Apparently an interpreter working for a company (Lesley Howard Languages) hired by CNN made a slip on Saturday, saying Iran has the right to build nuclear weapons, instead of saying that Iran has the right to nuclear energy, and that “a nation that has civilization does not need nuclear weapons.” (CNN.com report – thanks to Patrick).

bq. The translation company, Lesley Howard Languages, apologized to CNN.
“Obviously, we’re taking it very, very seriously. We will never use him again,” owner Lesley Howard said, referring to the interpreter.
She said the same interpreter, who like other interpreters is contracted for individual projects, has done good work in the past, including for CNN.

For those not in the know: Lesley is the usual spelling for a woman’s name, and Leslie for a man (as in the case of Leslie Howard who played Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, and Henry Higgins in Pygmalion). Of course, not all parents know that.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, the military version of The Way to Amarillo (videoclip).

Hot off the press comes this report of last November: the Crime Writers Association awarded the Golden Dagger to Silence of the Grave, by Arnaldur Indridason (German Todeshauch – see krimiblog.de). It was translated into English by Bernard Scudder. But in future, translations will not be allowed. (This has nothing to do with the new sponsor, Duncan Lawrie Private Bank, after whom the prize is being renamed the Duncan Lawrie Dagger):

Books in translation present a particular problem. Are we rewarding the original writer or the translator? The problems of catching idiom and ‘voice’ in one language and reproducing this in another are formidable. The role of the translator is more creative than that of simply transcribing from one language into another. We are therefore actively seeking a sponsor for an award that will recognise the contribution of the translator and hope to make an announcement as soon as possible.
The Duncan Lawrie Dagger is the world’s premier award for new crime fiction. Last year there were over two hundred entries for its predecessor, the Gold Dagger. The introduction of the new Duncan Lawrie Dagger will almost certainly increase the entry again.
The decision to exclude translations is in no way jingoistic: this Dagger is open to anyone writing crime fiction anywhere in the world, as long as the book is written in English and published in the UK.

Guardian article of November.

Carol Bennett’s Dictionary of Insurance has come out in the second edition (first edition was 1992).

This was recommended on the LIFT mailing list (ITI legal and financial translators). Apparently Witherby’s Insurance Dictionary (1997, still available from the publisher) is the standard.

I don’t like to be fussy, and the dictionary is scarcely less worth having for it, but I had to read Bennett on the tube to Nuremberg as the Fürther Nachrichten machine had iced up, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many typos and errors in cross-referencing in five minutes except in my own materials for students. What is the editor doing?

The required minimum margin entry referred to FSA (qv). But there is no entry for FSA, only for Financial Services Authority (FSA). Adventure had a cross-reference to marine adventure, but the entry was on maritime adventure. Then my eye was caught by Marital law at the top of the page, but the reference was really to Martial law.

This should not be interpreted as meaning that I spend all my time looking for mistakes.

Bonn Blawg reports:

bq. I just finished drafting the claim before it was statute-barred. Since the claimant is a foreign entity in an English-speaking country, and the defendant (and its Denglish lawyers) prefer to use English, I attached the exhibits in English. And I mentioned that I assumed the court understood English. But that turned out to be a bad idea: the presiding judge explained tersely that regardless of my assumptions, the language of the court is German. So that means more money for the translator. Or for me, if the presiding judge should happen to trust my translation.

Britische Botschaft: Fußballseite zur WM (deutsch).

The British Embassy in Berlin presents information online on the World Cup, in particular a PDF German-English football (soccer) glossary that looks promising. Extract:

|Abseitsstellung (f)| off-side position| Ein Spieler befindet sich in Abseitsstellung, wenn er der gegnerischen Torlinie näher ist als der Ball und der vorletzte Abwehrspieler = A player is in an offside position if he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than the ball and the second last opponent|
|Beinschuss (m)| nutmeg| Er verpasste seinem Gegner einen Beinschuss = He nutmegged his opponent|
|Der Ball ist rund| The ball is round| Quote by the former German national coach Sepp Herberger, meaning that this is the only certainty in the game of football and anything else can happen|

From Computer Active, 5 – 18 January 2006, via Karen at www.flefo.org (actually, here’s the article itself)

The Daytona Beach Newsjournal has an article about an unsatisfactory interpreter, her lack of qualifications and the problems of selecting court interpreters. I hope it will remain available, but just in case, here is some:

Unable to speak English, Juan Ramon Alfonzo stood before a judge and expected to receive probation for stealing a toolbox.
To his surprise, the judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison, followed by 15 years of probation, for stealing a dump truck valued at $125,000.
Now, court officials agree Alfonzo entered the wrong plea because his court-hired interpreter, Marianne Verruno, provided an incomprehensible translation.
Two weeks ago, a circuit judge tossed out his plea and sentencing to allow Alfonzo to start the court process over.
“Ms. Verruno is far from being fluent in Spanish,” an expert interpreter wrote in a report to the judge. “She may be conversant enough for social situations but her Spanish is not minimally adequate to interpret in a court of law.”

(The article goes into more detail on the dump truck / toolbox story). And on the subject of qualification:

Local court officials say they cannot recall another complaint about bad translations. A federal accrediting association, however, says Florida may be vulnerable to similar problems. It is one of several states in the nation that do not require court-appointed interpreters to pass a skills test and be accredited by the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators. …

Court records indicate Verruno was required only to fill out a one-page application to be hired as a court translator. On it, Verruno wrote she was fluent in Spanish and aphasia — the ability to translate for people unable to speak, such as stroke victims.

I suppose it takes an extreme case for lawyers to notice the problems.

The expert, Maria Cecilia Marty, evaluated transcripts from the court’s digital recording in English and Spanish, and said the interpretation did not make sense.
“The interpretation was so highly deficient, (Alfonzo) never even got to the part about his right to go to jury trial,” Marty said in a telephone interview. “Maybe, if he got 5 percent of what was said, he was lucky. “