FIT-kongressen 2017 i Brisbane, Australia.
I forkant av den åpne FIT-kongressen, ble federasjonens generalforsamling arrangert. Etter lange dager med til tider opphetede innlegg, ble det hele avsluttet med valg av nytt styre der Kevin Quirk ble valgt til president for de neste tre årene. Kevin holdt sin valgtale på rim, og under kan den versjonen, som ble fremført under avslutningen av den åpne kongressen, leses.
FIT Statutory Congress 2017 Press Release
Ode to FIT
In every nation,
The word “translation”
Must be an essential thing.
This will come as no surprise
For those who are seriously wise,
While for those who are not in the know,
We may have some way to go
To convince them of such an important thing.
I say “translation” and, of course,
I’m sure to you it won’t seem strange
That I, a simple suited dude,
Within that term do wish to include
The entire gamut – that means range –
Of professional language services.
And every nation
Needs one Association,
And maybe two or even Three,
To serve the likes of you and me,
By promoting our needs
And championing our deeds,
By raising their voices
To give us sound choices
In each and every land.
For terminologists at universities,
Interpreters working with diversities,
Translators of all kinds of text –
From leaflets and pamphlets
To texts highly technical
And those educational
and indeed inspirational –
And for language workers both young and old
Such associations are worth their weight in gold.
And right at the top a sole Federation
The one we call FIT tries to do its bit
In serving our members – an eclectic bunch,
We’ve even been known to miss our lunch.
When difficult issues we discuss and debate
It’s often the case that we sit up late.
It’s a thankless task we can never take lightly
As we focus our efforts to make you shine brightly.
We’d love to recruit and to bring in more members,
So we boost our numbers and strengthen relations
And develop a presence in other locations.
To unite all in the field of translation
Is a task bestowed on the Federation:
To work together
to bring together
both region and nation
By singing our praises
And raising our gazes
To highlight the plight
of language workers
Throughout the globe,
Be they women in burkas
Or a dude in a suit,
Or translators working from their comfortable homes,
And those less fortunate in conflict zones.
And
In every region
A sense of legion
Must be an essential thing
For all this wrangling
Just leaves us dangling,
Indecisive and wholly incapable
of reaching decisions
and making transitions
towards a fairer state of affairs
All of this means, I think you’ll agree
That Regional Centres and FIT itself
Must get together
And talk together
And work together
For the mutual benefit of every member.
And I think we should do that before November.
[About me]
But who are you, I hear you say?
Well, let me tell you, if I may.
My name is Kevin and though I’m English,
I escaped to Norway to forego the anguish
Suffered by those who had studied Language,
Seen the closing of faculties and shedding of tears
In what we call the Thatcher years.
Voluntarily exiled at an early age,
I’ve worked my way through every stage
Of the world of interpreting and translation,
Working for the Association
of Writers and Translators of Non-fiction –
(this is where I watch my diction) –
where I have worked to expound and promote
the work of literary translators of note.
I have at various times in my life been
a translator of books, a ‘terp for Crooks,
a teacher and a lecturer too.
And I’ve even been so reactionary
that I’ve co-produced a dictionary.
What’s more, I do love languages and their words
Indeed, I am clearly one of those nerds
Who still owns paper-based dictionaries.
That’s not to say that I’m not unaware
Of the world of MT and IA
And the role that these will come to play
In the future of our profession.
I am convinced though, I am sure
That the brilliant work we humans do
Will never be outdone,
Never be outshone,
by any contraption –
no matter how new.
You mark my words, I am no fool.
I will not be beat by a language tool.
I’m also in love with all things humorous,
And in the FIT family such things are numerous.
It’s a thing that I relish, and before I’m done
I hope to convince you translation is fun.
And if you didn’t yet know it.
I’m a pop-up poet.
An occasional charmer
And a gentleman farmer
Concerned in all instances with my yield
And yes, I have at times been outstanding in my field.
I’m also a member of the Council of FIT
And this time round I’ve done my bit
I feel as well I’ve come to settle
And found the time to prove my mettle
By brokering deals and working my passage
To produce good results and even to assuage
Less positive outcomes taking diverse courses
On various committees and task forces
By posting and writing on social media
Updating FIT’s profile on Wikipedia
By revamping the website in recent weeks
Sending out some thousands of tweets.
I’m committed to raising the profile of FIT
And most decidedly, and most literally,
Of fighting the fight for all things literary!
[What about the future?]
Those of us here all have a great duty
To fight for our cause and to champion the beauty
Of the work that we do – and given the challenges that we all face.
I ask you now to watch this space
We have chopped and changed and vied for a place
On the new FIT Council where there’s plenty to do
You have used your votes wisely to bring about change
So that we can grow stronger and focus our sight
On all things important and vital and right
So that we can all work on the key tasks at hand
And not spend our time rewriting our bylaws
Which, though important, should not be our main cause.
We need to be brash and we need to be driven.
We need to look forward, we do need a vision.
And thus as I quickly draw things to a close
Returning you to the world of prose
I make it now known as a lowly world resident
Of my humble intention to serve as FIT President!
© Kevin M.J. Quirk
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