Page 69 - Microsoft Word - 01_A MÁSIK OLDAL English.doc

behalf. At dinner, I was the interpreter for the Hungarian party
and this time someone else was the interpreter of Dr Sharma.
He began the toast with "Dear Comrades", which was a sign of
some deliberate confidentiality, but my colleague translated it
as "Our dear guests". Later, I wondered in vain why the
assistant interpreter was not present at such intensely protocol-
based events. I understood that at the dinners, there were many
people who didn't speak the English language, but there were
ambassadors, there were serious media professionals, and they
spoke the language very well. You can't just make mistakes,
they said.
The next day, the delegation on Czajka (Russian big sedan),
surrounded by twelve police motorbikes, raced along the
Balaton road to Székesfehérvár, the road was hermetically
sealed at the time. I was ashamed of myself, as an ordinary
person, since a good number of people would have travelled on
it during the summer season. But I couldn't do much with that,
because Mr. PL, something headstrong, was the assigned escort
next to the old gentleman and he listed the various high
positions and appointments he had held on the way from
Budapest to Székesfehérvár and demanded that I translate them
all, one by one. He must have been a very important person, but
the guest fell asleep. This did not bother the leader in charge of
the escort, and he continued our game together. The interpreter
was disrespected at the time. It was just a necessary accessory.
Of course, the interpreter was never allowed to eat at dinner or
meals. Dishes came and went, and they were taken away intact.
The local politicians told different jokes and expected it to be
translated like a machine. The worst was when someone told a
joke and then laughed out loud and claimed its effect:
“Well, does he understand? Does he understand? - what does he
say? Good joke, huh?” was the question. In such cases, hush up
was out of the question, you had to throw in the specific tactics
and mutter a pre-prepared short and effective joke, to which the
reaction came. But even then, it happened that someone looked

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