More About Translation

When the meeting began last evening, a woman reluctantly came to the front to interpret.  Jeff introduced the team and the purpose of the retreat.  As he did, the poor lady had difficulty putting his words into their words.  But when she struggled for a concept, several of the listeners would help her with the right word.  This was amusing, because obviously many of them can understand English.  Made me wonder about the need for a translator.

However, the poor lady’s problem continued, and when Jeff prayed, a man in the front row got up and took the mic from her in mid-prayer.  For those who had their eyes shut it was a bit of a surprise to hear, all of a sudden, a masculine voice.

The new interpreter, a man named after the third king of Israel, would gaze intently at Tom’s face while he spoke and then turn to us with the translation.  And, as it had been with the woman who’d preceded him, if he paused to search for the right word, he received help from the audience.  Again I thought, Do we really need an interpreter?  “Group interpreting” is what Jeff called it; but no one could help when Tom, who was using as his text Philippians 3 (Paul’s attitude toward the things he’d formerly considered important in his life), used the word “garbage.”

The translator silently looked at Tom with questioning eyes.  No one in the audience said anything.  Tom tried “rubbish, refuse, trash” to no avail.  He finally said, The stuff you have lying all around along the roads in piles.  (I’ve mentioned in the past how much trash and rubbish and garbage there is here.  We saw cows and dogs rooting around in it for sustenance during our ride down through the city to this site.)  Still no word was forthcoming.  It took quite an effort from everyone, dark and light-skinned alike, to come up with a meaningful word or phrase, and who knows if we succeeded.

It was perhaps the most amusing thing that’s happened to this point:  helpful words every time the interpreter stumbled, but absolute silence about the one thing that is most pervasive here.

At least we team members all thought it was funny.