Convergences: Studies in the intricacies of interpretation/translation and how they intersect with literature

by Dr. Nabil M. Abdel-Al

Overview

This anthology constitutes an amalgam of the author’s output in the domains of interpretation, translation, and literary criticism over the years. It is a serious attempt to highlight the cardinal traits they have in common. This research reflects my personal vested trek into the inner workings of my current breadwinning profession (interpretation and translation), as well as my continuing and standing engagement with literary genres throughout the ages. Its uniqueness stems from the premise that it contains matters interrelated in more ways than one, although on the surface it appears to make up a queer admixture of different elements—hence the title, Convergences. Interpretation and translation are twin vocations, and between them, convergence is all encompassing. They are complementary and mutually supportive; they do not clash but overlap, indeed reinforce each other. Interpretation is the instantaneous, the simultaneous, in a word the express mode of communication; and translation is the meditative, the slow or the local medium of correspondence. They perform the same task of transforming a message from a source to a target language. However, there is a train of difference in the method of practicing these two inseparable professions: the mechanism used in performing them as well as in bringing the final product out to the clients for consumption. Literature, on the other hand, is the crucible for all types of teleologically permeable convergences and incredible divergences. It has a noble ontological message and brings out humanity’s hidden treasures, experiences, thoughts, and choices. It also portrays people’s elusive emotions, misery, happiness, social phenomena, and ticklish domestic affairs. The factual intent behind literature’s lofty missive is grounded in understanding the scenes, events, and characters it depicts. This in turn revolves around the multiple interpretations that they elicit from the readership in general. As a matter of course, literary topics lend themselves to a bonanza of interpretations—fictional, religious, lexical—depending on their surrounding circumstances and the context in which the texts are couched.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781524600785
Publisher:	AuthorHouse
Publication date:	05/25/2017
Pages:	536
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.19(d)

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CHAPTER 1

Interpretation/Translation: the indispensable prosthetics of an indivisible profession

An Interpreter in the Making: a Personal Journey of Challenge and Evolution (interpretational apprenticeship)

Where am I to start and how to end? What is my point of departure? That is the question anyway, the $1000+ question. No wonder the specter of Hamlet still hovers around us, indeed haunts us every time we hasten to hone after the hero's horrific hamartia. Sometimes it is less difficult to start a family than to touch on so diffuse, so loose, and ticklish a topic as interpretation with its teasing ramifications. The concept, rather the craft, of interpretation as an art in its entirety revolves around stepping up to the challenge embodied in the capacity to unravel linguistic conundra, remove intellectual hindrances and clear conceptual hurdles.

At an early stage, when I began studying English at the prep and secondary schools in Upper Egypt, I had a penchant for memorizing vocabulary of all sorts, a craving for polysemous words and expressions. Destiny had it that I would enter Faculty of Al-Alsun, Department of English, where the material to be covered was enough to quench the thirst of any yearning student. Fortunately or unfortunately, our education system in Egypt somehow induces learners of foreign language(s) to equate them with Arabic, i.e. as soon as we acquire English terms, we collate them immediately, if not automatically, with their equivalents in our mother tongue. The danger lies in memorizing Arabic equivalents from English/Arabic dictionary, which are not necessarily accurate all the way through. At times, this is misleading as it gives rise to serious errors in comprehension and usage, e.g. the term "expletive" is translated in Arabic into "tautology" where in English it basically denotes a senseless word for swearing and expression of violent feeling; oath or curse: "DAMN," "scram it". It is an exclamatory word or phrase, esp. one that is obscene or profane.

With time's onward march, and probably because I was born and raised in a harsh environment fraught with physical skirmishes and verbal wrangling, it was not possible to just get over my defiant nature and relinquish the apparently indomitable challenge embedded in translation. My linguistic ego swelled with age as well as with the swollen needs of time for bridging civilizational gaps and cultural disparities. I was drawn into satisfying an intellectual bent for learning English terminology by rote and aligning it with counterparts in my native tongue.

A freshman at Al-Alsun, my erstwhile youthful, restless ambitions of becoming an interpreter started to fall by the wayside. I sensed that translation was not my cup of tea, nor would interpretation be my forte. Hence, I became averse to studying either. The profession dealt me a disappointing blow. It was too tough for me to handle at that early stage. It necessitated cudgeling my brains and constituted a sore source of frustration. I realized full well then, as I do now, that it was, still is, a thankless job after all. Your audience takes you for granted. To do a good job is the order of the day; that is the bare minimum expected of a conceivably robot interpreter. However, once you do otherwise, woe to you, you only have yourself to blame, and foes and friends to tear you apart. If St. Augustine were able to read his work, he would not find occasion to constantly refer to Martial's epigram to Fidentius:

The work you recite is mine, 0 Translator But when you recite it badly, it begins to be yours

However, my desire to meet the challenge, in fact to seek out a challenge and proceed to encounter it was fomented by my study of Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Dr? Faustus, when I was a sophomore. A fervent votary of Marlowe, and by extension enamored of his objective correlative Dr. Faustus, the protagonist, I resolved, somehow impetuously, to emulate some aspects of his psychopathic personality; an upstart whose detestation of necromancy did not prevent him from specializing in it and surpassing all his contemporaries in that deplorable, indeed diabolical, domain. That erratic notion topsy-turvied my feelings and reversed my decision altogether. I made up my mind to change course, study interpretation and translation not necessarily to excel over others but to do well in the field. In other words, the stunning trait of my academic paragon replenished my determination to press ahead with my first MA in Interpretation and Translation, a course of study that was not to my liking, but turned out to be most rewarding when it comes to wrestling constantly with the challenge of which I was in pursuit earlier.

Is it sufficient to obtain an MA in Interpretation and Translation? In theory and for the sake of satisfying pedagogical requirements, that is fine, but, in practice, not at all. To meet the challenge, ideally one cannot rest on one's laurels having just fulfilled the educational aspect of the equation which becomes academic. It simply turns into an ethereal, theoretic exercise that fades away if not backed up by on-the-job training, which in turn translates into practical, hands-on experience. Knowledge of Zeitgeist, the spirit of time and awareness of the ethos of the people and the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment which reforms the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society, dominant assumptions of a people or period is a sine-qua-non for transmitting a message accurately and effectively.

In 1982, having completed the requisites of an MA in said sphere, an unexpected opportunity loomed on the horizon. At the time, the Arabic section of the Interpretation Service, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York initiated an interpreter trainee program. Having just emerged from the MA intensive course of study, I was lacking live experience. For me, that was once in a lifetime. No agency would recruit fresh graduates as fully fledged staff interpreters with little or no exposure. Along with eight other trainees, I passed the aptitude test. We were admitted to the aforesaid training program. We were not instructed to do simultaneous interpretation at the commencement of the training course. Rather we were engaged in at sight interpreting, and here the importance of translation became quite visible.

Translation and interpretation are bound by an inextricable nexus. They are like an odd couple with common destiny, inseparable from each other and indispensable to each other, regardless of whether they are having matched or unmatched libidos. Interpretation is a species of that genus called translation. There is no skipping translation to specialize in interpretation. All fields of study revolve around the written matter. We had to familiarize ourselves with the terminology in vogue as well as the topics in question through studying the Book of Decisions and Resolutions Step by step, we were introduced to sight and consecutive modes of interpretation. Then, we were made to listen to tapes of speeches recorded from actual meetings. Eventually, we had to go into the booth and face the bugbear, the daunting challenge. At first, our seniors and betters kept company with us to the extent possible inside the booth. They monitored and guided us throughout the different stages of training.

Finally, we had to fend for ourselves, to stave off that monster known as stage fright. Overcoming stage fright is an interpreter's nightmare, especially in the course of the initial phases of his interpretational formation, where he is frequently faced with zugzwang. Phasing out that type of fear requires scholarly fortitude, daring intellect as well as bold personality. Fear is an indivisible part of our life. It never peters out until doomsday. We should not allure ourselves into believing that gainsaying it will help eliminate it. What hobbles an interpreter's output, enervates him to the extent of paralyzing his thinking is fear of coming up with awkward constructs and unintelligible units of the target language, which may trigger mordant criticism and questioning of his eligibility and professionalism. To grapple with this harrowing challenge, preserve his professional pride, an interpreter needs that sort of courage which Mark Twain defines as "resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." If fear is allowed to take control of an interpreter while performing his duty, it will be incapacitating, sapping and most likely, it will end up undermining his self-esteem. Fear puts the person in an uncompromising position once it sinks in because it causes panic, attracts attack of all sorts, mostly unpredictable. Stage fright emanates from absence of experience, lack of practice, paucity of exposure or a combination thereof.

A would-be interpreter must possess basic indispensable implements to help him carry out rendition into the target language soundly and smoothly. He, first and foremost, needs self-confidence to stay the course, to be resilient, to be a long-breath fighter, to remain calm, cool, collected and composed. An interpreter needs to have the gravitas to have a good sense of the self. Stage fright continues to hound an interpreter for an extended period of time. No matter how long or how solid an interpreter's practical experience is, he ought to acknowledge that his professional build-up or rendition-al molding is an open-ended process. There is no end in sight to new technological advances and scientific inventions, social turmoil, economic fluctuations and upheavals on the political landscape. These factors engender fresh concepts and new terms come to the fore to describe them. Vocabulary begets vocabulary in the same manner as unprecedented events with unknown consequences take root and spread like wildfire. An interpreter must be up to date with variables on international arena. He also must be ready for any hidden eventuality. Every society has its own specificities that distinguish and sit it apart from others. This necessitates conceptual adaptation and linguistic alignment to cope with present day fast changing realities.

The same thing more or less holds true for interpreter/translator's absorption of the foreign language(s) he acquires and uses as a medium of communication. Each of these languages has its own unique qualities. Arabic, like Chinese, is considered exotic. It has no semiotic or semantic resemblance to any of the European languages. Rather, it has its own sacrament, a sacrosanct characteristic with mysterious signification. Translators and interpreters alike have the professional duty to unravel that mystique, to demystify that aura of mystery or the mystical power intrinsic to it. This conviction will help them cope with its inner workings, level with its linguistic intricacies and ingest the shades of meanings lurking therein. In this case there is no need to kill either the message or the messenger. This perception works as a safety valve against the commission of varied errors and misconceptions.

Working under pressure is yet another intractable challenge which requires self-confidence to surmount. Yet, excessive confidence, even if it lasts long, does not pay in the end because nothing should be taken for granted. Working under pressure signifies a major difference between interpretation and translation. When a translator is faced with a ruthless deadline, he works under stress. Conversely, an interpreter is invariably pressed for instantaneous delivery of a message that does not brook any delay. Thus, he can safely be said to be working under distress. Stress is good because it serves as a tensely motivating factor to speedily fulfill a purpose. Distress, on the other hand, is no good. It is (di = 2, double or dual stress). An interpreter has to be optimistic, not to get scared of his audience. He has to be rest assured that they are not there to get him. They are not his adversaries. Rather, they are an elite group who view him with utmost respect and understanding. He must do his level best to keep their trust undiminished, to always rise to their expectations. They want and expect him to give his best, not to stumble at every minor difficulty that comes his way. His domestic cares and personal mishaps are no concern of theirs. They await honest and scrupulous delivery of an intact, by no means emaciated, message.

The training period can be painful to many, especially those whose blunt reflex has not been sharpened appreciably to have them feel at ease when push comes to shove, those who get nervous when they lose track in their hunt for the right term, or their stock of synonyms is numbly inadequate that it does not come to their rescue when the pressing need arises. On the other hand, some view training as a pleasant chore, a fertile ground for those intent upon enhancing their learning potential and meeting tense moments with scholarly sobriety. At any rate, a tough examination constitutes a line of demarcation between an interpreter trainee and an interpreter per se. Close attention is paid to candidates' resilience, that is steady ability to carry on with the delivery of difficult and wordy speeches, cope with the speed, the tempo, avoid trepidation and shaky output. The board of examiners shows no mercy when it comes to candidates' commission of contresens. This is considered a tragic flaw, an incontestable eliminator. Two contresenses equal an interpretational death sentence. I used to liken interpreters' examination to the American driving license test. The slogan I proclaimed then was 'do whatever you wish, err as much as you may (of course not intentionally) before, and probably after, but certainly not on the test.' To pass a full-fledged interpretation examination is to pass the Rubicon. However in the end when everything is said and done, contresens is inescapable. Even the most veteran interpreters fall into it. An interpreter who is called in to replace another colleague is usually late and has to start interpreting as soon as he comes in. Exhausted and unaware of the tenor of the meeting, the purport of the items under discussion or the drift of the topics in question, he can easily fall prey to contresens. It is caused by infrequent mental distraction which deflects interpreter's attention away and leads his faculty of concentration astray. It can very well be the result of the speaker's heavy accent, horrible mispronunciation or frantic speed.

Moving from training with its informal nature, mock meetings, semi-absence of accountability, one-on-one guidance by superiors, positive criticism and decent counseling by senior proctors, who chaperone trainees, the irksome challenge ingrained in the profession takes a different tack altogether. From now on, an interpreter services actual meetings, works for real audience and the client is willy-nilly the boss. The challenge bifurcates into two aspects in the main, pedagogical and professional. At the pedagogical level, the standards of learning, that is, knowledge (know-how, expertise), understanding (ken, experimentation) and skill (expertness) come into play. A well-versed conscientious interpreter must be cognizant of the topic(s) under discussion through studying the documents, acquainting himself with the terminology, listening to the news and watching ongoing events all around. He further must display requisite skills: ability, springing from expertise, practice, aptitude and the like. He is duty-bound to demonstrate distinction and competence in performance, expertness, the capacity to extract succulent juice out of stinking smoked fish. In addition, understanding the surrounding atmospherics of the convocation, empathy with booth-mates, alertness to the difficulties of other colleagues in the other language cabins, picking up relay from him as well as catering to the needs of his customers are indivisible ingredients of the vexing challenges he encounters and the evolutionary process he passes through.

Concerning the professional dimension, it is equally significant, if not more in demand for the smooth functioning of the work at hand. Professionalism is the essence of the profession. One has to be punctual, helpful, available to assist his booth-mates in case they get stuck over a term, an expression, a proverb, need few drops of water to lubricate a dry throat, be accommodating, take over when they ought to prepare a difficult text, or fix an awkward translation, pay due homage to both genders, arrange documents and put speeches in order, jot down numbers and acronyms.

(Continues…)

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Copyright © 2017 Dr. Nabil M. Abdel-Al.
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Table of Contents

Preface, ix,
General Appreciation of the Book Convergences, xi,
Dedication, xiii,
Acknowledgements, xv,
Author's note, xvi,
Introduction, xvii,
Chapter One Interpretation/Translation: the indispensable prosthetics of an indivisible profession, 1,
Chapter Two Convergences vs. Divergences, 81,
Chapter Three Durrelliana (the Larry/Gerry Duet), 193,
Chapter Four The Faust Figure Languishing in Between, 257,
Chapter Five Multidimensionality in Literature, 333,
Chapter Six Materialism! What is New?, 409,
Chapter Seven Spirit of the Place (Deus Loci), 449,
Conclusion, 505,
The Author in a nutshell, 510,
Synopsis of the book, 510,