“la parole exportée”

photo credit: timsamoff

I’ve just finished interpreting for a series of meetings. Under certain circumstances, conference interpreting gets you to work alongside distinguished individuals in their own specialties. The flip side is, work-wise, that some of them have such quick and smart intellects, that interpreting for them can be a real challenge. They appear to think, and speak at different levels at the same time. This week’s passionate speaker is in that league. But she was a real pleasure to work with.

People outside the interpretation sphere have some difficulty understanding the paradoxical result of all our own intense intellectual activity. And it’s not easy to share. Basically, you get home after the meeting feeling both empty and yet incredibly in need to continue the agitation, so not feeling necessarily very tired. There has been such a degree of intellectual activity going on in our brain, plus adrenalin, that it takes some time for that over-stimulation to go away and die.

It’s precisely the way I feel now. I am free. I could engage in lots of things, like reading, doing a written translation that’s waiting, or more menial tasks. But what I need most is to stop moving, thinking, talking. Meditation would probably help. I must investigate that.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Interpretation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.