Pelin IrginErciyes University

Spring, 2014

Hermes in CratylusSoc. “… this name ‘Hermes’ seems to me to have to do with speech; he is an interpreter (hermeneus) and a messenger, is wily and deceptive in speech, and is oratorical. All this activity is concerned with the power of speech. Now, as I said before, eirein denotes the use of speech; moreover, Homer often uses the word emisato, which means ‘contrive’.”

Hermes in Richard PalmerHermes is … a mediator. He is the messenger

between Zeus and mortals, also between Zeus and the underworld and between the underworld and mortals. Hermes crosses these ontological thresholds with ease. A notorious thief, according to legend, he crosses the threshold of legality without a qualm. “Marshal of dreams”, he mediates between waking and dreaming, day and night. Wearer of a cap of invisibility, he can become invisible or visible at will. Master of night-tricks, he can cover himself with night. Master of sleep, he can wake the sleeping or put the waking to sleep. Liminality or marginality is his very essence. (The Liminality of Hermes and the Meaning of Hermeneutics)

… he [Hermes] is the god of translation and of all transactions between realms. And it would seem to be the essence of hermeneutics to be liminal, to mediate between realms of being, whether between god and human beings, wakefulness and sleep, the conscious and the unconscious, life and afterlife, visible and invisible, day and night. The dimensions of the mythic god Hermes suggest a central element in the meaning of hermeneutics: that is a mediation between worlds.

Hermes in Walter BurkertHerma (herm): a heap of stones which served

as a form of territorial demarcation. “the immovable boundary stone is

surrounded with tales about the transgression of boundaries and the breaking of taboos through which a new situation, and a new, well-defined order is established”. (Greek Religion Archaic and Classical)

Hermes, then, like the hermeneus, stands at the in-between space, on the herm itself, the point of transgression, and mediates between the before and the after.

Interpreter: Alfred Hermann“irrespective of whether the word

‘interpres’ is derived from ‘inter-partes’ or ‘inter-pretium’, the term designates the human mediator positioned between two parties or values, performing far more diverse activities than simply providing linguistic mediation between parties transacting business” (“Interpreting in Antiquity”)

Power games in translationPrimary/SecondaryInvisibility/VisibilitySelf/OtherAbsence/PresenceOriginal/TranslationInclusion/Exclusion

Role of translator“The illusion of transparency is an effect of

fluent discourse, of the translator’s effort to insure easy readability by adhering to current usage, maintaining continuous syntax, fixing a precise meaning. What is so remarkable here is that this illusory effect conceals the numerous conditions under which the translation is made, starting with the translator’s crucial intervention in the foreign text” (The Translator’s Invisibility 1-2)

“The violent effects of translation are felt at home as well as abroad. … translation wields enormous power in the construction of national identities for foreign cultures, and hence it potentially figures in ethnic discrimination, geopolitical confrontations, colonialism, terrorism, war.” (The Translator’s Invisibility 19)

Invisibility in InterpretingGeography of interpretation

“We must be insistently aware of how space can be made to hide consequences from us, how relations of power and discipline are inscribed into the apparently innocent spatiality of social life, how human geographies become filled with politics and ideology” (Keith & Pine “The Politics of Place”)

Power and Interpreting “From Ancient Egypt to the 21st century, interpreters have enabled communication between speakers of minority and majority languages. This has allowed them to either channel information or act as gatekeepers by exercising their agency. Interestingly, these powerful individuals have, more often than not, been depicted as invisible. Why is it that interpreters, powerful individuals who have occupied center stage ever since the origins of cross-cultural communication, have traditionally been portrayed (and even more importantly, have allowed themselves to be portrayed) as mere language conduits, invisible parties in the communicative event, deprived of agency, yet capable of performing complex linguistic and information processing tasks? More pointedly, why do we assume that all interpreters, regardless of their own individual differences or the social interaction within which they work, play their roles in the same way?” (Revisiting the Interpreter’s Role 1)

“Most importantly interpreters, as persons embedded in a society that possesses its own values, cultural norms, and societal blueprints, also bring their individual social differences to the table. Like any other human being, they perceive reality through their own social lenses. It is therefore problematic to believe that an interpreter, as an individual who brings the self to all interactions, can be truly neutral. During any interpreted communicative event, the self and the other interact. When that happens, the interaction is colored by an array of social factors, such as class, gender, age, and ethnicity” (2)

Purposes of UNTo keep peace throughout the world; To develop friendly relations among nations; To help nations work together to improve the

lives of poor people, to conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy, and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms;

To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals.

UN official languagesOriginally English and French were established as

working languages at the UN. Later, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish were added as working languages in the General Assembly and in the Economic and Social Council. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish are the working languages of the Security Council.

A delegate may speak in any of the official languages, and the speech is interpreted simultaneously into the other official languages. Most UN documents are also issued in all six official languages. At times, a delegate may choose to make a statement using a non-official language. In such cases, the delegation must provide either an interpretation or a written text of the statement in one of the official languages.