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

218 Pages·1999·14.738 MB·English

by  Ruth Roland

INTERPRETERS AS DIPLOMATS
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PERSPECTIVES ON TRANSLATION
Series Director: Jean Delisle
INTERPRETERS AS DIPLOMATS
A Diplomatic History
of the Role of Interpreters
in World Politics
Ruth A. ROLAND
With an introduction by
Jean DELISLE
University of Ottawa Press
University of Ottawa Press gratefully acknowledges the support extended to its
publishing programme by the Canada Council, the Department of Canadian
Heritage, and the University of Ottawa.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the
Book Publishing Industry Development Program for this project.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Roland, Ruth A., 1922-
Interpreters as Diplomats: A Diplomatic History of the Role of
Interpreters in World Politics
(Perspectives on translation)
First published Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1982 under title: Translating
World Affairs.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7766-0501-1
1. International relations—Translating—History. 2. World politics—
Translating. 3. Translating and interpreting—History. I. Title. II. Title:
Translating World Affairs. III. Series.
JZ1305.R64 1999 327.1/01/4 C99-900616-9
Technical Assistance: Paule Ouellet
Cover Design: Robert Dolbec
Typesetting: Danielle Peret
Cover Picture: "The Ambassador's Arrival" by Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1455-1526).
Corel Photo Studio, "The Masters," Vol. VII, No. 566092.
Original Title: Translating World Affairs (Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Company, 1982)
University of Ottawa Press/Presses de 1'Universite d'Ottawa
"All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmit-
ted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy,
recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher."
ISSN 1480-7734
ISBN 0-7766-0501-1
University of Ottawa Press, 1999
542 King Edward, Ottawa, Ont., Canada KIN 6N5
[email protected]
http://www.uopress.uottawa.ca
Printed and bound in Canada
"Diplomacy is about making friends,
not losing them."
VERNON WALTERS,
The Washington Post,
December 16,1985
"What difficulties and misunder-
standings might not be avoided, and
how much time saved, by leaving
matters trustfully in the translator's
hands!"
FRIEDRICH VON GENTZ,
Diary,
September 1814
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction by Jean Delisle 1
Preface 7
CHAPTER 1
The Linguist of Ancient and Medieval Days 9
CHAPTER 2
Europe and the New World, to 1919 41
CHAPTER 3
East-West Confrontation: China, Japan, India 83
CHAPTER 4
From Versailles (1919) to the United Nations 121
CHAPTER 5
Outstanding Interpreters 157
Works Cited 175
Index 201
VII
TABLE OF FIGURES
1. Sarcophagus of a Dacian interpreter 22
2. Punishment of an unfaithful interpreter 36
3. Friedrich von Gentz 52
4. Sacajawea 75
5. The "Big Four" and interpreter Paul Mantoux 122
6. The Nuremberg Trial. Booth of the interpreters 129
7. Leon Dostert 131
8. Sir Winston Churchill, interpreter Arthur Hurbert
Birse and Joseph Stalin 159
9. Adolf Hitler, interpreter Eugen Dollmann and
Galeazzo Ciano 162
10. Constantin Andronikof and Danica Seleskovitch ... 163
VIII
INTRODUCTION
No matter who we are or where we live, we are all, thanks to
translation and interpretation, contemporaries of every histor-
ical period and citizens of every country. The author of this
work enables us to discover a collection of fascinating charac-
ters 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 trans-
lators 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 sub-
groups 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 trans-
late documents written in foreign languages before commer-
cial courts. They are also the only ones to serve as go-betweens
with foreigners.
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 inter-
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