Besides writing and editing, I spend a big chunk of my day as a linguist, translating Arabic to English and vice versa. Although the process itself is tedious and hectic at times, I enjoy it for the most part, particularly when I’m trying to find the exact word match. I look at a challenging text as a riddle that can only be solved by hunting for the most accurate missing pieces. It is an elusive game but I enjoy it and better, I even get paid for it. Any translator dreads the time when they end up choosing words that do not match. It is the ultimate horror when the translator “mistranslates” especially when it comes to the business of news. Misquoting someone’s words and then broadcasting them to the public is the news translator’s ultimate bad dream. Luckily, I have yet to face my interpretation nightmare.
All that said, it should come as no surprise that I was extremely intrigued by Brian Whittaker’s piece in The Guardian that highlighted the mistranslation of the now infamous Al-Aqsa TV clip, which was eaten up by US media outlets. While I found the show and its content extremely off-putting, as children are being cajoled into parroting political ideologies, Whittaker makes a very valid point: The MEMRI translators either mistranslated or intentionally decided to embellish what was said on the tape. What was most intriguing about his piece was the argument that occurred between MEMRI’s founder and one of CNN’S Arabic speakers, Octavia Nasr.
Among those misled by Memri’s “translation” was Glenn Beck of CNN, who had planned to run it on his radio programme, until his producer told him to stop. Beck informed listeners this was because CNN’s Arabic department had found “massive problems” with it. Instead of broadcasting the tape, Beck then invited [MEMRI’s] Carmon on to the programme and gave him a platform to denounce CNN’s Arabic department, and in particular to accuse one of its staff, Octavia Nasr, of being ignorant about the language.
Carmon related a phone conversation he had had with Ms Nasr: She said the sentence where it says [in Memri’s translation] “We are going to … we will annihilate the Jews”, she said: “Well, our translators hear something else. They hear ‘The Jews are shooting at us’.” I said to her: “You know, Octavia, the order of the words as you put it is upside down. You can’t even get the order of the words right. Even someone who doesn’t know Arabic would listen to the tape and would hear the word ‘Jews’ is at the end, and also it means it is something to be done to the Jews, not by the Jews.”
And she insisted, no the word is in the beginning. I said: “Octavia, you just don’t get it. It is at the end” … She didn’t know one from two, I mean.
As a native speaker myself, I heard nothing about annihilating the Jews. What I heard was: بطخونا اليهود which translates into: “The Jews are shooting at us.” So the question becomes: Did MEMRI embellish their translation on purpose or was it simply an innocent translation mistake? I cannot say for certain. What I do know is media organizations should take MEMRI’s translation with a grain of salt, especially after this incident. Here is what Whittaker thinks:
The curious thing about all this is that Memri’s translations are usually accurate (though it is highly selective in what it chooses to translate and often removes things from their original context). When errors do occur, it’s difficult to attribute them to incompetence or accidental lapses. As in the case of the children’s TV programme, there appears to be a political motive. The effect of this is to devalue everything Memri translates — good and bad alike. Responsible news organisations can’t rely on anything it says without going back and checking its translations against the original Arabic.
Hat tip: [Jordan Journals]
Hareega,
The only common person/thing to be always blamed for whatever attack is taking place would be America with all the people included.
And should we therefore blame all Arabs for the murder of so many Americans? Or should we just blame Palestinians, since their “cause” is the genesis of all the terror in the world today?
The mass deportations begin tomorrow. You should be home in time for the carpet bombings.
Aren’t you glad we aren’t like YOU?
But all that goes out the window when people like Gerd blame us and verbally attack us just because we’re Americans Those attacks make coming here seem pointless.
Nicely put. I always just say Jordanians/Palestinians are insane :O
Some of the bloggers are really good (like Natasha) but the comment sections are pure hate.
dm you moron, you elected the first bush who starved arab babies in Iraq to death, then you elected Clinton who continued to starve arab babies to death and killed a few more with missile attacks , then you elected bush jr. who waged a war of extermination on Arabs. You idiot, almost all democrats supported the wars against arabs, almost all democrats and republicans supported the ethnic cleansing of arabs from Palestine, not just the republicans.
when you give up your US citizenship, then you are not responsible. I did not see you in demonstrations protesting the war every time an arab was murdered. I did not read about your activities in anti-war movements in US. you are a direct beneficiary of all the wars from and genocides from slaughter of natives to slavery to colonialism.
I know I said I’ve said everything I needed to say, but this was too rich to pass up.
Fard you idiot, that was the whole point. I was saying that people who did not vote for Bush and are against the war have as much control as you do al Qaeda! My God, you people raelly do only see black and white. Thank you for proving my point.
Skye’s right, I come to these boards to try and learn about the ME and it’s people, and all I’m learning is how prejudice, hateful, and ignorant you are. You aren’t doing too much to allow westerners to see you as anything but cruel, hateful and black-hearted. I truly feel bad for those Arabs that are truly trying to show the world who they are, that they’re regular normal people. You are doing nothing but holding them back and ruining the image they are trying to create. It’s at the point where it’s totally pointless to even bother anymore. I’m so sick of the hate that you spew upon Americans! We aren’t all what you make us to be! Just as all Arabs aren’t what you and al Qaeda make them to be. What it comes down to is that you have NO CLUE what it is to be an American and I have no clue what it is to be Arab. Plain and simple. I don’t pretend to know the Arab culture or what it is like, so stop trying to act as if you know a damn thing about being American!
I have a dear friend who was born and raised in Lebanon. I showed her this board and the comments that have been made. She has even said that you and your friends jo man, gerd, arabi, etc are an embarrasment to the Arab world and name. She agreed that you are doing nothing but spewing crap and making Arabs look like a bunch of idiotic monsters. Then she turned to me and said, “My God, I hope you don’t think that we’re all like that” and you know what, I don’t. Unlike you, I am not prejudice and I don’t judge people because of their nationality.
And Raad: “White makes right?”
LOL! Obviously you know NOTHING about America, because if you did, you’d realize that people in America represent every race and nationality out there. Guess what, I’ll let you in on a secret…not all Americans are white. Yes, we have a white president, but there are many members of our government that aren’t white. Oh yeah, and the pale complection of Condoleeza Rice is SO blinding.
So, respond to this as you wish – with crap, hate, lies, prejudice, judgmental statements, misinterpretation of anything I’ve said, and more hate. Looking forward to your next post Natasha, because frankly, I’m so incredibly sick of this topic.
dm you moron, Arabs did not elect Al-Qaeda and we don’t pay for it with my tax money.
Hareega, I believe we get the fact that there is a tremendous amount of hate directed towards all Americans. I mean it’s obvious just by some of the comments on this blog.
I can’t speak for DM but I would imagine like me he also comes to blogs like this one with an open mind hoping to learn more about the ME. And to perhaps get into some constructive dialogue.
But all that goes out the window when people like Gerd blame us and verbally attack us just because we’re Americans Those attacks make coming here seem pointless.
Dm … you can argue that you’e not responsible, unfortunately most people won’t listen. The truth is that every American will be held accountable for Iraqi people’s blood, even non-Americans like me who cannot vote are still held accountable by many for just paying taxes for the government.
What you’re saying might make sense but I don’t think it’s going to make a difference. Whether or not it is legitimate to blame the American people for the disaster in Iraq is still does not make a difference. If a Sunni kills a Shiia or vice versa everything American will be considered responsible for it. The only common person/thing to be always blamed for whatever attack is taking place would be America with all the people included. I don’t think Americans still get it, most of them even those against the war still do not get the degree of hatred and the hundreds of millions who despise everything American because of the war. If people really understood this fact we’d see much more than 50% turn out on the voting booth and anyone who would suggest staying there for one extra day should not even have a slight chance of winning in the next election.
I love your objectivity Natasha,bravo. On the other hand, I cant hide my disappointment with the so called objective journalists. The program is hideous and Im glad it got taken off the air, but lets not ignore the fact twisting, it surprises me because the original content was alarming enough, it didnt need any retouching. Cheers!
May allah forgive who get killed in USA or IRAQ or PALESTINE or in any place in this world with and without any reason .
Salam
I have not followed the discussion here but I could understand few points about if people
In USA are responsible about their government
I think it is unfair to judge American people by the war in Iraq because:
1-Half of population in USA do not participate in election.
2-The rest of population are brain washed by media .I used to watch fox news, honestly they convinced me we are bad people, The media in USA are strong and controlled by lobbies.
3-Do you think it is acceptable when people label us as Arab terrorisst Arab because of our kin .It is the same case when you say that the American peopel are bad because of war in Iraq.
4-There are 5 million Arabs (Muslims and Christians) who live in usa .I am sure they participated in election and voted to Bush or other leader .And They pay tax for
Government.are we supposed to hate them ?!!!!!!
5-The way they choose their president does depend on his views about middle east .It is one of many reason when they elected president.
We need to stop to blame each others because of our nationality .We are brothers and sister In humanity .There are a lot of evil people who would like to destroy the world .
May allah forgive who get killed in USAD or IRAQ or PALESTINE or in any place in this woeld without any reason .
Salm