The Importance of Having More Context

​Probably every translator at some point had to ask for more context and knows that it is not rare to receive a bewildered look in answer to this question. Translators’ obsession with context even became an Internet meme.  ​However, is it so weird to ask for more context? A couple of days I go a came across a vivid illustration of the importance of having more context. ​

In the last few years American journalist and lawyer, Megyn Kelly, managed to interview twice Vladimir Putin. The second interview was broadcasted recently on NBC News and is still widely discussed in mass media... Russian inclusive.  For example, the federal Russian Channel One dedicated to this interview several episodes and in one of them even included the opinion that Kelly gave on Putin in MSNBC’s programme Hardball.

Он очень умен. У вас создается впечатление, что он самый умный человек в любой компании. Так что не стоит пробовать перемудрить Владимира Путина, не думаю, что получится. [5:10 – 5:21]

​[He is very smart. You get the impression he is the smartest man in every room and so you should not try to outwit Vladimir Putin, I don’t think this is going to happen.]

​However, this statement doesn’t go along with Megyn Kelly’s image, and Russian independent TV channel Dozhd even included this case in its programme about fake news as an episode on «How Channel One mistranslated words about Putin of the journalist from NBC, Megyn Kelly». Is it really about translation? Actually, the matter is much simpler: the phrase was translated correctly, but completely wrenched out of its context. Adapting the quote according to its interests, Channel One excluded the rest of the discourse where this panegyric statement served simply to explain the president’s ability to effectively manipulate people. 

​You see in Putin what he wants you to see. The man was in the KGB, he knows how to manipulate people. His whole life he spent doing it. Even when we were in Saint Petersburg the last time he spent off-camera time telling me about his love for his mother, his love for his children. Now, I am a mother of three young children, I mean he is very smart. You get the impression he is the smartest man in every room and so you should not try to outwit Vladimir Putin. I don’t think this is going to happen. But you can as I did in this interview try to box him in a bit because I had facts and with all due respect to the Russian president he wasn’t telling the truth about the matters I was examining him on. [01:21— 02:02]

​Read in its original context Megyn Kelly’s utterance obtains a completely different interpretation. This reading apparently didn’t go along with the federal channels, hence the manipulation of the context.