Found in Translation

Interpreter in Chief
UN interpreters are not the only ones who have high-profile assignments. Take
Harry Obst, who interpreted for seven U.S. presidents (Johnson, Nixon, Ford,
Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Clinton). In the process, he has helped
secure congenial foreign relations for the U.S. government over a period of
three decades.
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Not only did Obst interpret, but he frequently found himself taking on
responsibilities that extended far beyond his job description.
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For example,
during one meeting between U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and German
Chancellor Kurt Kiesinger, Kiesinger posed a complicated question about
NATO missile defenses. Johnson hesitated for a moment, stumped. Seizing on
the hesitation, the German chancellor went for a long-deferred bathroom
break.
As soon as Johnson and Obst found themselves alone in the room, the
president turned to Obst, and asked in his heavy Texan drawl: “Mr. Interpreter,

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how shall we answer that?” Johnson knew that Obst had been briefed
extensively on the necessary facts and figures. Obst quickly supplied the
necessary information to the president. When the German leader returned,
Johnson impressed him with a well-informed answer, after which the
chancellor complimented him for a military expertise that Johnson was not
otherwise known for.
Another time when a difficult question came up, this time during a White
House meeting, Johnson announced, “Let me consult the interpreter.” To his
consternated advisers, the president explained, “They’ve been around.”
Johnson sometimes asked advice from veteran interpreters, realizing that they
had worked under previous administrations, giving them personal knowledge
of foreign leaders and their negotiating styles.
Later, when Carter was in office, the president’s chief speech writer called
Obst with a request from the president for his keynote speech in July 1978 at
the Airlift Memorial in Berlin. Carter wanted Obst to craft a sentence in
German, similar to Kennedy’s famous line “Ich bin ein Berliner!” Obst,
wanting to avoid German umlauts and other sounds that might be difficult to
pronounce, came up with “Was immer sei, Berlin bleibt frei” (No matter what,
Berlin will remain free). White House aides considered this sentence “too
corny and not presidential,” but Carter liked it and put it at the end of his
speech. The morning after the speech, Obst’s linguistic concoction was the
headline in all major Berlin newspapers and in most other German dailies.
Carter also experienced the opposite end of the spectrum when it came to
interpreters and media coverage. One unfortunate experience made Time
magazine’s list of Top 10 Most Embarrassing Moments.
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In late December
1977, Carter touched down in Warsaw, Poland. Because the State Department
had no staff interpreter for Polish, they had hired Steven Seymour, a freelance
Russian–English interpreter who was Polish by birth and had gone to college
in Poland. Though Seymour was not a Polish interpreter by trade, he was asked
to interpret anyway. Unfortunately, he received the president’s prepared speech
only a minute or two ahead of time, instead of hours in advance, which would
have allowed him time to fully prepare.
Due to the frosty relations between the Polish and the U.S. governments at
the time, the U.S. delegation had to wait outside for the presidential plane in the
equally freezing rain for three hours.
Hindered by all these factors, Seymour went on to render such innocent
statements by President Carter as “when I left the United States” into Polish as
“when I abandoned the United States.” He also accidentally interpreted “your
desires for the future” as “your lusts for the future,” a sexually laden and

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