“la parole exportée”

I look up my Blog Stats every day and I keep a complete list of search phrases that attracted people to my translator’s blog. They are in a little file in a corner of my desktop, just in case they come in handy at a later stage…

But these search phrases can be weird.

See this one, and I’m not making it up:

“American billionaire buys 395,000 shares”

It’s a weird one, because:

1- I don’t know any American billionaire, or any that I am aware of.

2- I haven’t translated a book by an American billionaire, although I’d love to.

3- I never mentioned any American billionaire in my posts, even with a view to attracting visitors indirectly. Now I might am .

4- If there is an American billionaire who bought 395,000 shares of any stock recently (Société Générale doesn’t count…), he can feel free to contact me directly, as I am interested to explore what we might have in common, that Google/Yahoo/MSN has already spotted, and I haven’t.

5- If there is an American billionaire who bought 395,000 shares of any stock recently (Société Générale doesn’t count…), he can feel free to contact me directly, as I am interested to hear what useful tips (apart from online marketing offers) he would have for an aspiring French billionaire.

Naturally, I googled the phrase, but didn’t find anything conclusive (my URL).

Are search engines entering the match-making market now? Hmmmm… interesting.

I am sitting at my computer, pounding away at the keyboard, eyes glued to my translation on the screen, when bling! ‘You’ve got mail…’

… I’ve just received the weekly newsletter of Le Figaro Madame.

A wealth of extraordinary photographs of John Galliano’s Haute Couture collection for Dior. This one is only the first…

… the rest, 40 ‘must-see’ photos, are here. I do not really understand the prose or rather the poetry that goes with them, although it is written in my mother tongue. But with Haute Couture, you don’t need to understand. And in case you thought this was totally pointless, Dior’s sales figures have increased by 600% since John Galliano joined them in 1996.

For a long time, I didn’t really understand why they had to produce such incredible creations that are not meant to be worn often, if at all.

But Haute Couture is just the tip of the iceberg, or the cream of an industry. The materials are gorgeous, the work is exquisite, the result is out of this world. Many years ago, I interpreted for a group selecting the fashion that was going to be worn two years later. The glossary I compiled for that meeting included all the colors and materials that can possibly exist. I loved every minute of the meeting and I gained much more than the check I received afterwards. And I tend to take a different look at fashion now.

And as I’m typing this, I’m wearing my go-with-everything outfit: black top, black skirt, black tights and black boots. NO HAT.

Photo from Le Figaro.fr Madame.

I am quite busy with projects at the moment, but I can stop for a minute and think about what I am doing.

What I like about this work is the many-faceted experience.

On the one hand, companies that can sell equipment worth tens, even hundreds of thousands of euros to even richer corporations.

On the other hand, international non governmental organizations that help the poor and the destitute to barely survive in terrible conditions.

I am a part, if only a tiny one, of it all.