Translators’ Talkfest

Tags

Haaretz, Herzliya, Israel Translators Association, The Marker, Wizard of Oz

 

Last year, for various reasons, the annual conference of the Israel Translators Association was not held. Consequently, this year’s event, which was held in Herzliya at the beginning of February, was eagerly awaited. The three-day programme comprised around fifty lectures and workshops, some of them held concurrently, interwoven with coffee and lunch breaks, as well as a cocktail party and gala dinner on the first evening. Since not every day of the event contained lectures that interested me, and also because of the rather high cost of the event, I elected to participate (at a reduced rate) on the last day only.

By coincidence or design (probably the latter), The Marker, the financial section of the Haaretz daily newspaper, ran an extensive article about translators and the Translators Association to coincide with the conference. The main theme of the article, as far as the reporter seemed to be able to gather from the individuals he interviewed, was the difficult life of the free-lance translator, who is underpaid and overworked, this being particularly acute if a translation agency is involved as intermediary. Free-lancers account for some 95 percent of all translators, while only a fortunate few – about 5 percent – are in salaried positions. One of the side-effects of this situation is that upon reaching retirement age many free-lancers find themselves obliged to continue working as their pensions are either non-existent or woefully inadequate.

Incidentally, translators of subtitles for movies and the TV screen are paid even more abysmally. Things have in fact reached such an abysmal state that these translators, who are no less skilled and expert than any other translator, are currently on strike. Whether this will achieve the desired result remains to be seen, but they are certainly supported by every self-respecting professional translator.

Another point raised in relation to the difficulties of being a translator was the widespread undermining of professionalism by amateurs, or as the headline to the article in The Marker phrased it, quoting one of the people interviewed: ‘Anyone Who’s Ever Set Foot Abroad Can Get up in the Morning and Decide That He’s a Translator.’

When I mentioned the translators’ apparent paucity of funds to one of the other translators at the conference he pointed out that a goodly number of them had nonetheless registered for the full-board three-day conference in a decent hotel, which would seem to undermine the poverty thesis put forward by the Association’s spokespersons.

Be that as it may, the one day of the conference that I attended provided a veritable smörgasbord of interesting lectures, to such an extent that I was obliged to forgo such fascinating subjects as the issue of filling lexical voids and the intricacies of translating electronic books in order to be able to attend the sessions on aspects of translating text allied with illustrations in the Wizard of Oz, tackling the niceties of translating financial statements, and the potential minefield that results in translation bloopers in the booklets that come with pieces of electrical or electronic equipment.

Deadlines are also a sore point for translators, many of whom frequently find themselves working at all hours of the day and night in order to meet the – often totally unrealistic – time-frame demanded by importunate agencies or project managers.

As well as opening one’s mind to new fields of interest and providing additional insights into familiar ones, the Translators Conference provides the lone translator with the opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones. The conferences are attended by translators from all over Israel, and it is heartening to see the many happy reunions between old friends and colleagues.

After all, the life of the translator is on the whole a lonely one. It may be interrupted from time to time by the occasional interesting phone call but consists primarily of interaction with the computer screen, thereby involving little face-to-face contact with other human beings. This probably suits most translators, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to remain in the profession, but even ‘lone wolves’ need human contact from time to time.

Nebraska – Not Only a Movie

Tags

Eldorado, Lincoln, Semadar cinema Jerusalem, University of Nebraska

 

We went to see the movie, ‘Nebraska,’ in Jerusalem’s Semadar cinema last Saturday afternoon. The auditorium, as well as the attached café, was full of secular Israelis of all ages and sizes enjoying the free-and-easy atmosphere there, untrammeled by the religious restrictions that characterize too many of Jerusalem’s cultural institutions.

 However, not everyone in the cinema, in fact probably nobody except us, had actually ever been to Nebraska, let alone lived there for a year. Some might have driven through it on their way from one coast to the other, but that doesn’t really count.

 We were at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, the state capital, during the 1984-85 academic year. The experience was one that has remained with all of us – parents and children alike – for good or for bad. We encountered people who were unbelievably kind, warm and welcoming, as well as weather that can only be described as catastrophic (arctic in winter, tropical in summer). Also, we were very happy to find that Nebraska is far from being a cultural desert, and we were able to enjoy several chamber and symphony concerts in Lincoln as well as in nearby Omaha.

 Watching the movie, it was amusing to see the all-too-familiar monotonous scenery, as well as the weather-worn, salt-of-the-earth faces and figures of the characters, many of whom were in fact local inhabitants, not professional actors. Even when they were being nasty to one another, the Nebraskans did it with a certain modicum of kindness, without rancor or evil intent. Oh, of course avarice played a role in the behavior of some of the characters, but underlying it was a fundamental sense of camaraderie and affection

 What we found particularly entertaining was the underlying concept of the film, namely, that for the somewhat confused and over-credulous old man who was the main character, Nebraska was perceived as some kind of Eldorado, a place where his dreams of riches would be fulfilled. In the event this does not happen, but in the course of his journey there, in the company of his son and other family members, he is exposed to the warmth and affection of those around him in a non-saccharine way, and that is something that is not always apparent in movies that are made in Hollywood. Perhaps that is the message of the film, namely, that the love of those around us, and our awareness of this, is the true pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

 All-in-all, we enjoyed the movie and can recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind that it is totally devoid of sex scenes and contains only a very small amount of not-very-violent violence.

Goodbye, Israel Museum

Tags

Bank of Israel, English-Language Publications, Intel

 

 

When my husband and I retired from our jobs about eight years ago (mine as Translator and Editor-in-Chief of English-Language Publications at the Bank of Israel, his as a senior engineer in Intel) we found that some of our spare time could be usefully spent by volunteering at the Israel Museum. We both entered what was then known as the Hosts program, in which we served as mobile information purveyors to visitors to the Museum.

Over the years the nature of our volunteering work changed as the Museum grew and developed. We remained at our posts as the extensive renovations went ahead, then accepted our new duties – mine as a Team Captain at the Information Desks, Yigal’s first in the Restoration Laboratory then in the Israeli Art Information Center. In both departments his work was highly valued, and both of us were happy and proud to be contributing to one of Israel’s foremost cultural institutions.

Our association with the Museum was on the whole enjoyable. It connected us with other volunteers, who tended to be nice, intelligent people, as well as with visitors, who were generally pleasant to talk to and appreciated our assistance. The volunteers in charge of the various activities were usually congenial and helpful, without being too obtrusive. Nobody knew exactly how and why this person or that was nominated for whichever managerial task among the cadre of volunteers, but this hardly concerned us as we continued to perform our functions to what seemed to be general satisfaction.

But about a year ago things changed. A new person was appointed to head the volunteers’ activities. Little by little, the atmosphere changed as tales began to circulate about insulting remarks he had made to one person or another, volunteers who had been dismissed on flimsy grounds, and a deterioration in the general atmosphere. I found it hard to believe that he had actually told one of my fellow team-mates, a Ph.D. who had called the office to get some information, that she ‘was devoid of intelligence,’ and did my utmost to dissuade her from resigning.

Then I heard from another member of my team that he had spoken to her in a rather rude fashion when she told him she was unable to attend a meeting he had set at a time that clashed with some other regular activity of hers.

The incidents continued to accumulate. Another team-mate, this one also a Ph.D., was asked to prepare a series of three lectures for volunteers, the first one to be given in another week. After working long and hard preparing the material she was told in a casual conversation that her lectures had been cancelled. No reason or explanation was given. My colleague was initially very hurt and insulted, as is only natural, but then decided very nobly that she was actually rather relieved.

Other colleagues were told after many years of devoted service to the Museum that their services were no longer required because they were too old. Too old! If only young people had the time and resources to devote to volunteering that would, of course, be ideal. But unfortunately it’s usually only possible to volunteer when one is no longer working in paid employment.

The last straw for me was when my husband was told by the ‘Volunteers Council,’ an unelected body of appointees, that his volunteering services would no longer be required. Outrageous calumnies and the distortion of facts were given as grounds for this decision. My husband is a person of absolute integrity and has a strong character that is outstanding in its honesty and decency (yes, of course I’m biased), and it seems that these qualities were not to the liking of the people heading the volunteers organization.

And so, in protest at the way my husband has been treated, I have resigned from my position as a volunteer in the Israel Museum. And so has at least one other member of our team.

Our association with the Museum has not ended, as we will continue to renew our membership annually and enjoy the exhibitions and events held there. We are both busy with many other activities, but it was not in this way that we wished to end our years of volunteering at the Israel Museum..