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B.B. The experiences before I became an interpreter have been invaluable. I don't think you can be an interpreter without a certain baggage or luggage, if you like, that you carry around, от things that you've learned and forgotten, the way people behave, the things that people know the things that people say, the customs. All these things have been assimilated and when you go to a meeting you bring all that with you. There are only words I know, but interpretation is more than words.

Cor. But how much more? And what are the qualities needed for a good interpreter? We've grown used to seeing the same unnamed faces standing at the shoulder of, say, Reagan or Gorbachev at summit meetings. Without them those leaders would in effect be deaf and dumb. And they rely on them to capture any nuance of their exchanges with absolute accuracy. That's often easier said than done. As we shall hear in this series of conversations with those who've being in the front line of history from the dark days of World War II, through the Cold War and a break-up of the Soviet Union. We begin today with a man who had to exercise his craft through one of the most complicated and bloody conflicts since 1945 — the savage war over the body of former Yugoslavia. The French commander of the UN Forces in Bosnia, General Cotte, spoke virtually no English, the common language of many of his troops and some of his UN superiors. So he was heavily dependent on his interpreter Bruce Boeglin. The qualifications, Boeglin mentioned just now were ideal for this task. His bilingualism was a product of his parentage and his childhood experience.

B.B. I was brought up in the Pyrenees near Pau and you know that Henry the Fourth of France was born in Pau. He was christened with a cup of local red wine and garlic that rubbed on his lips to make quite sure that he had the spirit of the region in upbringing him. And I grew very much in that kind of atmosphere, I used to speak patois, the patois of the Pyrenees, when I was a kid. I was about 4 when I arrived there. It didn't mean that it shut up the English side because that was fine for lunches, but when it came to tea-time, (tea was more or less a religion at home), we also had a radio-set and of course we listened to the BBC short wave. It was awful: the crackling and all that kind of thing...

But we certainly had a taste of England in the middle of the Pyrenees. The war came along, lines were drown. In fact I was told in 1940 that the English were here " taking the bread out of our French mouths, and the English have betrayed us, " so 1 was used to that kind of " xenophobism", if I can pronounce the word, that the French had against the British, but when I landed in England I found the same thing existed about the French. So I thought that these are facts of life. And as a result I tried to keep away from interpreting because the interpreter sits in the middle and tries to make one side known to the other. And I was finding that I was giving myself too much to the others whoever they were and needed to build up my own little " niveau", a world of my own. So when in the army I was asked «Would you like to become an interpreter? " I said " Absolutely not. I want to get away from that altogether. Put me in the tank and let me go on my own and leave me alone. " And this lasted all through my life.

Britain in those days had seen their troops come back from Dunkirk, but they didn't realize really what the humiliation of the defeat was and having the German occupying your house. That kind of thing. When I spoke to my English friends they just didn't understand what you were talking about. I went to an English school after that and one of the teachers, 5-10 years older than I was, was about to go into the Royal Air Force and he said to me, " You know, Hitler can't win the war! He's never played cricket. No team-spirit. " This was shocking to me. I said, " If you knew what's going on the other side of the Atlantic, or the Channel, rather, you really wouldn't be talking like this. It's a very, very serious situation. And really it needs people who really want to give their all. " And I found were doing it. And I thought it was one way of repaying for the hospitality.

That I received from France for 12 years and now I was going with them on a crusade, perhaps.

Cor. You said earlier you resisted becoming an interpreter. What made you decide to do so in 1968?

B.B. I went bankrupt in Paris, and I had children at school, a boy of 17, a girl of 13, if I'm not mistaken. And close to 50 years of age, the only outfit that answered me was the United Nations. I seemed to be welcome there. Welcome because I had some training as an engineer and they needed translation, not interpretation... translation of technical subjects. I seemed to fit the bill. For me at that moment it was just a check coming at the end of the month. No idealism, nothing like that.

It was just a way of solving my financial situation. So I came to the UN as a translator. Do you know that translators write, interpreters speak. The translator has all the time in the world, perhaps, the interpreter doesn't. The translator can have his references and consult them; the interpreter can't. The translator takes his work home, when it's not finished; the interpreter must finish when the meeting finishes, etc. Translation for me was really a drudgery, my nature doesn't accept it very easily. Quite honestly I couldn't really live very happily as a translator. And at the end of two years I was told by my superiors that there was a programme going along at the United Nations, being launched whereby translators could train to become interpreters. If you are a translator, you are an erudite, perhaps a slow-thinker, it doesn't matter, but a thorough person. An interpreter has to be quick even if he isn't thorough. From the character standpoint they are completely different people. They thought that anyway the translator could sweat away at his desk all morning and then in the afternoon go zipping through a meeting without a hesitation, without an " amm " or " ar....". It was impossible, but what was possible for me was to say, " I'd rather leave the translation section altogether and go into the interpretation section, " which I did. There is some kind of, as we say, mental reactions that have to be trained - to hear and speak at the same time, but evidently I think you are wired for it, meaning that you are born with it like music being able to play the piano. You know, some people can just sit down without training and play the piano. They have a talent for it. And I think interpreting is the same thing.

Cor. What was your the most challenging experience in that time at the UN?

B.B. I've had several. There are two kinds, forgive me for being a little technical here, there are two kinds of interpretation. One is consecutive, when you speak after the speaker, in other words, you've memorized it or taken notes, and you rebuild the speech. It can be a whole speech. And there's another kind called the simultaneous which is you've got earphones on, you hear " Good morning, " you say " Bon jour." And the speech goes on, fast or slow, slurred or well-articulated — you follow.

But my most embarrassing moments have been — and then they really have been embarrassing — I've had several times when I was sitting just three people in the room around the table, very important people, in very awkward situations, when one person says to another something that is very close to an insult, and the other person, not speaking English, didn't understand, and I had to interpret looking him in the eyes 3 feet away and very politely telling him the insult. And I could see the red rising from his color right up to the root of his hair. I've done the same thing with another lady ambassador. I found it a very, very awkward moment.

Cor. What advice would you give to new recruits to the profession now?

B.B. Oh, I love this profession so much that I... You know, I do have a school here, in New York and I do have young recruits who come along and I do try to light the fire in them. And tell them how wonderful it is to start this profession. Not only will you find that you are someone who helps another group of people understand the first party, but you will find yourself... you will derive so much enrichment, personal enrichment from it. And you will get such enormous satisfaction in being able to create understanding and to explain things that may have been misunderstood otherwise I don't know any other profession like it and I am still, still at it.

3. Обговорення проблем усного перекладу та професійної етики.

Контрольні питання

1. What are the rewards of the interpreter's job?

2. What is the future of the profession — will the demand for top-level interpreters grow, fall or shift?

3. How should the emotions and nuances of the speaker be conveyed?

4. Which is the prerogative of the speaker and which — of the interpreter in the process of communication?

5. What is required to master the craft?

6. What are the strict conventions of the job?

7. Which was the most interesting professionwise?

8. What comprises the interpreter's baggage?

9. What can you tell about Mr. Boeglin's early years?

10. Why did Mr. Boeglin initially resist becoming an interpreter?

11. When and why did he join the UN?

12. What's the difference between an interpreter and translator from a character point of view?

13. Do you agree that one has to be wired to become an interpreter?

14. Is it possible to efficiently combine translating and interpreting?

15. What are the rewards of the profession?

Література: [1, с. 15–25; 4, c. 65–72; 6, с. 143–164].