The League of Nations Interpreting for the League
[One of the miracles of the League is the way the interpreters reproduce long speeches without omitting any essential point. No one has had better opportunity than Mr. Cummings of observing their work on the spot.—ED: Spectator.] • I Havi never yet been able to discover exactly how inter- preters dO their work, and I have not found one who has been able to give any satisfying explanation himself of how he does it It is always something to marvel at but there is no aPparent Peculiarity about interpreters ; there seem to be no qualities obvionsly common to them all yet interpreting is the feature of Leakue meetings which first impresses delegates and Visitors ; it especially 'seethed to strike the imagination of the members of the League's Press Conference, which included so many men who knew something about the
reproduction of speeches and interviews. Lord Burnham, the President, specially alluded to what he described as "the
remarkable perforMance of the -interpreters, and Lord Riddell, Who has not the easy command of Freneh that Lord Burnham possesses, was even more emphatic on the subject.
There is about it, of course, a novelty which attracts attention ; speeches are not interpreted at home—at leaSt not in the same way It Would be difficult for some people to listen to a speech of an hour's length in their own language and immediately and fluently repeat the substance of it even in the same tongue: It is infinitely more difficult to interpret iii a similar way from another language. That is what the interpreters do without noticeable hesitation for a word or phrase, and though they give, not a verbatim report but what might be called a full summary, they do it in the first person, Which means that it is not a summary in their own words but in the words of the speaker. It may not appear so difficult with a lucid, plain speech such as Sir Austen Chamberlain makes, but it is • very different with speeches containing flowing rhetoric or subtle diplomatic implications. The care with which this has to be done may be illustrated by a mis- understanding from which Mr. Ramsay MacDonald suffered when, as Prime Minister, he first addreSsed the Assembly. He referred cautiously and in quite general terms to the fixing of war responsibilities without application to any . particular war ; it was a diplomatic way of touching on a delicate point upon which the French were extremely sensitive. The French interpreter gave the observation as applying specific- ally to responsibilities for .the Great War, and the subsequent correction in the verbatim record was treated by French journalists as a transparent effort to tone down the excite- ment which the reference had caused. Nothing would convince them otherwise, but there was no doubt about what Mr. MacDonald had said. If he had been able to follow the French interpretation with the same close attention that Sir Austen Chamberlain gives, no doubt he would have corrected the interpreter.
It is still more difficult, of course, when the orator has a poor command of either English or French, and there is a story, for the truth of which I will not vouch, that after a speech delivered by an Asiatic delegate both the English and French interpreters jumped up to interpret it ! This gives an indication of the resource with which interpreters do their
work, and another little side-light, nearer objective truth, pis the fact that not infrequently an interpreter will start repeating a few sentences of a speech in the same language in which it was delivered before the laughter and perhaps a hint from one of his colleagues make him aware of what he is about. This seems 'to show that the actual interpretation' goes on,
not as the interpreter is listening to the speech, but as he is delivering it. All interpreters refuse to consider that there is any mystery about the job. It requires, they say, mental alertness, a good memory, a thorough knowledge = of the languages concerned, some general culture, an acquaintance with the subject and the 'documents under discussion—and practice. Whether they practise in secret before they make
their public debut I• do not know, -but, though I have known several of them -improve in every respect, I have heard none of them make a really bad performance at the beginning. The most that any of them do to assist their memory -is- to .
scribble down the main points in longhand ; none of them writes shorthand, and they all say, that to have so detailed' a record befOre. them would hamper rather than help. In fact, they are always more halting when they have the text of a speech or resolution in their hands and translate with the ipsissinta verbs before them. • - - If ,the fluency and accuracy of interpreting are- impressive in Council and Assembly meetings, they are still more so in technical committees where experts discuss complicated
questions in their own terms. Time after time one inter- Preter will do the whole business, that is to say, will interpret Freneh speeches into English and English into French. I
have, in fact, heard one of the English interpreters, Captain Russell, translate not only French into English and English into French, but also German and Spanish into French, and all on a technical question. This is obviously no fool's job, and it is exhausting. At Council meetings it is not quite so bad, but the regular English interpreter there, Colonel Wade, who is one of the most fluent and distinct of all the interpreters, has an exacting task owing to the fact that most of the members of the Council speak in French with the exception of Sir Austen Chamberlain and Dr. Stresemann. Dr. Stresemann, if he has to make any considered statement, does so in German and has to provide his own interpreter into French or English. The other regular interpreter at the Council meetings is Dr. Parodi, who, I believe, has both Italian and French blood, and he, too, is most efficient at the work. He is responsible for the translation of all Sir Austen Chamberlain's public utterances in the Council, and Sir Austen follows every word to see that what he has said .is correctly reproduced. This does not appear to upset Dr. Parodi's balance, but interpreters tell me that the one thing calculated to throw them out of their stride is to be interrupted when a speaker considers a correction necessary. One feels this rather strongly in watching a distinguished Italian interpreter, Madame Agresti, who seems to take no notes whatever but sits pensively by and then gives a faithful summary, her manner suggesting that she is entirely oblivious to her surroundings and subject only to her memory.
There have been occasions when, at the conclusion of an interpreter's effort, he has received more applause than the
original orator. It is true this is sometimes due to the language of the interpreter being more generally understood, but it has also been due often to a more emphatic delivery.
On one occasion this perhaps was a little overdone. The late M. Leon Bourgeois, who was one of the leading advocates of the League in France when the League was not too popular there, addressed the Assembly several years ago on the subject of the League's scheme for the financial reconstruction of Austria, which was just then being launched. M. Bourgeois was becoming physically enfeebled, and, in tones far from decisive, cautiously balanced up the chances for and against success, concluding with a prudent hope that if all necessary precautions were taken they might soberly, if not too sanguinely, anticipate ultimate success. The interpreter, with resounding thumps on the rostrum, announced in ringing tones : " The honourable delegate of France says we have got to see this—thing—through ! "
To the same interpreter is attributed a terse and lively summary of a statement by the chairman of one of the Commissions, who gave a circumlocutory description of the stage of the agenda which had been- reached, and informed the members of the next item which would be taken when they reassembled after lunch. It was all elegantly done, but the members, who knew all about it, began to collect their papers and to rise from their seats, so the interpreter met the occasion by the following succinct summary: "The Chairman says, unless we adjourn now, we shall be late for lunch I It is not often, however, that sittings are relieved by bright incidents of this kind, and it can be a little trying to .sit through meetings where every speech, so to, say, is delivered twice. It is especially trying for those familiar with both official languages, but interpreting im essential, and the wonder is that it is so efficiently done. II, R, Cumrdp19.8,..
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