The ethical demands of translating Gender-Based Violence: a practice-based research project

GBV是一种全球性流行病，联合国的数据表明，每3名妇女中就有1人会在一生中遭受GBV。这一统计数字揭示了由新冠肺炎19号的社会影响和欧洲难民危机造成的令人不安的世界范围内的升级。然而，除了统计数字，还有人类和幸存者，我建议在一部多语种的纪录片中探索他们的故事。我的项目重点是幸存者讲述的证词，因为我对翻译在传递他们的经验时所起的伦理作用以及翻译人员处理具有挑战性的敏感材料的方式感兴趣。我的主要目标是确定在翻译视听个人叙事时哪种翻译方法是最道德的，并为(1)译者和翻译公司，(2)电影制作人和(3)战车提供良好的实践指导。翻译过程中的许多是看不见的，因为翻译只考虑与其原文有关的翻译，并在这些翻译出版后产生。也经常听到人们说，即使他们不懂日语，他们也喜欢日本作家。因此，翻译是一种事后的思考，也是一种无形的活动。然而，这种对翻译的看法具有道德或伦理后果。事实上，语言专业人员的地位往往岌岌可危，因为他们面临着薪酬下降和最后期限更紧的问题。例如，电影翻译人员经常报告说，在翻译大片时无法获得图像。此外，被要求处理强奸案件的口译员没有得到任何背景信息，预计他们将充当中立的渠道，即使不可能实现完全中立。这种情况不仅给服务提供者(语言专业人员和慈善机构)带来压力，也给服务使用者(幸存者)带来压力，慈善机构报告说不能信任某些口译员。因此，当务之急是确保幸存者的脆弱性不会在翻译中传播，并为语言专业人员提供他们需要的情感支持。事实上，在创伤性环境中，他们几乎没有得到情感上的支持，而翻译所附带的情感劳动在专业环境和学术界仍然很大程度上没有得到承认。因此，我将与一家总部位于苏格兰的慈善机构(Saheliya)合作，支持幸存者、电影制作人(Ling Lee)、语言专业人士(通过专业公司Screen Language招募)和来自Saheliya的幸存者，在拍摄开始之前了解他们的期望，将他们的观点纳入电影制作过程，并确保拍摄和翻译过程符合伦理道德。我的项目专注于敏感材料的翻译方式，以了解如何最好地回应GBV翻译的伦理需求。考虑到围绕翻译和口译的许多神话，我认为翻译人员在翻译GBV材料时需要额外的指导，幸存者和慈善机构在与翻译人员合作时需要更多的支持，电影制作人在与幸存者和翻译人员合作时需要更多的指导。这部纪录片将专注于幸存者的故事，以及翻译在分享这些故事时所起的作用。它将是多国语言的，因为幸存者将说他们的母语(包括阿拉伯语和乌尔都语)，一旦拍摄开始，翻译工作将立即进行。由于纪录片要么带有字幕，要么使用画外音，将创建两个版本并向观众放映，以征求观众对哪种技术最公平地对待幸存者的声音的反馈。然后，将使用该反馈生成最终版本。反馈问卷也将被用来了解语言专业人员对他们工作的感受。最终，通过这个项目，我想确保幸存者的声音得到合乎道德的翻译，并确保我们也倾听使翻译成为可能的专业人士的声音。

GBV is a global pandemic with United Nations figures indicating that 1 in 3 women will suffer GBV in her life. This statistic sheds light on a disturbing escalation worldwide created by the social effects of COVID 19 and the refugee crisis in Europe. However, beyond statistics there are human beings, survivors, whose stories I propose to explore in a multilingual documentary. My project focuses on testimonies told by survivors as I am interested in the ethical role played by translation when transmitting their experience and in the way translators cope with the translation of challenging sensitive material. My main goals are to establish which translation method is the most ethical when translating audiovisual personal narratives and to provide good practice guidelines for (1) translators and translation companies, (2) filmmakers and (3) charities.Much of the translation process is invisible as translations are only thought of in relation to their original texts and produced after these have been published. It is also common to hear people say that they like a Japanese writer even if they do not read Japanese. Translation is thus an afterthought as well as an invisible activity. Yet, this perception of translation has moral or ethical consequences. Indeed, the status of language professionals is often precarious as they face decreasing rates of pay and tighter deadlines. For instance, film translators often report not having access to images when translating blockbusters. Moreover, interpreters called on rape cases are given no background information and are expected to act as neutral conduits, even if it is impossible to achieve complete neutrality. Such situations put pressure not only on service providers (language professionals and charities) but also on service users (survivors) and charities have reported not being able to trust certain interpreters. It is thus imperative to make sure that a survivor's vulnerability is not propagated in translation, and also that language professionals are provided with the emotional support that they need. Indeed, in traumatic contexts they are offered little emotional support and the emotional labour attached to translation remains largely unacknowledged in professional settings and academia. I will thus work together with a Scottish-based charity (Saheliya) supporting survivors, a filmmaker (Ling Lee), language professionals (recruited via the specialist company Screen Language) and survivors from Saheliya, to understand their expectations before filming starts, to incorporate their perspectives into the film-making process and to make sure the filming and translation processes are undertaken ethically.My project focuses on the way sensitive material is translated in order to understand how best to respond to the ethical demand of GBV translation. Given the many myths surrounding translation and interpreting, I argue that translators require additional guidance to assist them when translating GBV material, that survivors and charities need more support when working with translators, and that filmmakers need more guidance when working with survivors and translators. The documentary will focus on the stories of survivors and the role translation has played when sharing them. It will be multilingual as survivors will speak their mother tongue (including Arabic and Urdu) and translation will be carried out as soon as filming starts. As documentaries are either subtitled or a voice-over is used, two versions will be created and shown to audiences to ask for feedback on which techniques do the most justice to the survivors' voices. A final version will then be produced using this feedback. Feedback questionnaires will also be used to understand how language professionals feel about their work. Ultimately, with this project I want to make sure that the voices of survivors are ethically translated and that we also listen to the voices of the professionals who make translation possible.