BY CARLOS MIJARES POYER
A Legal Entity is
Chasing You!
When translating in
court, lawyers, defendants, prosecutors, the Judge, no one, waits for a
translator´s mind lapse. In Spanish the
term “persona jurídica” seems to be a bit of a mystery for some beginners in
translation. It means legal entity for many sworn translators
in these activities of Crime and Punishment,
as Dostoyevsky would write.
Once in an interview for
a translator´s job I was asked the pop question, telegraphing that I would
connect to answer that “persona jurídica” was translated to English as: “legal
person.” A bit of History. I coursed a bit of law school but it´s not my
design.
Persona, comes from the Greek Tragedies of
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex and others,
and it was a white mask that was placed in front of the face to “personify” and
resonate the speech of actor in Greek Theatre. The mask had the description
engraved infinitely in its carving, whether sad or happy, villain or saint (?)
where are they? The particular mask
enhanced the sound and made it echo through the theatre hall for the audience,
while displaying the mood, sanguine or melancholic humor, of the character at
hand, it spiraled in the hermeneutic imagination of the audience. It was all
part of the show, as old as entertainment and advertising is in this world.
Now, when a legal entity
is chasing you, or perhaps the police is looking for you, arrested and tumbled
to court, you will definitely learn the term there; we are all legal entities
for the law, that is for all us, and innocent until proven guilty, unless you
invented the gun, indeed, the culprit is the creator of gun powder; guns are
just lateral marketing accessories we use to kill people, -and we call
ourselves a civilization.
An error in legal
translation can cost millions of dollars or whatever exchange or send someone
to jail, we all know that. A legal
interpreter must handle these terms effectively, like a science and study
comparative law, for when a translator is summoned to court to translate a
trial, most of the legal events are facing each other as two nationalities, or
two cultures, and here in the word culture is the new maelstrom of
globalization. One must have a deep culture to translate, it comes sometimes
with the handling of day to day translations, it is the responsibility of the
translator to know how to translate cultures when translating to oppose
malinterpretations and prejudices that might arise anywhere in the scenario of
written or public trial, it is almost a tragedy not to manage the items of
culture in legal translation, and others too!
Of course, if you did
not notice it, when you translate one language follows the other, it can even
become invisible, the invisible man exists.
Translation can become a calm patient essence or a wild goose chase.
