Simultaneous Interpreting (2): Advanced

Practice from/into English and Arabic

Ibrahim Saleh
Introduction
 1. Looking at your text in the book, read silently and follow the syntax of the English sentence until you
arrive at an operative verb.

• This should be your cue: now speak into the recorder until you believe that the meaning is complete, before moving
on to the next sentence.

2. For the purpose of interpretation, a sentence is re-defined here to mean any complete unit of meaning or, in
technical terms, any meaningful set of words.

3. High levels of precision and idiomaticity in the TL are hardly required of any interpreter
Remember
• Practice Steps:

1. Training into longer passages of current affairs language: the style grows more complex .

• At this level, you are given greater freedom to either stick to the ST structures in interpretation or undertake the
essential transformations to the TT, e.g., render a long balanced sentence into one long balanced sentence (i.e. with
near parallelism of the two texts, structurally and, to a certain extent, syntactically – as most interpreters would do
since they do not have time) or into several sentences.

• At times, accuracy may be more important than elegance.

 • The ‘foreign’ flavor of the TL cannot be missed in the initial stages of practice;
• however, no TL reader can accept interpretation as originally written in SL.

• So you should be nurtured on a love for analysis — and the courage to change the
source structure (it is not a sacred language); this is if you want to be professional
interpreters.

• You should enrich your lexicon with all the terms learned from the last course
(#1705) and the syntactic features typical of media English in order to follow up
Always
Remember current affairs reports and, later on, do more serious interpretation.
…
• You should familiarize yourselves with the language of the press (e.g. auxiliaries
may be omitted from headlines) by listening to/reading Arabic/English dailies.
 • Part II provides you with longer passages with minimal explanation, but there
are translations of the last four units in the appendix.

Before starting to interpret any unit :

How to 1. Go through the objectives and the main points in the unit you intend to
Study this study.
Part of
2. If the unit is tape-recorded, play the tape and try to interpret while listening.
the
Course 3. Try to interpret more quickly each time you start to interpret similar items .

4. You can refer to the translation of the text in the appendix.

5. Don't forget that frequent revision before and after interpretation is very
important.
Part II
Units 10-15
 • The purpose of Part II is to train the student into translating longer
passages
• They should do this on their own while listening, rather quickly, and with
minimal hints or help from the teacher:

• For training purposes, the syntax of the target text (TT) will follow that of

Objectives the source text (ST) with necessary changes.

• The word-order in Arabic is so flexible that no serious damage to idiomatic

structure should result when moving from English to Arabic.

• Do not be afraid to begin the sentence with a noun when translating from
English to Arabic: nominal structures are perfectly acceptable in Arabic.
• This should NOT mean that ALL sentences should begin with a noun; if you can
change the syntax as you hear the sentence, do so. But this is not essential.
 • Part II assumes that the student has mastered the basic
skills provided in the dozens of passages given in Part I.
• The purpose is to train him or her to interpret longer
passages on his or her own, with minimal help from the
teacher.
Focus 1
• As in unit nine, the tips will be given first.
• The student is required to read them before proceeding to
interpret.
• However, there could be no tips for some passages (as in passage
‘a’) considering that all the vocabulary has been already given!
 • For these passages, you need to:

1. Omit all unnecessary qualifications in interpreting a news item

2. Interpret without having to completely restructure any
sentences.
3. Spot the most difficult parts to translate, be they individual
Focus 2 words, phrases, or whole structures.
• You are not required to give the fullest ‘sense’ possible but only the main
ideas and essential details gleaned from the passage during delivery.
• The focus is on the ideas and – to some extent – the idiomaticity
(precision and genuine TL) of the translation
• If too many difficulties are found in the text, that is, if the difficulties
prevent you from grasping the essential ideas, you have to overcome them
first by using a dictionary, for example.
 1. Take a few minutes to read the passage silently and pinpoint the expected problems of rendering to
Arabic, and then come back to this slide show.

2. Read silently and follow the syntax of the English sentence until you arrive at an operative verb.
• This should be your cue: now speak into the recorder until you believe that the meaning is complete,
before moving on to the next sentence.

3. For the purpose of interpretation, a sentence is re-defined here to mean any complete unit of

Technical meaning or, in technical terms, any meaningful set of words.

Rules 4. High levels of precision and idiomaticity in the TL are hardly required of any interpreter

5. You are given greater freedom to either stick to the ST structures in interpretation or undertake the
essential transformations to the TT, e.g., render a long balanced sentence into one long balanced
sentence (i.e. with near parallelism of the two texts, structurally and, to a certain extent,
syntactically – as most interpreters would do since they do not have time) or into several
sentences.

6. At times, accuracy here may be more important than elegance.

 • The ‘foreign’ flavor of the TL cannot be missed in the initial stages of
practice
• An interpreter is required only to give us the main sense of the news, even if the phraseology is
imperfect.
• However, no TL listener can accept interpretation as originally said in SL.

Don’t • So, practice doing a lot of analysis, and have the courage to change the source structure; this is if
you want to be professional interpreters.
Forget
• You should enrich your lexicon with all the terms learned from each
passage we do, and the syntactic features typical of them.

• You should familiarize yourselves with the language of the press (e.g.
auxiliaries may be omitted from headlines) by listening/reading
Arabic/English dailies.
 British Energy’s profits crash after shutdowns
By Angela Jameson
BRITISH ENERGY, the nuclear generator, has seen its profits crash
by £231 million, to just £10 million, because of power station
Passage 1: shutdowns and lower UK electricity prices.
Pp. 119-120
Anticipation of a new market in electricity forced down prices in the
year to March 31, and two unplanned shutdowns last year cost the
company about £100 million.
Peter Hollins, chief executive, gave warning that the current year
was likely to prove equally challenging for the company. …
 ‫ مليون جنيه‬231 ‫• بريتيش إنيرجي – وهي شركة توليد الطاقة النووية – عانت الشركة من تدهور في معدل أرباحها من‬
‫ وذلك بسبب غلق محطات الطاقة وانخفاض اسعار الكهرباء في المملكة‬،‫ ماليين جنيه استرليني فقط‬10 ‫استرليني ل‬
.‫المتحدة‬

231 ‫• عانت شركة بريتيش إنيرجي – وهي شركة توليد الطاقة النووية – من تدهور في معدل أرباحها حيث هبطت من‬
‫ وذلك بسبب غلق محطات الطاقة وانخفاض اسعار الكهرباء في‬،‫ ماليين جنيه استرليني فقط‬10 ‫مليون جنيه استرليني ل‬
.‫المملكة المتحدة‬
Interpreting 1. Compare the two translations to see how the interpreter started the translated Arabic sentence
Rules 1 in each case:
• In the first, he decided not to lurk behind the English speaker, so he started translating the subject
immediately. However, the syntax is a little bit awkward for the interpreter, so he repeated the
word “‫ ”الشركة‬after the verb to not violate the rules of the sound Arabic sentence. However, the
syntax is still awkward.
• In the second, he decided to wait for the verb while remembering the main point of the subject.
The subject here is not long, and remembering it for a while would not be a problem. This resulted
in a very sound Arabic syntax/structure.
 2. Don’t translate names of companies, institutions, etc. if they do not
have a commonly used TL translation, e.g. British Energy → ‫بريتيش‬
‫( إنرجي‬compare: ‫جامعة القاهرة‬, it has a commonly used English
equivalent)
3. If you have an abstract noun in the plural (e.g. shutdowns) get a
Interpreting concrete noun in the plural plus an adjective in the singular ( ‫إغالق‬
Rules 2 ‫)المحطات‬
4. ‫اللغة العربية تحب البيان‬. So, in translating from English to Arabic, you
might quite expectedly need to add more words to clarify the meaning
in Arabic. For instance, in translating “The nuclear generator,” you
will need to add the word ‫شركة‬, so translate it into “ ‫شركة توليد الطاقة‬
‫”النووية‬
 Storming close-up of the red planet

By A Correspondent

AN IMAGE of Mars captured by the orbiting Hubble space telescope

shows the red planet as it has never been seen before — barren but
Passage 2, strangely beautiful.
Pp. 127-128
Mars may be a hostile, arid, lifeless world, but the photograph shows that it
is far from inactive. Swirling duststorms can be seen raging across a
cratered, rusty landscape, while high in the thin atmosphere, sweeping,
frosty, white ice clouds look as if they have been painted by an artist.

…
 • Unfortunately, there is a syntactic problem here for the interpreter, as the verb doesn't come until after 11 words
(making up the main subject and an adjectival phrase). If the interpreter should start with

. ‫ الخ‬... ‫إن صورة كوكب المريخ التى التقطها تلسكوب هابل الذى يدور فى الفضاء تبين‬

the syntax will be too awkward even for an interpreter!

• It is better in cases like these to wait for the verb while remembering the main point. Do not give details but say

. ‫التقط تلسكوب هابل الفضائى صورة لكوكب المريخ يظهر فيها مجدبا ً ولكن بجمال غريب‬
Interpreting
• You will ignore the precise phrasing of the translator. You may even ignore ‘The red planet’!
Rules
• inactive ‫خامد‬ swirling ‫دوارة‬ cratered ‫ملئ بالحفر‬ rusty ‫أحمر‬

• Remember that in interpreting, you may omit all unnecessary qualifications: ‘as small as’, ‘how Mars might
appear’, ‘Especially’, ‘churning’ ... etc.

• Focus on basic facts only!

• jettison all the insignificant details during interpretation .

• sum up long passages / news stories in the interpretation

 • Starting Unit 12 to the end of the book, the purpose of these units is to train the
students on interpreting ‘(non-)current affairs’ material in Arabic and English. For
example,
• in Unit 12, a short story is given in parts to be translated into English with minimal tips;
• in Unit 13, American English press reports are to be interpreted into Arabic with no help at all
from the teacher; etc.

Units 12-15: • Passages in these four units are translated in the Appendix.
Focus • You should read the first passage first in each unit, compare it with the English
version given in the Appendix, so as to get a feel of the style, and then get someone
to read you the rest of the passages while you interpret and record your
interpretation.
• Do this before checking your performance against the given English version in the Appendix.

• We will study the stylistic features of passage ‘a’ in Unit 13, so as to get a feel of the style in such
texts, and the rest will be left for self study.
 MENA OVERVIEW
Human Rights Developments

Positive developments in some countries in the region were overshadowed by a continuing pattern of human
rights abuses, political violence, and a faltering Arab-Israeli peace process. At this writing clashes unprecedented
in their lethality had erupted between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli security forces in Gaza, the West
Bank, East Jerusalem, and inside Israel itself. Serious abuses including arbitrary arrest, torture, and unfair trials
were pervasive, as emergency rule or laws suspending constitutional protections were applied in many countries
and the death penalty remained in force in all except Oman, Qatar, and Tunisia.

Passage 3 ‫ نظرة عامة‬:‫الشرق األوسط وشمال أفريقيا‬

Pp. 167- ‫التطورات في مجال حقوق اإلنسان‬

170 ، ‫ وأحداث العنف السياسي‬، ‫ ولو أن ضوءها قد طمسته ظالل نسق متواص ٍل من انتهاكات حقوق اإلنسان‬، ‫شهدت بعض البلدان تطورات إيجابية‬
،‫ وقت كتابة هذا التقرير‬،‫ إذ تفجرت المصادمات لتحصد األرواح بمعدالت لم يسبق لها مثيل‬. ‫وزعزعة السعي إلقرار السلم بين العرب وإسرائيل‬
‫ وانتشرت االنتهاكات‬، ‫ وداخل إسرائيل نفسها‬، ‫ والقدس الشرقية‬، ‫ والضفة الغربية‬، ‫بين المتظاهرين الفلسطينيين وقوات األمن اإلسرائيلية في غزة‬
‫ مع فرض أحكام الطوارئ أو قوانين الطوارئ التي أوقفت العمل باألحكام‬، ‫الخطيرة مثل االعتقاالت التعسفية والتعذيب والمحاكمات الجائرة‬
.‫ وتونس‬، ‫ وقطر‬، ‫عمان‬
ُ ‫ كما استمر العمل بعقوبة اإلعدام في جميع البلدان باستثناء‬، ‫ في بلدان كثيرة‬، ‫الدستورية التي تكفل حماية األفراد‬
 • It is clear how important the learning of abbreviations is!
• MENA is always written in abbreviation, as its referent is worldly known.

• The subject is not so long (8 words), but it is of ultimate importance that interpreters learn to memorize
the subject until the verb is uttered.
• You can focus on the content words only if the subject is long
• OR you can invent a verb that suits the meaning said to start with: “Positive developments in some countries”
Stylistic
→ ‫شهدت بعض البلدان تطورات إيجابية‬. In this case, you will need to continue the rest of the structure in a way that
Lessons does not harm the overall meaning of the sentence/thought unit, e.g. adding the phrase “‫”ولو أن‬
-1 • Do not bother to translate adjectival phrases: jettison “in the region”

• “were overshadowed” → passive not necessarily translated into passive in Arabic; rather, translate it into
active “‫”ضوءها قد طمسته ظالل‬.

• Do not waste any time unnecessarily, as a ST word might be translated into more words that will need
more time than that spent by the SL speaker: “unprecedented in their lethality” → ‫لتحصد األرواح بمعدالت لم‬
‫يسبق لها مثيل‬
 • Interpreters need to be aware of some common press expressions: “at this writing” →
‫ وقت كتابة هذا التقرير‬and be aware of their typical position in each language;
• In this passage, it needs to be kept in memory and delayed a little bit in Arabic. Compare the two
sentences.

• Interpreters should be aware of collocation equivalents in the target language. The

word “serious” is not all the time translated the same; rather, it is translated according
Stylistic to the word collocating with it. In this context, “serious abuses” is “‫ ”االنتهاكات الخطيرة‬not
Lessons “‫”االنتهاكات الجادة‬
-2
• At times, it is more professional to anticipate the verb and use it rather than memorize
a long subject: “as emergency rule or laws suspending constitutional protections were
applied” → “ ‫مع فرض أحكام الطوارئ أو قوانين الطوارئ التي أوقفت العمل باألحكام الدستورية التي تكفل‬
‫”حماية األفراد‬

• Interpreters should use their discretion to decide the intended meaning of some words
and expressions: “constitutional protections” → “‫”األحكام الدستورية التي تكفل حماية األفراد‬
Thank you