Lost In Translation

by tristero

There are those (heh heh) who think I’m picking on poor Ken Pollack ’cause he never bothered actually to become a Middle East expert before marketing himself as one. They think that fluency in a country’s language is optional in order to demonstrate expertise in a country’s culture.

Okay, my friends, try translating this into Farsi. Hell, I can’t even translate it into recognizable English:

President Bush said Wednesday the verdict rejecting the death penalty for al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui ‘represents the end of this case but not an end to the fight against terror.’

Without commenting directly on the jury’s decision, Bush declared, ‘Evil will not have the final say. This great nation will prevail.’

I have absolutely no idea what Bush is talking about.

Who ever implied that the “fight against terror” would “end” with the sentencing of Moussaoui? And what does a man receiving life imprisonment have to do with “evil” having the final say, or not having the final say? And how did evil have the penultimate say here? And what’s this about prevailing? Prevail against what? A man spending the rest of his life behind bars? The future of the United States is somehow called into question by the verdict? What on earth is Bush talking about?

Okay, I’m exaggerating. I do think I understand the remarks. Bush is saying to his fans – one of out three Americans, even now, can you fucking believe it? – that he thinks the jury was infested with liberals and they let him off the hook; Zac should be whacked.

But really, that interpretation doesn’t begin to do justice to the extremely weird way in which he said it – a fusion of mealy-mouthed Biz Speak, government double-talk, and American fundamentalist claptrap. And it’s just as important that Bush left things out, like, for example, a mention of the actual decision – life imprisonment. I’m sure you guys can find numerous other subtleties, but these will do for starters. Read more of the Bush remarks in the article to get a sense of how peculiar they all are.

There simply is no way in hell – none – that the uniquely bizarre nature of these comments – and their implications- can be crisply translated into, say, Arabic. You’ll inevitably lose the sense of vertigo Bush’s perversion of the English language induces, not to mention the cynical manipulation hidden within the remarks. The important cultural context is lost without access to the original language. Bottom line:

You need to understand Bush and explain him to the leaders of your country? You’ll personally need to read his remarks in the original. Need to understand Ahmadinejad to explain to the leaders of our country? Ditto.

QED.

[UPDATE: Correspondent WBC writes, ‘Okay, I translated it to Farsi and then back into English just to measure any loss in the translation. I think you’ll agree, nothing was lost. It translates to:

“We will continue our crusade with or without this death.” ‘]