Tuesday, June 16, 2009

You'll Never Know Where You'll Find A Revenant

Ruchie is a good friend and comrade-in-words:

The Begin-Sadat center had trouble finding translators to provide simultaneous English for the foreign guests and journalists. In the end they found Ruchi Avital, who teaches translation at the university. She has lived in the settlement of Ofra for 23 years.

"They refused to give us the text ahead of time, not even the translators," she complained. "I am tense like everyone else, but I guess I am part of the event. In this instance I need to be Netanyahu's voice, but every translation is an interpretation."

In the earphones, Avital's voice did not break when she said "demilitarized state," but several moments later her tone rose, nearly cracked when she told the listeners that the settlers are not the enemy of peace but "our brothers and sisters."

1 comment:

Ruchie Avital said...

I have a number of reservations with this piece in Haaretz. First, the translation is wrong. The Hebrew original said that the PMO asked the Begin-Sadat Center to hire interpreters and they hired me, not what it says in the English. They did not "have trouble finding translators to provide simultaneous English for the foreign guests and journalists." While interpreting the speech live knowing that millions around the world (including perhaps BHO...) are listening is a bit daunting, I can name a number of other excellent interpreters who would have been willing and up to the task.
Second, the business about my voice breaking is simply nonsense.
And they didn't spell my name right...
Ruchie