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]
cairg, are you here on arab blogs to win hearts and minds? you mass-murder arabs and then you send a few propaganda bloggers to make friends and influence people? is this some low-budget charm offensive? i have bad news for you. Remember how many billions of dollars you have invested in bombing Vietnamese civilians and how many billions you have invested in arming your bloody and corrupt Vietnamese puppets? How did it all end? you were kicked out. you are incapable of decency. You are capable of bribery. So most of those who can close an eye on your brutality and make excuses for you are direct material beneficiaries of your wallet (read: loot). When your wallet empties they can find another sugar dady.
dm you moron, you don’t own the US even if I lived there. It does not belong to you in the same manner Israel does not belong to the Jews. We and the natives and the blacks and all those who had to endure centuries of your organized terror and sustained brutality say that YOU OWE us for all the free rides you have gotten on our backs and corpses and from our natural resources that you have looted and split with your buddies. Welcome to the ULA, the United Looters of America. Just another evil empire about to go the way of the do do.
Craig I missed your first reply above and jumped to the second one, anyway Arab oil is very very important to the US that’s why Bush would sacrifice everything to get it and that’s why his best friends are in the Saudi regime which abused human rights a million times more than Saddam did. You’re talking about deportation? Are you crazy? Bush, or any American leader, would have no problem sacrificing all of his army in the gulf for the sake of oil. You hear people whining about gas prices when they jump ten cents a gallon how about 12 dollars a gallon like 1973? I’m not threatening I don’t have a penny in my pocket but those are the consequences.
To you anyone who criticizes the US foreign policy is someone full of hate, I’ve seen people coming from third world countries who are much more open-minded than you are.
Craig… there’s difference between criticism and insults. I would expect you to listen to the other side for God’s sake, and you’re not doing that. You have pre-judgements on people before they speak. Many Americans have said more harsh things about America and Americans than I did.
I understand if you’re sick from people who hate you or call you a moron for just who you are, but I have people calling me moron/terrorist/idiot/savage for just who I am, and there are people who criticize me and they’re hoping for things to get better and those are the people who I listen to. I don’t ask them why do they write on the internet and I do not consider their criticism whining and complaining.
I write in English because I only have an English keyboard! It’s more difficult to write in Arabic but I still do write in Arabic, still can’t understand the problem you’ve got with that?
Hareega,
Skye, I do not agree with anyone attacking you just because of your citizinship regardless what it is, but if you went to other non-Arab forums you’ll also face some with talking to you and hating you for the same reason.
Can you tell me why an Arab would do their blogging in English? Is it to attract English speakers (mostly American) to their blog, so that Arabs can abuse them?
Is that why you are here? Why aren’t you on Arabic language blogs? Do you think we have nothing better to do than listen to your whining and complaining? And your insults?
Hareega, I’ve had run ins with you before. You probably don’t remember. You are one of the hate-mongers I am talking about. And now you say it’s not you, it’s some nameless, faceless Arabs who blame the US. Give me a break.
By the way, nice the way you slipped the taunt/threat about gas prices in there. Your country doesn’t have any oil, Hareega. I don’t know of many Arabs in the US who come from oil producing countries, actually. Are you threatening on somebody else’s behalf?
That in itself is a pretty shitty attitude, anyway, isn’t it? To tell Americans that we have to treat you better than you treat us, just because you have oil? Is that how the game is played? Because I think it could be arranged that Arabs would no longer be in control of their oil, Hareega. And then what would happen? Do you really wanna go there? Your attitude is shit. And the worst part is that most of the other commentators on Jordanian and Palestinian blogs are even worse.
Skye, I do not agree with anyone attacking you just because of your citizinship regardless what it is, but if you went to other non-Arab forums you’ll also face some with talking to you and hating you for the same reason. Try some French blogs!
Dm, thank you for staying here and replying to comments. I’m sorry of someone attacked you personally. I do not agree with anything al Qaeda did or will do and I consider them more evil than anything in ther world. Many Arabs share the same or a similar opinion, but Arabs and other suppressed nations do not act the same way like Americans do, and right after 9/11 all Arabs were blamed as a nation for the event. I know that Arabs did it, I don’t believe the crazy stories about Bush planning the attcks…etc, and I
understand it was legitimate to ask questions if all Arabs support al Qaeda or if they are celebrating the attacks but we’ve all been blamed as a nation for the attack. Every Arab felt he was being acused of being a terrorist until proven otherwise. The media to which everyone was turning into did not have any moral responsibilty-they never did- to dissipate any racial hatred that was exopected to rise against Arabs or Muslims. They went ahead right after the attack and published a clip from 1991 for Palestenians celebrating and said those were for Palestenians celebrating 9/11.
Craig, I do not why do you assume that. I do not blame Americans for the deaths in Iraq, I don’t think it’s right to blame the people for it, but my opinion or yours does not change the fact that American people WILL BE BLAMED, regardless if that’s reasonable or not. I’m just giving you a fact. I hope the attotudes of Arabs towards America will change but I don’t see this happening anytime soon especially for Arabs who have never been to America.
Yes millions of Arabs benefit from coming to America and I appreciate that I’m here and anyone who respects the rules and the people in the US deserves to take his/her chance just like your grandparents did. That’s a whole different topic though.
and what about mass deportations? Go to any ivy league university or major institute in the US and you’ll find plenty of Arabs who have been working there faithfully, don’t tell em about mass deportation , I don’t think anyone will be happy to see gas for 30 dollars a gallon.
Ward: “dm you moron, you elected the first bush who starved arab babies in Iraq to death…”
And Saddam Hussein was a gem for the country of Iraq. He NEVER starved babies, he only tortured them and tied the parents down so they were forced to watch. He tortured the Iraqi soccer players for losing, brutally killed and tortured millions of Iraqis. Yeah I can see why he was such a wonderful president. You can thank America for him not being able to do that anymore.
Ward (Fard) – whichever you choose to go by, I’m so happy that you’re an expert of United States citizenship. Do you or have you ever lived here? I reiterate, if so GO HOME! You aren’t wanted. If not, then I suggest you shut your mouth because you know nothing about the United States or what it is to be a citizen!
Craig: “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?”
Nicely put 🙂 If we are to live by the philosophy of these morons then yes, absolutely. Blame all Arabs for the deaths of MILLIONS of innocent people around the world. I love how America is responsible for everything, yet the people and children that die at the hands of the Arabs are somehow exempt. It’s okay when an Arab kills because whoever they kill deserves it according to these people.
Killing is wrong guys, no matter who does it whether an Arab or an American. The deaths of innocent Iraqis = WRONG. The deaths of innocent Americans = WRONG! May I point out however that it isn’t just the Americans that are causing these deaths in Iraq. Many of your fellow Arabs kidnap and kill hundreds of Iraqis every single day! Not to mention the number of journalists that have been kidnapped — both American and Arab. Did we forget about Daniel Pearl in Pakistan? Did he deserve it? Did Jill Carroll deserve to be kidnapped in Iraq? Thank God she survived, but she was very lucky. They’re American though so they’re innately evil in your eyes.
Ward: “I did not see you in demonstrations protesting the war every time an arab was murdered”
I’ll give up my U.S. citizenship the same day you protest in the streets and work to try to abolish Al Qaeda. I didn’t see you in the streets protesting whenever an innocent American was killed at the hands of al Qaeda. No, you didn’t elect them but I don’t see you doing anything to demonstrate that you’re against their creed either. I don’t see you fighting against them, that may only mean that you support them whole-heartedly. Which is it, are you a coward or a complete psycho-path?
I’m sick of the self-righteous attitudes of Ward and the like. What the hell makes you think you’re any better than America? Let me clue you in…you aren’t!
We can sit here and go back and forth and recount all the deaths of people at Arab and American hands but that’s pointless. Like I said, killing is wrong, no matter who does it. It just saddens me that I am one of the only people here that actually seems to feel that way.