Translation please!

5.0.05

between diversity and practicality (and nationalism)

A very similar conflict of comprehension and mystery happens around the translations. This new situation is being explored particularly in the multilingual Europe, with a distinct history of destructive nationalism, invasions, cultural takeovers and suppression of minorities. Eurofaeries express their concern about one language dominating on behalf of the others, sometimes genuinely, sometimes in a liberal pose that draws attention to their overdeveloped awareness and at the end to themselves. There is a practical concern – to be understood. And yet another practical concern – to express the feelings in the best possible way.

We inhabit this hazy mess of feelings intermingling with mind’s interpretations in various assemblies of acquired words and idioms and phrases. Connection between one’s heart and vocal cords happens through linguistic means, that means it passes through mind, whether we like it or not. Mind facilitates this complex process of expressing feelings – which in closer look is a search for precision, picking the details, navigating among the verbal nuances. The richer our language is, the easier it gets to grasp the emotions. Even the mother’s tongue may be quite insufficient, still. Naturally, for many it becomes the language of the choice if they try to connect with their emotional state.

European faerie family offered a role of translator – negotiated between the speaker and the rest of the audience – that introduces quite high expectations in precision, attentiveness, non-disruptive-ness, in some sense becoming an extension of the intimate regions of someone else’s mind. The audience of this sharing witnesses not only the content of the speaker’s intermittent statement, but also (especially those who understand both languages) the dynamics between them and their translator. Even taking into consideration the stress of sharing some of the group’s attention and demanding nature of this facilitation, some translators "wrap up" the sharing in some sort. They extract what they consider "the point". They translate the sujet, the conflict of the characters, the message – what they consider important.

Unfortunately, this process uncovers the essence of the hart-sharing, which is not the plot summary – but those little details, choice of words, nuances of speech. The emotional charge in diverse passages of sharing. The story, the gaps in it, the little pauses. Non-filtered wholeness of the statement. The interdependence of circumstances of the experienced and described situation. The translator’s summary is the translator, not the speaker. What he finds important, what he finds interesting, what he narrows down. As such, the translation appears to be a futile business, perhaps well intended but unachievable. An awkward addition to the sharing.

There are fashion waves passing through the faerie land. Some years, the community gets obsessed with translations for the sake of inviting a diversity of languages, cultures, human experience and who knows what other ambitions. The translations prove the opposite – the vain belief in 1:1 transferability of those experience into a world of meanings (shared and personal histories, the bulk of art) of another language – that makes the existence of the other languages pointless, excessive, self-affirming. The next season translations mysteriously vanish, speaking in different languages being put on a par with expressions through music, movement or sheer emotional outpour. "We understand it on emotional level. That’s important."

That may be true, to some extent. We may convince ourselves – in a kind of crowd hysteria – that we do. Because it sounds nice, it sounds so elated, it sounds so spiritual. It induces warm fuzzy feelings in people of our sort. So called: "Yeaaah!"-effect, that does not elevate faeries above many other communes this Earth has carried. "Speaking in tongues" is a liberal/spiritual pose, it is cool, it is mysterious, it carries a sense of diversity worship and therefore an approving pat of the group. We feel good (as in "good boy!") because in a finger snap we "have" diversity (a bit like instant coffee) and we can masturbate over its mere presence. An awkwardness of artificiality?

In a course of history, multiple societies developed a lingua franca, to facilitate communication and cooperation. Sometimes this happened spontaneously as an expression of the need of the society. Not seldom it was imposed. It always benefits the involved groups – it provides access to more resources, opportunities, ideas, thought spaces. It always raises suspicions – as anything big and centralized to an extent does – whether it is corporations, or confederations. The greatness encompasses many opportunities for corruption, power abuse, or one way flow. Of course, the answer is not a counter-reaction, break up of the big to small (nationalist) pieces that pull the ropes in their direction, driven by self-interest and competition. There is a sweet spot of balance. Look at USA, Brazil, India, China, Russia – they represent blocs of populations, areas, economics or cultures on a par with Europe. Diverse inside, interconnected by shared values, laws and language, capable of acting as One on outside. Perhaps it is time to stop whining over dominance of English and start to appreciate that we have a lingua franca. Whatever unfortunate actions and events of history brought the English to its place (imperialism, coincidence, cultural capability), it is there – to be used, harvested, made the best out of!

You can talk for an hour in your native language, with nobody deciphering a word or a thought. We can attempt or pretend to receive the "raw emotion". Though, what’s the point of the heart circle – or even regular group communication? To be heard? To be comprehended? To find intersection, mutual understanding, consensus? At the end, it is the person sharing that – aside of finding guts to do so – that has to resolve this negotiation between grasping and sharing the emotions as precisely as possible, while making sure the others receive as much as we intended to.