ACT 1
Nicholas Bell (l) with Fiona Choi (r).
TRANSLATOR: The most difficult ⌠the most difficult.
I guess it would be the proverbs.
I generally opt for a literal translation
âStoneâ to âstoneâ
And let the hearer extrapolate
Well, take something like âevery rose has its thornsâ
Thatâs pretty universal.
But for something culturally entrenched
Or by some degrees removed
Thatâs a little trickier
An example:
ä¸ä¸Şĺĺ°ć˛Ąć°´ĺ (SÄn gè hĂŠshĂ ng mĂŠi shuÇ hÄ.)
Three monks have no water to drink.
Any thoughts?
(laughing) Right. Doesnât work so well.
So what do I do with that?
I can try to find an English equivalent, if one exists.
But of course, I risk making false parallels
Unwittingly engaging in an act of ⌠linguistic imperialism
Or I can really spell it outâ
Hereâs the monks, hereâs the water
Hereâs what that all means
But you do lose some of the beauty
Of the original
Itâll be much the same with this job
I suspect
I tend to employ a kind of ⌠hybrid approach
A bit of one-to-one, a bit of analogy,
Context where you need it
A word of warning though
Things can get ⌠muddy
Once we really get going
I always tell my clients, âgive your mind time to adjustâ.
It can be disorienting, hearing multiple voices at once
Just settle into it
Trust that your mind is a machine
Eventually, itâll find a focal point
Having said that,
It is essential that you concentrate
JULIE: (out) Thereâs a lot of jargon in this case. A lot of legal jargon and a lot of technical / jargon.
MARSHALL: Youâve got IDS devices at the local router level, youâve got provincial ISPs doing their own shit, so by the time you get to the / border ASâ
JULIE: My advice to you is this: donât get caught up in the jargon. Jargon is one of many tactics employed by corporations like the defendantâ
THE TRANSLATOR: ONYS Systems.
JULIE:âto evade accountability. Because they assume that the laymanâand donât be offended, but thatâs you and meâsimply canât understand what it is they do. What they build.
JANE: (to Marshall) When I say call me back, you / have toâ
MARSHALL: Iâm busy, Bollman.
JANE: You have to / call me back.
JULIE: Thatâs not what this case is about.
MARSHALL: Iâm busy, someoneâs suing us?
JANE: Yes, Iâve been trying / toâ
MARSHALL: Whoâs suing us?
JANE: Eight Chinese dissidents.
JULIE: This is about right and wrong.
MARSHALL:⌠what?
JANE: Eight / Chineseâ
MARSHALL: I heard youâfucking, what?
JULIE: You donât need to understand jargon to understand that.
EVA: What does that mean exactly, the Law of Nations?
MEI: Then what are you? What did you do?
éŁä˝ ćŻäťäšďź/ä˝ ĺš˛äşäťäšďź
NĂ nÇ shĂŹ shĂŠnme?/NÇ gĂ nle shĂŠnme?
DAO: I canât survive without you.
沥ćä˝ ćć´ťä¸ä¸ĺťă
MĂŠiyÇu nÇ wÇ huĂłbuxiĂ qĂš.
JANE: Eight Chinese dissidents are suing us for criminal collusion with the Chinese government.
MARSHALL: Theâhow? What? In China?
JANE: In ⌠Texas.
MARSHALL:⌠how?
JANE: It has to do with / ⌠pirates.
RICHARD: Itâs about pirates.
JULIE: (out) Having said that, I have some legal jargon to get out of the way. The fact is that in this case the plaintiffs are not American citizens. They are eight citizens of the Peopleâs Republic of China. And they are suing the defendantsâ
THE TRANSLATOR: ONYS Systems.
JULIE:âfor injuries inflicted in the state of China. So I imagine youâre a little confused / I imagine youâre wondering what the hell this has to do with you as a resident of Dallas County. And to explain that, Iâm going to tell you about a piece of legislation called the Alien Tort Statute.
THE TRANSLATOR: D.C., 2012.
RICHARD: Itâs about pirates.
JULIE: Iâm aware of / theâ
RICHARD: I mean Iâd never even heard of this thing, you know why Iâd never heard of it? Because itâs from the Judiciary Act of 1789. Wherein this statute was included, Iâm informed by the best and brightest legal historians, as a means for dealing with / pirates.
JULIE: Pirates.
RICHARD: Pirates. As in âyarrâ.
JULIE: Is that your pirate?
RICHARD: Maybe, why, whatâs your pirate?
JULIE:⌠ahoy?
RICHARD: Youâre a disgrace to the legal profession.
JULIE: You said yarr.
RICHARD: Jules, I just donât wanna be that firm.
JULIE: I hear you.
RICHARD: I donât wanna just jump on some fad legal loophole just because every other schmuck on the human rights beat is doing it.
JULIE: Itâs not a fad.
RICHARD: I mean God knows your little humanitar...