Wednesday 15 March 2017

Living in a Multilingual World (The One About Language in our Post-Truth Times)

Perhaps one of the unintended consequences of Trump’s presidency so far is its effect on translators. I know that I’m going out on a limb here, translators being bottom of the heap when it comes to the White House’s incumbent’s chief victims. Nonetheless, it is an issue I feel pressed to raise, being a part-time (and very occasional) translator.

Our work is usually fraught with linguistic booby-traps and idiomatic swamps. One minute, you are on safe ground and you feel confident of what you are producing. The next minute you are sinking in quicksand and even a bilingual dictionary is of no help at all. It is a cruel world out there already for translators. Therefore we do not need Monsieur Trump to add to our calamities.

The problem arises from the president’s (every time I type the words “Donald Trump” and “president of the USA” in the same sentence, I get a mixed reaction. One is uncontrollable laughter followed by endless crying. Maybe I should work on a translation for those feelings and put it on a T-shirt to sell) use of the English language. He very rarely means what he says and he does not say much. Unless you count his constant tautology.

Take the word “bad”. I have enough on my plate with the “yoot” of today using this adjective to describe something or someone as “good”. Yes, you read that right. “Bad” is not “bad”, but “good”.

For Pussy-Grabber-In-Chief, however, “bad” is something he disagrees with, not necessarily something that lacks quality, i.e., not good. Which would automatically qualify the thing or the person as “good” (if you ask me). It serves Trump’s simplistic, binary vision of the world to offer this black and white concept. Agree with the Muslim travel ban? Good. Disagree? Bad.
How do you translate that hair again?

But as a translator, I work on ideas, not just words. That means that a sentence like “A lot of bad ‘dudes’ out there!” is bound to give me sleepless nights. Note how straightforward it is (muchos tipos malos por ahí), and yet, we know that the majority of people Trump targets are law-abiding Muslims. Therefore, I cannot agree with the word “bad” even if my job is only to translate.

The president is not alone. On this side of the Atlantic, former education secretary Michael Gove lashed out at experts just before the Brexit vote, stating that “people had had enough” of them. The translation of the word “expert” into Spanish is “experto/a”. In both English and Spanish it means “a person who has a special skill or knowledge in some particular field. Well, not anymore. I am not sure whether to go for the dictionary definition (specialist), or Gove’s one (conman, especially of the EU-financed variety). What if the translation is for a Brexiteer? What if Trump’s entourage hires me covertly to translate important documents? Highly unlikely, I know, but you can never be too sure.

It is not just those who worry about civil liberties and human rights who are troubled by what is going on in both Europe and the States. It is also linguists, translators and academics who wonder if our language will ever be the same. After all, what is the translation for “fake news” again? “Noticias falsas”, you say? But the other side claims they are part of an alternative facts world. Pass me the smelling salts, will you! At least that phrase is an easy one to translate.

© 2017

Next Post: “Thoughts in Progress”, to be published on Saturday 18th March at 6pm (GMT)

18 comments:

  1. I laughed when I saw the photo. LOL! And I laughed sarcastically when Trump said a few weeks ago "I am the most UNracist person you will ever meet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's a sad day when we can't depend on our president to tell the truth. I've had candidates lose before but I still respected them. Not this time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another group I hadn't realized was impacted by the calamity occurring in Washington. Those sticky tentacles reach everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sigh. The alternative factoids brigade are rising the world over.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You can only imagine how we feel here. It's like being in a strange dream. It's not quite a nightmare but it's uncomfortably warped.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, that's some hair style! The hair and the hand gestures turn my stomach but Trump has succeeded where others failed - i.e. getting me to read and listen to the news.

    ReplyDelete
  7. We live in complicated times, where language can be used to deliberately confuse or dissemble. Which makes the translator's task not simply one of finding the 'right, word, but also an conveying an ethical postition that is increasingly complex.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi ACIL - we have certainly set ourselves up for a difficult life in the near future - and language is evolving, evolving ... spelling just doesn't work and so it goes on - it is a worrying period ...

    Please keep us informed - someone has to make sense or otherwise of what's out there ... cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
  9. Pretty pathetic how the so-called facts get shoved down our throats while the truth gets swept under the rug.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think we should stop listening to him and start listening to, heeding the words of Bannon. He is the man who sits at the helm directing all the cretin's in front of him who carry out his word as if he was the messiah. Every word that comes out of his mouth and hence of the top idiot, are designed to distract us from the devastation of the bills they have passed. (the slow and steady death of democracy) He is quietly slipping his evil plan under the door and using the big idiot to mask it, with his silllly and comic words.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Crazy times we are living in right now. Feel like I am in some alternative universe.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This is funny, and powerful. Oh, what's happening in the world lately is just crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Post-truth presidents, alternative facts,... Yes, this is a scary era.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I think you, CiL, and most of your readers feel/think about Donald Trump the way I felt/thought about Barack Obama. Obama will always stand as the "divider in chief" to me -- the man who said, "My way or the highway."

    Although I agree with much of what Trump advocates, I do either hit the mute button or change channels when I see his face or hear his voice on television. I think him very unappealing to look at and to listen to, and his hand gestures absolutely drive me up the wall. He actually seems very feminine to me.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anyone who thinks words matter, that truth matters, is affected by today's Bizarro world where too many of our leaders respect neither the truth nor the people they're allegedly serving. I keep telling myself this, too, shall pass, but how much havoc will he wreak before he's outta there? (As for his hair, you'd think someone with bazillions of dollars could afford a decent haircut...)

    Have a super weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  16. So true! Translators actually make new literature with their translations....

    ReplyDelete
  17. Monsieur Trump is a bad translation. Premier Trump or Czar Trump might be better, even better in Russian! And I was embarrassed by George Bush 2.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Yes we live in times that are very difficult for translators! I agree with Lady Fi's comment too, translators make new literature

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...