."

Then she translates something that can't be understood in English into something that won't be understood in French. It's a trick only a really professional translator can do.


Το αντέγραψα αποδώ. Ευχαριστώ τον Βασίλη Κόρκα.
 

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Like: "Third quarter earnings were impacted adversely by the volatility of the market." Instead of: "Companies are losing money because their stocks are falling." Then three paragraphs later: "The volatility of the market was impacted adversely by third quarter earnings." Instead of: "The stock market is falling because companies are losing money."

Πλάκα έχει αυτή η ιστορία, αν και νομίζω ότι ο κύριος που την έχει γράψει είναι μάλλον άδικος ή τα παραδείγματα που δίνει παραπάνω ατυχή, γιατί σου δίνουν την εντύπωση ότι δεν ξέρει Αγγλικά (τόσο φοβερά δύσκολες είναι αυτές οι προτάσεις; ) :)
 
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