La intérprete de Indira Gandhi
El editorial del Central Chronicle nos regalaba ayer una deliciosa semblanza de la que fue durante muchos años intérprete de Indira Gandhi: Anuradha Kunte.
Catedrática de literatura francesa (y doctorada con una tesis que versó sobre Albert Camus y su ‘Concepto de la Muerte’), directora del Centro de Estudios Franceses de la Universidad Jawaharlal Nehru de Nueva Deli, la India, Kunte fue también decana de dicha Universidad, y recibió el reconocimiento del Gobierno francés con el premio Palmes Academiques que se le otorgó en 1995.
Además de combinar su faceta de docente con la de intérprete (es la única intérprete de la India que hasta la fecha pertenece a la AIIC), Anuradha Kunté es asimismo miembro de la AIWC (All-India Women’s Conference), una organización fundada en 1927 y dedicada a trabajar en favor de las mujeres y los niños.
Reflections of an Academic and Interpreter
When I was studying at the Sorbonne in 1960-62, little did I imagine that one day I would be working with VIPs – Heads of State and Government. While politics and world events had fascinated me since childhood, I considered myself a literary sort, and my most ambitious dream was to teach the philosopher Albert Camus and the language he wrote in. But it was not entirely so: our first woman Prime Minister and ‘Woman of the Millenium’ was fond of French and chose me to be her Interpreter and teacher.
Before I joined the Centre for French and Francophone Studies in the JNU in 1973, I had taught in Bombay, Poona and Andhra Universities. It was my naval husband’s transfer to Delhi that changed the course of my life. The most notable event was the Geneva based AIIC -Association Internationale des Interpretes de Conference – admitting me as a Member. That got me to work as a Conference Interpreter for the UN and its allied Organisations and consequently I was often asked by South Block to help out with Interpretation for visiting dignitaries.
In the mid-70s, Mr Jacques Chirac, then French P.M., had come to India and it so happened that his regular Interpreter, Dr Andronikov, was my Professor in Paris. During the bi-lateral talks between the two P.M.s, it was decided that France should make available an expert to teach in India and that is how a curriculum in Interpretation in French was first started in the JNU and then introduced in the other Foreign languages.
Interpretación en la India
The Hindu publicaba el mes pasado un artículo sobre la trayectoria de la interpretación bilateral en la India. Según la revista, durante años muchos ciudadanos de la India o de países africanos se han visto desfavorecidos en las conferencias internacionales debido a las condiciones que fija Naciones Unidas sobre las lenguas de trabajo de los intérpretes, ya que la lengua materna del intérprete tiene que ser idioma de Naciones Unidas. Sin embargo, los intérpretes indios han echado por tierra esas restricciones con sus brillantes intervenciones en las conversaciones bilaterales entre líderes indios y dignatarios extranjeros.
Foto cortesía de Shrikant Oak
Gracias a su empeño, intérpretes como Madhu Vinayak Oak y Santosh Kumar Ganguly han conseguido demostrar la valía de los intérpretes indios, que –de momento– no están representados en la AIIC.
High speed drama
[S. Rangarajan, The Hindu, 20 September 2009]Bilingual interpretation is a highly skilful and a very demanding profession. The era of interpretation started in 1919 after the First World War at the Paris Peace Conference. The American President, Woodrow Wilson and the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George challenged the monopoly of French as the international diplomatic language and successfully campaigned for the adoption of both French and English as the official languages in the League of Nations, the Permanent Court of International Justice and the International Labour Office (ILO) thereby sparking the demand for conference interpretation services.
Initially it was an age of consecutive interpretation when the speaker and the interpreter were seen side by side on the same podium. The two spoke in tandem; the interpreter rendering an oral translation of fragments of the original speech. The whole process was a long and time-consuming affair until 1925 when Edward Filene suggested a simultaneous interpretation system at the League of Nations. The improvements and advances in the audio communication services enabled the adoption of simultaneous interpretation when the interpreter finished seconds after the original speech.
