Post #326200

2026-01-02 21:12 UTC

&#39;When we treat human interpreters — and any human act of care — as inefficiencies to be optimized away, we lose that pause before “the last time I saw my mother.” We lose the hand on the shoulder. We lose the tears that say: “This child is not a data point. What happened to him is an atrocity.” My work studying crimes against humanity has taught me that some frictions should not be smoothed.&#39; https://www.politico.eu/article/when-the-interpreter-wept-what-automation-erases-inside-europes-institutions/

Replies (1)

@Furthering@convo.casa 2026-01-03 07:31

@Etche_homo@mas.to Really glad this was boosted into my feed. Without your share and the subsequent boost, I wouldn't have come across this piece. I often work with writers and translators, and though I respected their work and the countless decisions they make with each piece, in this age, I've come to appreciate them even more. And while their work is on the page and interpreters must make decisions in the moment, this passage can also apply, to a certain extent, to people who are communicating as humans themselves or for other humans (and for humanity): "An interpreter does not merely convert words from one language to another. They carry meaning across the chasm between us. They hear what silences say. They make split-second ethical and semantic decisions over which synonym preserves dignity, when a pause holds more truth than a sentence."

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