IW 191: InterpreTips: A Frosty Interpretation - You Decided-So Do It

That's NOT what that means. - Huh.  You're right.

Sometimes even interpreters don't understand what it means. Did you ever find out what you thought an idiom, phrase, a slang term, a song lyric, or even a poem meant was actually wrong? Inconceivable!

Today we explore Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken.

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Transcript

IW 191: InterpreTips: A Frosty Interpretation - You Decided-So Do It

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[ROCK INTRO MUSIC STARTS]

00:00:02 Tim

Good morning, good evening, good afternoon. Wherever you are, this is the Interpreter's Workshop podcast. I'm Tim Curry, your host. Here we talk everything sign language interpreting the ins, the outs, the ups, the downs, the sideways of interpreting. If you're a student, a new interpreter, experienced interpreter, this is the place for you. If you want to know more, go to interpretersworkshop.com.

00:00:28 Tim

Let's start talking... interpreting.

[ROCK INTRO MUSIC ENDS]

00:00:34 Tim [ONLY TIM SPEAKS IN THIS EPISODE]

And now the quote of the day.

00:00:37

Today we have a very long quote but bear with me.

00:00:42

This one is by the American poet Robert Frost.

00:00:48

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

and sorry I could not travel both,

and be one traveler, long I stood.

and looked down one as far as I could,

to where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,

and having perhaps the better claim,

because it was grassy and wanted wear,

though as for the passing there

 had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay

in leaves no step had trodden black,

I kept the first for another day.

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh,

somewhere ages and ages hence

two roads diverged in a wood, and I…

I took the one less traveled by,

and that made all the difference.”

00:01:58

A beautiful way to get started.

[SHORT TRANSITION MUSIC]

00:02:05

This poem has been used many, many, many times in books, in movies, by philosophers telling us to choose the path less traveled.

00:02:18

Make your own way, take responsibility and forge your own path, your own journey, your unique way of doing things, having that power within yourself to do it yourself, to make a decision, not the same as everyone else, but unique, special, different, unknown, the joy, the adventure.

00:02:49

And I've quoted this many times as well, thinking the same thing.

00:02:55

I mean, what a wonderful thing to think of, to empower yourself, to give yourself that awareness that you can be someone special, that you can do something different, that you can take an adventure for yourself.

00:03:14

The funny thing is this poem may mean that to a lot of us, but if you read it carefully and you listen to Robert Frost's own statements about this poem, you realize it means the opposite of what we've always thought.

00:03:34

Robert Frost himself said that the poem was a joke written for his friend, because on almost every walk that Robert and his friend took, his friend would always dwell on which path to take for a long time, and even though he made a decision to take this path, he was always dwelling on the path not taken, thinking, it must have been better than this one, or what would we have seen there instead of here?

00:04:09

That wishy-washy indecision dwelling in the past is why Robert wrote the poem, not for the path taken, but because of the indecision of which path to take and thinking about that decision longer than it should have been thought about.

[ROCK TRANSITION MUSIC STARTS]

00:04:29

So, take the path that others have taken before you.

00:04:32

That's right.

00:04:33

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00:04:38

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00:04:40

Thank you.

00:04:41

Now turn around and go back. … No, wait.

[ROCK TRANSITION MUSIC ENDS]

00:04:46

As interpreters, we make a lot of decisions, many decisions on the spur of the moment, second by second, which sign we should use, which interpretation this concept would fit.

00:05:00

What does this phrase mean?

00:05:03

How does it fit into this dialogue with these people?

00:05:07

Should I give this information or not?

00:05:10

Where do I put this information in, in this conversation?

00:05:14

I'm still holding it…

00:05:16

All of these little decisions, should I say yes to the assignment?

00:05:20

Should I force the issue of having a team with me?

00:05:24

Should I tell my team that I don't have this skill or that skill?

00:05:28

Should I tell my team that what he's signing is wrong or bad?

00:05:33

Should I feed now or later?

00:05:36

So many decisions, so many forks in the road, so many paths not taken.

00:05:44

Yeah, you can see easily where we're going with this.

00:05:49

Robert Frost makes perfect sense for us in our profession.

00:05:54

If we wait too long on a decision, the journey's already passed us by.

00:05:59

We're late.

00:06:01

We may not even know which path they took, so we may be bringing information or knowledge that makes the information not make sense to us, because we haven't made the connections in our interpretation yet.

00:06:16

We can't be left behind.

00:06:18

We have to make a decision and follow through and not think, “Oh, I should have done it this way.”

00:06:24

Well, I'll just repeat what I said in the other interpretation that I think is better.

00:06:32

Does this sound familiar?

00:06:34

Many times, that is a rabbit hole that interpreters go down, especially new interpreters, or interpreters who are very stressed out and don't feel confident in the moment, we tend to rethink what we've done and try to go back to that moment and redo it.

00:06:56

But the more we think of that decision point, those two paths, the less energy, the less effort we have to put into right now.

00:07:11

What decision is important now?

00:07:14

I've already made that decision.

00:07:15

We should leave it behind and focus on the path that we're already creating.

00:07:22

Regretting a decision takes energy away from us.

00:07:26

It takes confidence away from us.

00:07:29

We need to remember when we make a decision and we move on, it was the best decision we could make at that moment, at that time, with what we had.

00:07:39

We can't change it.

00:07:40

It's gone.

00:07:41

We all know this, but we can't go back to the road that was not taken.

00:07:48

There are many decisions that we make that sometimes we regret or we dwell on.

00:07:54

In our minds, we revisit them, sometimes after the assignment.

00:08:00

Those are the times we need to get rid of that moment and focus on now, what's the next assignment?

00:08:06

What's the next gig?

00:08:09

Our team may have said something that was inappropriate to us, or they said something that critiqued our interpretation at that moment.

00:08:21

And sometimes we take that to heart, and we put that label on us.

00:08:26

We need to remember when we put those labels, oh, he said this, then that means I need to work on this because I probably did…

00:08:35

We need to remember that that critique was for that moment, that moment in time, between those decisions that you had to make right then.

00:08:45

You made that mistake.

00:08:47

Take it, learn from it, and the next time, don't do it.

00:08:52

Or, heaven forbid, the team may be wrong.

00:08:57

Perhaps it was a client who said something that was hurtful or made you rethink about your skills, about your confidence, about your understanding of a matter, or a decision that you made.

00:09:12

Out of all of that, the best thing you can do is, that's right, move on and take the road that you're still on, that you’ve already decided, and not worry if it's not this beautiful, unique interpretation that no one's ever done before.

00:09:30

No one's thought of this way of signing this.

00:09:33

Oh, did you hear that phrase?

00:09:36

I interpreted it as this, and this is just phenomenal.

00:09:40

No one's ever done it.

00:09:41

It's so special.

00:09:42

It's the… interpretation less traveled.

00:09:47

Yeah. [sighing]

00:09:49

Those of you who've had a teacher of sign language or a teacher of interpreting, and they've said something, a critique or something negative about your interpretation style or interpretation of that moment.

00:10:09

And many years later, you're still thinking of that.

00:10:11

You still look back and think, yeah, so-and-so is pretty critical about this and this.

00:10:18

I need to remember that.

00:10:20

Do you think back so far and think about what someone has critiqued or said to you as a teacher?

00:10:30

Do you still wear that label?

00:10:32

Do you still exude your confidence through that filter?

00:10:38

Maybe it's time to remember you're on this path.

00:10:43

You chose this way a long time ago.

00:10:46

In fact, today you chose a certain way to go.

00:10:51

Stay on that path.

00:10:52

Stop looking back.

00:10:54

The more we look back, the more regrets we have.

[SHORT TRANSITION MUSIC]

[ROCK EXIT MUSIC STARTS]

00:11:04

Robert Frost was either a genius, the best philosopher in the world, or maybe the best friend in the world.

00:11:14

For me, I take from his poem, what you have already decided, live with it, embrace it.

00:11:23

It may not be a different interpretation, it may not be special the way you signed it,

00:11:30

You might not be getting the pat on the back or the oohs and the ahhs from all the clients.

00:11:36

You may not be that public interpreter out on social media that everybody sees and is wowed by and wants to listen to them give lectures or talks or...

00:11:49

You may not be that person.

00:11:53

And maybe that's why sometimes we say, I'm just the interpreter.

00:11:57

But we're more than that.

00:12:00

Our entire job is confidentiality, a non-disclosure agreement.

00:12:07

We don't tell what we see, what we do, where we are.

00:12:12

We just have to live with that.

00:12:15

We don't get recognition for the amazing skills that we have.

00:12:19

But that's part of the profession.

00:12:22

Just as nurses, doctors, psychologists, it's just us.

00:12:29

It's just the way it is.

00:12:31

But what's really cool, if we listen to Robert Frost, today is a new start.

00:12:37

Today is the new fork in the road.

00:12:41

And we get to decide not only which decisions we make, but we get to see how it all unfolds.

00:12:50

So, let me ask you, what road have you decided to forget about today?

00:12:59

And which road have you decided to focus on?

00:13:03

The answer is simple.

00:13:05

No matter what you just decided, just remember, the old road is behind me.

00:13:12

The new road is… waiting.

00:13:16

There may be hundreds of others there in front of you, but sometimes they stop and rest, and you can have a chat or two.

00:13:23

Until then, keep calm, keep interpreting, the same old, same old way.

00:13:31

I'll see you next week.

00:13:33

Take care now.

[ROCK EXIT MUSIC ENDS AT 00:14:10]