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54
Minaeva L.
Politician’s Verbal Image in Terms of Interlingual Communication
Premise
Public speech is for a politician a necessity which these days hardly anyone denies. While pursuing political goals the speaker has to rely more and more on his/her persuasion and negotiation skills and create his/her own verbal image which becomes part of the speaker’s individual image as a politician.
Today politicians can no longer be effective by merely making decisions and giving orders based on their position or rank in the party hierarchy. They have to rely more on their persuasion and negotiation skills. From this perspective, the perception of the politician’s verbal image becomes of paramount importance.
However, in cases when the politician’s speech is translated the process of the speaker’s perception is greatly affected by the translator who has frequently to modify the linguistic expression of the politician’s speech in order to make it more suitable to the expectations of the audience and the context of communication.
Politics and Linguistics
In spite of profound changes in technologies of communication we are witnesses of, communication itself remains rooted in and dependent on our ability to interact through language. For this reason very much attention is still attached to the study and effective use of language in various fields of human activity. Politics in this respect is in a class of its
own because, by and large, politics depends on the use of language to a great extent. 1 Certainly, language does not evolve solely for the purpose of politics but it is obvious that political activity does not exist without the use of language. Otherwise stated, political communication is embedded in politics regardless of whether the communication is purposeful or not2.
“If politics is about power, the holder’s possession of and readiness to exercise it must in some manner be conveyed to those expected to respond to it. If politics is about participation, this consists in itself if “the means by which the interests, desires and demands of the ordinary citizen are communicated to rulers. “If politics is about the
1Chilton, Paul A., Schaffner, Christina (eds.). Politics as Text and Talk - Analytical Approaches to Political Discourse. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 2002. Pp. 3-4.
2Stromback, Jesper and Kiousis, Spiro. Political Public Relations: Defining and Mapping an Emergent Field // Stromback, Jesper and Kiousis, Spiro (eds.), Political Public Relations. Principles and Applications. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, New York, London, 2011. P. 5.
legitimation of supreme authority, then the values and procedural norms of regimes have to be symbolically expressed, and the acts of government have to be justified in broad popular terms. And if politics is about choice, then information flows clarifying alternative policy options must circulate to those concerned with decisions, whether as their shapers
or as consumers of their consequences3.”
Hence the significance of political linguistics - the trend in modern linguistics which analyzes political language, that is the instances of language use which are aimed at performing the functions depending on various political activities. Their content is related to politics, political ideas, political controversies, etc4.
It should be emphasized in this connection that political language may come in many forms, both within a nation state and between nation states. As a result, political texts can cover genres such as political speeches, multilateral treaties, editorials, commentaries in newspapers, a press conference with a politician, a politician’s memoir, etc5.
However, one of the most important and useful ways of creating and promoting a positive individual image of a politician relates to the notion of public speech. Public communication supports effective leadership by allowing the politician to foster communication and understanding between people in order to help them more effectively accomplish their tasks and implement political decisions into practice.
“Besides, regardless of the specific purpose of a speech - and each one should be custom-made to fit the personality of the speaker, the occasion of the speech, and the composition of the audience - every speech has to give the audience confidence in the speaker. A speech allows the speaker to be accessible and make an emotional connection with the audience6”. Politicians are fully aware of this fact and therefore tend to speak a lot, they engage in political debates, address other party members at party meetings and conferences and journalists at press-conferences many of which are televised and the politician’s views become known to the public in their own country, and the politician becomes emotionally closer to the electorate.
3 Blumler, J. G. and M. Gurevitch. Toward a Comparative Framework for Political Communication Research // Chaffee, S. H. (ed.), Political Communication: Issues and Strategies for Research. Beverly Hills (CA): SAGE Publications,1975. Pp.167-168.
4 Burkhardt, Armin. Politolinguistik. Versuch einer Ortsbestimmung //Klein, Josef, Diekmannshenke, Hajo (Hrsg.). Sprachstrategien und Dialogblockaden. Linguistische und politikwissenschaftliche Studien zur politischen Kommunikation. Berlin/New York, 1996. S. 78.
5 Schaffner, Christina. Strategies of Translating Political Texts // Trosborg,Anne (ed.). Text Typology and Translation. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1997. P. 119.
6 Aronson, Merry, Spetner, Don. The Public Relations Writer’s Handbook, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1993. P. 61.
The setting in which all politicians have to operate is very special. Their speeches may be published in the mass media afterwards, because their purpose is to explain and justify political decisions. Some of them may be translated into other languages due to their importance to the world political agenda. Politicians are always the centre of attention and their speech is considered to be a political act because the words uttered by them, even in passing, may have serious political consequences. On the one hand, the politician is permanently under the control of society because the media transmit his/her words to the public and if the minister’s statement, for example, does not satisfy the public, he/she is severely criticized and under the pressure of the negative public opinion has to resign. On the other hand, the politician’s words may be incongruent with the official political course and he/she is simply dismissed (a case in point is the dismissal of the Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Aleksey Kudrin in October 2011 by President Anatolij Medvedev).
For the above reasons politicians have to be very cautious and, as a rule, important speeches which affect the political activity at the national or international arena are composed by a team of experts and speechwriters, that is, professionals who have special skills in the use of persuasive language. The politician’s role then is to make the speech public by reading it out loud. Therefore, a political speech is not necessarily a success because of correctness of truth, but of presenting valid argument and the politician’s public speaking skills.
It follows that although the politician’s verbal image inevitably depends on his/her own public speaking skills, the role of speechwriters cannot be overestimated. However, when the speech is over, the politician can be asked questions or it is necessary to make some additional comments, there is no text prepared in advance and the speaker has to rely exclusively on his/her knowledge and command of the language. It is no easy job especially if the situation is tense or the audience hostile. The speaker can get lost, start mumbling, or use some inappropriate word and thus spoil his/her own image. Still even in such situations the politician’s verbal image can be corrected if there is an interpreter by his/her side.
Speechwriters and translators work in different conditions when creating the politician’s verbal image. In the majority of cases the former have enough time to think over the logic of narration, valid argumentation, the emotional impact produced by the future speech, its idiom and structure. They go step by step creating the politician’s verbal image. The latter have to correct the politician’s speech mistakes practically immediately because they may ruin both his/her verbal image and even reputation.
Thus, for instance, when visiting Cambodia Klim Voroshilov (a Communist party leader in the 30-s-50-s) was shown a temple constructed in the 9-th century which was
decorated with golden statues of gods and wonderful stone carving. When he saw this beauty he mumbled a very rude phrase blaming his hosts of wasting money on good-for-nothing things. Naturally, his hosts asked the interpreter, “What did the esteemed guest say?” The interpreter did not hesitate for a second and “interpreted”, “Comrade Voroshilov is greatly impressed by the history of Cambodia and says that the rotten Western civilization is nothing in comparison with even a small finger of these statues7”. One can easily imagine the impact produced by Voroshilov’s original words on Cambodia leaders if the interpreter had rendered their exact meaning.
The Verbal Image of Russian Political Leaders and Translation Strategies
When translating political speech the translator has three strategies at his/her disposal. Firstly, the semantic strategy which is applied to informative texts when the translator aims at ensuring that both the original and the translation convey the same message. Secondly, the rhetorical strategy when the translator tries to find equivalents and would-be equivalents in the target language for every single stylistic element, rhetorical figure and is aware of cross cultural discrepancies. The translator managers the target text in order to achieve the same esthetic effect which is created by the source text. And, thirdly, the manipulating strategy when due to diplomatic reasons the translator adapts the target text to the values of the audience and the context of communication.
The semantic strategy can be illustrated by the following example:
Развитие региональной экономической интеграции - это стратегический выбор России. И мы будем реализовывать его, основываясь на согласованных интересах с партнёрами по Таможенному союзу и Единому экономическому пространству с учетом формирования Евразийского экономического союза. Хочу отметить (уже говорил об этом публично), что на Владивостокском саммите мы представляли не только свои, российские интересы и подходы, а опирались на согласованную позицию тройки: Россия, Казахстан и Белоруссия. Кстати говоря, и вы тоже об этом слышали, некоторые страны АТЭС проявляют уже прямой рабочий интерес к тому, чтобы сформировать особые отношения в рамках зон свободной торговли с Таможенным союзом, с Единым экономическим пространством. С некоторыми из этих стран переговоры вступают в практическую плоскость. Мы также считаем, что координация интеграционных усилий на евразийском и азиатско-тихоокеанском пространствах будет полезна для всех, и в
7Чужакин А., Палажченко П. Мир перевода или Вечный поиск взаимопонимания. М., 1999. С. 22.
перспективе можно говорить о выстраивании плодотворного диалога между участниками формирующегося Евразийского экономического союза и АТЭС с подключением других региональных объединений. (Vladimir Putin’s press-conference, September, 9, 2012)
The Russian text is saturated with the names of international organizations (“Евразийский экономический союз”, “Таможенный союз”), political abbreviations (“АТЭС”) and special economic and political terms (“Единое экономическое пространство”, “стратегический выбор”, “региональная экономическая интеграция”, “зона свободной торговли”, “согласованная позиция”, “интеграционные усилия”). There is also an allusion to an important political event (“Владивостокский саммит”). All these units have exact equivalents in the English language and present no problem for the translator:
The development of regional economic integration is Russia’s strategic choice. We will put it into action based on the agreed interests of our partners in the Customs Union and Common Economic Space and in line with the prospects of forming the Eurasian Economic Union. I want to note, and I have already spoken about this publicly, that at the APEC Leaders’ Week in Vladivostok we did not represent only Russia’s interests and approaches but relied on the consensus position of three states: Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Incidentally, and you have heard about this too, some APEC economies are showing an interest in building a special relationship within the framework of free trade zones with the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space. Talks on these issues have already reached the practical realisation stage with some of such countries. We also believe that the coordination of integration efforts in Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region will be beneficial for all, and in the future we can talk about building a fruitful dialogue between the emerging Eurasian Economic Union and APEC, with the involvement of other regional associations.
The situation is drastically different when the translator has to preserve the speaker’s individual style in the target language. In this case the translator turns to the rhetorical strategy and has to demonstrate competence in dealing with substandard lexis, idioms, false friends, metaphors, proverbs, connotative expressions, etc., on the one hand, and such figures of speech as rhetorical question, syntactic parallelism, etc., on the other, to achieve an adequate translation.
To preserve, for example, the idiolect of Vladimir Putin in the target language the translator turns to rhetorical strategy. For example, in his speech at the 43-d Munich Conference on the Policy of Security, when he addressed world political leaders and, especially in Q&A session following his speech Putin used many stylistically coloured devices, among which there was his favourite one - colloquial idiomatic phrases:
Надеемся, что и наши партнеры будут действовать также транспарентно и не будут откладывать на всякий случай, на «черный день», лишнюю пару сотен ядерных боезарядов. И, если сегодня новый министр обороны Соединенных Штатов здесь нам объявит, что Соединенные Штаты не будут прятать эти лишние заряды ни на складах, ни «под подушкой», ни «под одеялом», я предлагаю всем встать и стоя это поприветствовать. Это было бы очень важным заявлением.
We hope that our partners will also act in a transparent way and will refrain from laying aside a couple of hundred superfluous nuclear warheads for a rainy day. And if today the new American Defense Minister declares that the United States will not hide these superfluous weapons in warehouse or, as one might say, under a pillow or under the blanket, then I suggest that we all rise and greet this declaration standing. It would be a very important declaration.
In the above passage the speaker uses a well-known Russian idiom ‘откладывать на черный день’ which is equivalent to the English set-expression ‘to save for a rainy day’ meaning to save something, especially money, for a time when you will need it. As can be seen from the context, Vladimir Putin is speaking not about money, or something one needs every day but about nuclear warheads. The ironic tone of the statement is further intensified by two other phrases ‘прятать под подушкой’ (‘hide under a pillow ’), ‘прятать под одеялом’(‘hide under the blanket’). If the former is a cliched word-combination, quite commonly used, the latter is a ”variation on the theme” of concealing something aimed at intensifying the ironic tonality of speech. In translation the function of emphasizing these expressions is performed by the parenthetical phrase ‘or, as one might say ’.
The translator of Putin’s speeches has to be alert all the time and cautious in the selection of lexical items because even in his formal statements he uses many idiomatic phraseological units, some of them colloquial, for example,
Быть патриотом значит не только с уважением и любовью относиться к своей истории, хотя, безусловно, это очень важно, а прежде всего служить обществу и стране. Как говорил Солженицын: «Патриотизм -
чувство органическое, естественное. И как не может сохраниться общество, где не усвоена ответственность гражданская, так и не существовать стране, особенно многонациональной, где потеряна ответственность общегосударственная». Замечательные слова, не в бровь, а в глаз. (Address to the Federal Assembly, December, 12, 2012)
Being a patriot means not only to treat one’s national history with love and respect, although, of course, that is very important, but first and foremost to serve one’s country and society. As Solzhenitsyn said, patriotism is an organic, natural feeling. And as a society cannot survive without civil responsibility, so a country, especially a multinational one, cannot exist without a nationwide responsibility. These are remarkable words, they really bring it home.
Translators and interpreters frequently have to correct both the politician’s speech mistakes and politically dangerous remarks made in passing or inadvertently. The role of translators as mediators in political conflicts in the context of cross-cultural communications has been considered time and again8. The studies have proved that “the translators of political texts are often in the frontline: the way they translate texts will influence the reception of their translations and the political events associated with the texts in question. Therefore, the analysis of political texts by researchers must extend to the reception and, if possible, the political events closely connected to the translated texts in question9”.
When the interpreter corrects the speaker’s grammar or stylistic mistakes the orator’s verbal image is improved because good command of the language, developed speaking skills are an attribute of an educated and competent person. It will not be an exaggeration to say that Michael Gorbachev’s image in the West was to a great extent created by his speechwriters, translators and interpreters. His official statements were constructed by speechwriters and translated for the media by experienced translators, whereas his interviews and talks were rather rendered than translated.
Gorbachev’s idiolect could not but evoke laughter on the part of his Russian audience because he made stress mistakes, used colloquial grammar constructions and could hardly conclude his long periods. Gorbachev’s official interpreter P. Palazhchenko noted, “In
8 Tang, Jun. Encounters with Cross-cultural Conflicts in Translation //Salama-Carr, M. (ed.). Translating and Interpreting Conflict. Amsterdam - New York, 2007.
9Chilton, Paul. Translation Studies, Power and Ideology: Text Linguistic Trends in the Analysis of Political Discourse // Translation, Power and Politics. URL: Htth://www.filologia.hu/tanulmanyok/translation-studies-power-and-ideology-text-lunguistic-trends-in-the-analysis-of-political-discourse/minden-oldat.html
actual fact my task was to disentangle complex structures produced by Gorbachev and turn them into properly formatted phrases. To me it was fun because when interpreting I faced some problems which I had never faced before when working with other orators10”.
Gorbachev’s own speech was not quite grammatically correct and stylistically proper. Such flaws could be easily corrected (manipulating strategy) in the process of translation.
The situation is more complex when the politician’s individual style is incompatible with the official style of political discourse. A case in point is Vladimir Putin’s speech. Putin’s idiolect is fairly expressive, he frequently uses substandard, even vulgar expressions and colloquial idioms. More than that, he deforms idioms and enjoys the very process of playing upon words. Here are some extracts from his speeches which were collected by philologists and translators demonstrating this conspicuous feature of Vladimir Putin’s verbal image:
Мужики сачкуют, просто не хотят работать! Работать не хотят!
Men are just playing hooky, they simply don’t want to work.
Не Пыталовский район они получат, а от мертвого осла уши.
What they’ll get is not the Pytalovo district but the dead donkey’s ears.
Мы не убеждены, что будем замораживать счета, но вы замучаетесь пыль глотать, бегая по судам, пытаясь разморозить эти средства.
We are not sure that that we’ll freeze the accounts but you’ll have to run a round till you’re dead asking the courts to unfreeze these funds.
Почему у нас так не получается (как в ЕС)? Потому что, извиняюсь, всё сопли жуем и политиканствуем.
Why can’t we do it? Because, we are, sorry to say so, like suckers and playing politics.
Если бы у бабушки были другие, определенные половые признаки, она была бы дедушкой.
If grandma had different sexual organs she would be grandpa.
It should be emphasized in this connection that politician’s verbal image does not always meet the requirements of standard language. For example, it is well known that President Harry S.Truman was criticized for his use of the so called “salty language”. At that time the words "hell" and "damn" were considered to be vulgar and inappropriate in political speech. However, now it seems to become a characteristic feature of political language, at
10Чужакин А., Палажченко П. Op.cit.
least in the US. American journalists stress, that “while foul language has been uttered in politics before, the blue streak is making some wonder whether it reflects the coarsening effects of pop culture in this reality-TV era of "Jersey Shore" and "The Real Housewives," a decline in public discourse, a desire by politicians to come across as average Joes, or just a really hot summer11.” Robert Thompson (director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University) states, that the seeming proliferation of political swearing reflects changes in both social norms and the media landscape. "Politics has been nasty for years. The difference is we now have media that show this stuff12."
As far as Putin’s verbal image is concerned Mihkajlovskaja argues that in his
speeches Valdimir Putin generally is orientated towards the emotions of his audience irrespective of whether he is addressing professional politicians, journalists or citizens13. Below is a passage from a TV Q&A session, A Conversation with Vladimir Putin (15
December 2011) which proves it without a shadow of a doubt:
Я уже приводил этот пример. Это было, правда, давно. Шойгу как-то поехал в один из регионов России (Николай головой кивает, я им рассказывал) в сложный период зимний, когда один из населенных пунктов разморозился - то есть лопнули трубы, нужно было срочно выезжать и что-то делать. Приехал, встретился с местным руководством и говорит одному из начальников: поехали в этот город. Он говорит - не поеду. Почему? Меня побьют. Честное слово. Он говорит - как не поедешь, там же люди замерзают. Нет, не могу. Он его взял за шиворот, привез в помещение какое-то, из которого они должны были садиться на самолет или на вертолет и лететь дальше. Этот местный деятель сказал: я сейчас, в туалет мне нужно. Вышел, через черный ход покинул место дислокации и смылся. Просто скрылся, убежал, - и это уровень местной власти, понимаете!
I have already told this story. It’s an old story in fact. [Sergei] Shoigu went to one of the regions (Nikolai is nodding because he's familiar with the story) in winter because there was an emergency - the heating broke down in one of the towns because the pipes burst. So Shoigu urgently flew to the region, met with the local leadership, and asked one of the local officials to accompany him to that town. The
11 Politicians embrace verbal vulgarity. URL: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Politicians-embrace-verbal-vulgarity-3689569.php
12 Politicians embrace verbal vulgarity. URL: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Politicians-embrace-verbal-vulgarity-3689569.php
13 Михайловская Е.В. Говорящий Путин: Информация к размышлению // Верховский А.М., Михайловская Е.В., Прибыловский В.В. Россия Путина. Пристрастный взгляд. М., 2003. C. 28.
official says he won't go. Why not? They’ll beat me there, honestly. Shoigu says, what do you mean you won’t go, the people there are freezing. He still refuses. So Shoigu grabs him and drives to the airfield, where they are to board a plane or a helicopter. They go into a building to wait. The local official says, I’ll be back in a minute, I need to use the bathroom. He never came back. He escaped through the back door. Escaped, how do you like that? A local government official, imagine.
Colloquial ‘взял за шиворот’ and slang ‘смылся’ and ‘деятель’ stand out like a signpost demonstrating the speaker’s conversational style. Elliptical sentences, narrative style when retelling the dialogue between Shoigu and the local official help Putin to create the impression of a friendly talk between people who know each other very well.
In this case the translator uses the manipulating strategy and manages the target text, that is the translator does his/her best to transpose the content of the source text into the target language but does not even make an attempt to translate colloquial and slang words which do not fit the context of communication: TV broadcasting of Prime minister address to the mass audience. As a result, native speakers of Russian appreciate the emotive meaning of words and spoken language but the target text is devoid of these features and the foreign audience perceives Putin just as a good story-teller. The strategy results in correcting the speaker’s verbal image in the eyes of the foreign public.
According to a poll recently conducted by the VTsIOM state-run pollster (the poll was conducted on January 14-15, 2012, in 138 populated areas of 46 regions and involved 1,600 respondents, the margin of error was within 3.4%.) speaking about Putin, Russian citizens cite his intellect and competence (17%), leaders' skills (15%), conscientiousness and diligence (11%) and energy (7%). Forty-eight percent of those surveyed said managerial skills is the most conspicuous trait of Putin's character, 41% note his experience, 40% intellect, 37% resolve, 33% sense of purpose and 31% seriousness. Concerning character traits that are less typical of Putin, 26% named mercantilism, 22% strength, 21% cunningness, 18% even-temperedness, 17% each independence and strictness, 12% kindness and 7% modesty14.
Thus, inside the country Vladimir Putin is perceived by people as an active, knowledgeable, business-like politician, a reserved, disciplined person with strong will, but at the same time an open, honest man who is close to people. His speech demonstrates the fact that “he is one of us, common people”, thinks about business and not sentiments and does not
14 Poll: Russians mostly positive about Putin.
URL: http://ilikeputin.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=118:poll-russians-mostly-positive-about-putin&catid=68:2011-12-21-09-54-14&Itemid=107
bother about beautiful speech. As has been shown above, his spontaneous speech is full of colloquial words and even vulgar expressions. And it is not a marginal phenomenon.
But if inside Russia Putin’s speech most of the time is positively perceived on the international arena the situation is different. Against the background of the formal style of official speeches his spontaneous remarks stand out, attract the attention of his audience and echo in one’s mind long after his speech is over. The slang phrase “to soak in the john” which he uttered when he was Prime Minister in 1999 commenting on antiterrorist actions of the Russian army (“Мы будем преследовать террористов везде, где бы они ни находились, в аэропорту - в аэропорту... Если мы найдем их, вы уж меня извините, в туалете - и в сортире замочим, в конце концов.” - We’ll go after terrorists wherever they are - at an airport - o,kay, at an airport. If we find them in a toilet, in an outhouse, we’ll soak them in the john”) became to Western journalists and politicians a sign of future Putin’s presidency.
As far as Putin’s speeches are concerned the translator has to turn to the manipulating strategy especially in Q&A sessions, when the speaker is not tied by the text prepared in advance. Here is a passage from the answers to the questions of the Russian Media following Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Middle East (February 13, 2007):
Но не только у нас в России об этом говорят - во всем мире говорят об этом. Давно. Только в некоторых странах говорят грубо и конфронтационно, по сути, оскорбляют Соединенные Штаты и их руководство, что я считаю и контрпродуктивным, и неприемлемым вообще.
В других странах говорят шепотом, кулуарно. Россия, полагаю, такая страна, которая не должна ни фигу в кармане держать, ни камень за пазухой. Мы должны говорить прямо, откровенно и честно то, что думаем. Полагаю, что это как раз то, что должно подтолкнуть к нормальному, честному и откровенному диалогу. И думаю, что и в Соединенных Штатах есть люди, которые нас услышат и постараются выстраивать с нами отношения на равноправной дружеской основе и без менторского тона.
These issues are being discussed not only in Russia but in places all around the world, and this has been the case for a long time now. The difference is that some countries do indeed take a very blunt and confrontational approach, actually, insulting the United States and its leadership, and I think this is counterproductive and unacceptable in general. Other countries say the same things, but only in whispers, only behind the scenes. I think that Russia is a country that should not act behind the scenes nor have a grudge against anyone, but on
the contrary, should state its views frankly, openly and honestly. I think that it is through this approach that we can open the road for normal, honest and candid dialogue, and I think that there are people in the United States who will hear our voice and will try to build relations with us based on friendly equality and without a lecturing tone.
Translation was quite faithful to the source text in so far as its content was concerned. The emotionally coloured idioms, however, were rendered into English with the help of stylistically neutral word-combinations. The used equivalents ‘to act behind the scenes’ and ‘to have a grudge against anyone’ are not colloquial although fairly expressive like any other idiom. It follows that in this case the translator corrected the speaker’s verbal image and showed him as an emotional but not as a rude person.
It should be emphasized in this connection that sometimes the manipulating strategy can be used unintentionally. Thus, at a press-conference following the summit “Russia -European Union” in Brussels (12 November, 2007) a French reporter asked Vladimir Putin about Russian troops' use of heavy weapons against civilians in the war in Chechnya (Chechnya is predominantly Muslim). Putin hit back,
Если вы хотите совсем уж стать исламским радикалом и готовы пойти на то, чтобы сделать себе обрезание, то я приглашаю вас в Москву. У нас многоконфессиональная страна, у нас есть специалисты и по этому вопросу, и я порекомендую им сделать эту операцию таким образом, чтобы у вас уже больше ничего не выросло.
The translation of Putin’s remark was no easy job. The word ‘circumcision’ does not occur frequently in political texts, the interpreter was at a loss, he stumbled, then another translator helped him and as a result the text was translated in the following way:
... if you'd like to get a circumcision, please, come to Moscow... You are welcome and everything and everyone is tolerated in Moscow."
In this case the poor translation of Putin's remark did not give justice to its content and emotiveness. Inadvertently translators corrected Putin’s image and his remarks were not immediately understood by either journalists present at the news conference or by senior EU officials. But some journalists who spoke Russian were not satisfied with translation and expressed their indignation. Later the Russian media gave a more adequate variant:
And if you decide to become an Islamic radical and are ready to be circumcised, I invite you to Moscow. We are a multi-faith country and we have experts
who can do it. And I would advise them to carry out that operation in such a way that nothing would grow in that place again.
One more example of the manipulating strategy which has failed in the final analysis. At a press-conference in the Kremlin Vladimir Putin commented on some actions of Russian millionaires in the following way:
Нужно соблюдать закон всегда, а не только тогда, когда тебя взяли за
яйца.
Translators of Russian Information Agency ‘Novosti’ tried to manage the target text and translated this very rude expression in a neutral way and thus corrected Putin’s image:
You should always abide the law, not just when they have seized your one
place.
The manipulating strategy, however, did not yield a positive effect because the Western media did not intend to ignore the Prime minister’s rudeness and published a literal translation:
You should always abide the law, not just when they’ve got you by the balls («Daily Telegraph»)15.
The above examples demonstrate the constraints which are imposed on the application of the manipulating strategy: the presence of people who speak both languages and who can easily make note of mistranslations makes translators of a political text work like translators of a literary text. The translator has to retell the source text and find in the target language adequate means to preserve the public speaker’s idiolect.
It should be added in this connection that the application of the manipulating strategy is applied by the translator for three objective reasons16. Firstly, the translator is trained to select the neutral variant (unless literary translation is meant). Obviously, if a substandard word is used against the neutral linguistic background the negative effect produced is doubled. Secondly, in any language there are accepted usage norms which do not necessarily coincide. So, even if lexical units may seem at first sight to be equivalents they can evoke different (and very frequently, undesirable) emotional associations in the listener’s mind. Thirdly, the translator must always manage cross-cultural differences and be very cautious not to initiate misunderstanding between representatives of different national cultures.
When translating political public speeches the translator not infrequently turns to the manipulating strategy because he/she does not want the political leader in question to look
15 „Daily Telegraph“ - Когда говорит Путин, переводчики смущенно молчат. http://www.centrasia.ru/newsA.php?st=1068483000
16 Берди М. Пытки переводчика //Мосты. Журнал переводчиков. 2004. №1.
funny, incompetent or rude. If it is a confidential talk between two leaders the translator can manage the target text and correct the verbal image of the politician. If it is public speech and many people are present the correction of the image is not always possible. Then the translator’s job is to use rhetorical strategy to convey all the stylistic nuances of the source text in order to create the same impact on the target audience as they had on the native speakers, letting the politician care about his/her own image.
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