From the translators’ cabin

Martine Dupont rscj,
Miyako Namikawa rscj

When the Chapter is assembled talking about intercultural dialogue, I have an intercultural experience lived out as “inter-mentality” in my translators’ booth. As soon as someone comes to the microphone, I begin to hear a diversity of expressions. Some begin saying, “I think…” Others say, “I believe…” And others would say, “I feel…” I wonder if we attribute the capacity to process our experiences to the head, or the heart, or to our feelings. I try to see whether the logical structure of the speaker is linear or circular (…or perhaps some other geometrical form). 

 It is almost like trying to capture the rhythm of her thought or her feelings. And as I keep on translating, I find myself looking for some key words which would give me clues as to the melody of her ideas. But it is totally different when we have to go alone to the working groups. I must forget about such things as rhythms and melodies.

Miyako Namikawa, Clara Malo, Maryvonne Duclaux, Ysabel Lorthiois, Toya Gz. Castejón, Margaret Phelan

When a group has no common language, I find myself acting out something like a soliloquy for an hour and a half; translating the question into one language, then the answer into another, and at the same time translating the facilitator. At the end of the session, I am not even sure I will ever be my own self again. As the days go by, I can feel my body getting weary, but that is only natural since I spend many hours letting the ideas of others flow through my head, and my voice keeps pronouncing words that belong to so many different people. At times, I close my eyes to concentrate, searching for the words which could best accompany the sense of the message which I am hearing. After all, if interculturality implies situating oneself beside the other and assuming something of that other person, then listening to the word pronounced by the other is an “experience of dialogue”.