Isaac B. Singer

One of the greatest pleasures of language is reading fiction. Just yesterday, I was reminded again of just how important great writing is to me. I read a short -- very short, in fact -- story by Isaac B. Singer called "The Seance". Besides the delight of the story itself, which concerned the devious efforts of a widow to romantically entrap an impoverished professor, I marvelled at the sheer exuberance, the confidence, of Singer's writing. He was a genius, of course, but of a special type. He was the storyteller. He knew, instinctively, that he had the special gift of telling stories well, and that the public cannot resist this. Above all, he had the voice of the great storyteller. Whether it's Hemingway. Poe, Henry James, Conrad -- any of the great ones -- the writer's voice always seems to command the reader: "Stay! Until the moment the good Lord takes you away, you belong to me!"

What is most fascinating about Singer is that he wrote in Yiddish, a dying language at that time (not any more). But since he was fluent in English, he supervised the translations closely. Critics who know both languages have noted that the English translations are not literal, but slanted to the taste of his American readers. It almost becomes a retelling of the story.

I'd like to hear from people who have read Singer in Yiddish. Are the English translations very different?

I went to the Adventures in Travel Expo at Pier 94 in Manhattan on Sunday, January 14th, and was a bit overwhelmed. The venue is huge, comparable to the Javits Center, and maneuvering within the crowds is exhausting. It had well over a hundred exhibitors lined up in columns of booths, but I only managed to talk to forty or so. Most were eager to hear about Interpreters' Group, and many said they'd call up to know when we start posting jobs.

The expo was a bargain ($10.00 adult admission, pre-registered) in that it had huge amounts of giveaway material, some of it, like Travelocity's pocket folder, quite useful. There were costumed dance performers and musical acts from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The children, many of them in strollers, were surprisingly well behaved, and really seemed to enjoy themselves.

I think the expo was a terrific way to introduce families to some intriguing vacation ideas, from Alaskan fishing lodges to vacation rental homes in North Carolina to customized tours in China and Tibet. Judging from the excitement in the crowd, I think the exhibitors will be seeing a lot of new customers.

Apparently an Arabic translator for the FBI was a significant player in a recent counterterrorism case, according to an Associated Press (1/4/06) report out of Rochester, N.Y. A grocer of Palestinian descent pled guilty in Federal District court to trying to deceive agents about his brother's plans to go to Israel to become a suicide bomber. Prosecutors reportedly said he destroyed his brother's letter detailing the plan, but investigators managed to photograph it first. A copy of the same letter was found on the would-be bomber when he was stopped at the airport in Rochester on his way to Jordan. No doubt court papers contained the translation of the letter, but I would also imagine investigators used an Arabic interpreter in some of their interrogations. It would be interesting to know more about the training and security requirements for interpreters in these jobs.