Dancing on Ropes: Final Report

I have finished reading this book quite some time ago, but I never got to writing a post about it (big surprise). Since I’m not a huge fan of leaving things unfinished when I start something new (like my second PR book), here it is — my impressions of “Dancing on Ropes: Translators and the Balance of History” by Anna Aslanyan.

To begin with, this book came in surprisingly handy since the time when I was reading it coincided with the time when I desperately needed some inspiration in this field. I’m incredibly glad that I picked this very book because it gave me much insight into the industry and familiarized me with the history of translation.

So, what is this book?

“Dancing on Ropes: Translators and the Balance of History” by Anna Aslanyan is a non-fiction book that explores translators’ role in shaping our understanding of history and culture. The book discusses the complex process of translation, which involves not only the conversion of language but also the interpretation of meaning and context, along with all the things that can (and will) go wrong during the process.

Aslanyan examines various historical events and literary works that have been translated and retranslated over time, like the Bible. She also looks at the role of translators as cultural intermediaries, highlighting the challenges they face in bridging the gap between different cultures and languages. The book even discusses the ways in which translations have been used to manipulate history and promote certain ideologies, as well as the ways in which translators have challenged dominant narratives and opened up new possibilities for understanding and appreciating other cultures.

The structure of the book gives the reader an opportunity to learn more about certain aspects of translation (mainly interpretation) without having to read every chapter one after the other. Each chapter is supplied with interesting real-life stories or examples that support the main idea.

Here are some ideas that I found eye-opening or which seemed thought-provoking to me:

1. When interpreting, you have to make a difficult choice: to remain invisible or to take the initiative; to paraphrase or not.
2. UN interpreters nowadays insert the red flag “The distinguished speaker says” to stress who is responsible for any potential blunders. It is also advisable to avoid the first-person pronouns used by the speaker.
3. Due to this usage of first-person pronouns, some people might instinctively perceive you, the interpreter, as the speaker rather than a conduit, and there might occur situations where you will be the one yelled at (for example) instead of the actual speaker.
4. Unfortunately, the lowest bidder takes all. This is extremely sad because it seems like translators are doing themselves a disservice and dumping the overall service prices.
5. You have to remain as neutral as possible when it comes to non-verbal language because the audience might find it distracting.
6. If you don’t know how to translate something, “take heart and stumble on.” This can be applied to any sphere of life, actually, and it has become something that I practice.
7. Surprisingly, hunger is a professional hazard, and there is a fine line between overeating and being hungry, both of which can impede the quality of translation. What if you faint or you are so full that it makes you drowsy? As Dollmann aptly put it, “a wise interpreter either eats a little beforehand or a lot afterwards.”
8. It can happen that you will have to translate for a dictator or a criminal, or somebody that you really have no respect for. The book assures us that it is similar to translating for anyone, and it’s crucial that your personal belief system or perception of them doesn’t affect your work. With that said, you should remain impartial. Apart from that, the author gives a good piece of advice: sometimes “the best way to assert yourself against a dictator is to disregard their words.” (Of course, not when you’re in the middle of translating them)
9. Sometimes you’ll have to interpret an objection to the accuracy of your interpretation :)
10. The equipment for simultaneous interpreters is based on the same principle as the one used at Nuremberg, and the quality is said to be questionable.
11. A good quote that I love is “There is no text that cannot be translated; there are only texts that have not yet found their translators.”
12. Most likely I will never be able to translate poetry since I’m not a poet myself. The book gives a hypothesis that “poetry is what gets lost in translation,” which I partly agree with. I think that it creates new poetry and is a separate form of art.
13. The Bible played a huge role in developing machine translation.
14. The author said, “Yet even if I were completely innocent of any errors…, I’d still be amazed at the trust many of my clients place in me,” and I felt it.
15. Front-line translators risk their lives but rarely get any acknowledgment or help from the government. They could even end up becoming the enemy for both sides of the conflict.

I could honestly give at least 20 more other points that I highlighted for myself, but I wanted to cherry-pick the ones that would be most interesting for those with limited knowledge of the industry.

Throughout the book, I also found a number of words that we learned in class or that I learned on Memrise, like florid, vicissitudes, affliction, conducive to, motley (was very surprised about this one), rapport, remuneration, chancy, pledge (support), interlocutor, telltale, tongue-in-cheek, abdicate, chasm. And it even talked a little about hedonism!

Since the book contains a variety of advanced words, I decided to create my own study set on vocabulary.com to practice those words and make them “mine.” Here’s a link if you’d like to check it out: https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/8815412.

Overall, “Dancing on Ropes” is a thought-provoking exploration of the power of translation and the crucial role that translators play in shaping our understanding of the world. Anna Aslanyan definitely amazes me as a person. Considering the depth of the analysis of certain issues and the diverse examples she gives to support her views, I can only say that she is a true professional. It probably requires a lot of linguistic knowledge and expertise in many other spheres to be able to talk about such diverse matters so freely, and this translator sets a perfect example for aspiring professionals.