The irreplaceable art of translation
As long as people joke, swear and use irony, computers will never take the place of translators
Captain Leigh and His Dragoman by David Wilkie. Credit: Alamy
Some people are easier to interpret than others. Churchill’s meandering sentences would often trip up his translators, and USSR leader Khrushchev’s idioms baffled American listeners during Cold War negotiations. While a defendant at Nuremberg, Göring would try to catch prosecutors out by insisting translators repeat themselves and feigning incomprehension.
Dancing on Ropes tells the stories of translators through history. Anna Aslanyan compellingly recounts the verbal exploits of the Ottoman dragomans and the miscommunications during Brexit negotiations, weaving in anecdotes from her experience as a Russian-English interpreter and translator.
How to make the Northern Ireland Protocol work
Both the UK and the EU must show flexibility June 9, 2021
Agreeing a mutual recognition principle for sensitive UK goods sold in Northern Ireland only is the best way forward. Photo: Radharc Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Few people on either side of the Channel believed Brexit was “done” last December when negotiations concluded with a last-minute deal. But in recent months, Britain and the EU have fallen out with a bitterness exceeding most expectations As both parties prepare for fresh talks this week, tensions are as high as ever.
At the heart of this conflict is Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit status. The “protocol,” which requires checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland in order to avoid a hard Irish land border, has been contentious since the start of the new year. But…
University challenge, round 2
Despite now paying big fees, students know it makes sense to study, and most do. The remainder need even more expansion which can also save left-behind towns
Photo: eogphotos / Alamy Stock Photo
I am a great believer in admitting your mistakes in government. Looking back, a particularly big one was the 50 per cent target for young people progressing to university, set by Tony Blair in 1999. This caused intense controversy, still ongoing, with cries about “dumbing down” universities and undervaluing non-university options.
I now admit that the target was wrong. We should have set it higher.
For 50 per cent was achieved last year and we are now heading north although few realise it despite the fact that five years after the target was set, tuition fees of £3,000 a year were…
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Esther Freud: “In the end a writer has to sit down and actually do it”
The novelist on the horrors of the past, the people she most admires and whether you can teach her craft
What is the first news event you can recall?
I grew up in the country as part of a Rudolf Steiner community no television, very little modern history and although we must have had a radio I don’t remember ever hearing the news. But I was 15, in London visiting my father (the painter, Lucian) who bought every newspaper every day, and there, splashed across the pages of a colour supplement, were photographs of the genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. I was stunned. How could such atrocities take place? How was it possible for human beings to behave…