From The Hague to La Hi

The Hague is not called The Hague in Arabic. It's known as 'La Hi' — a name famous in the Arab world because of its association with the International Criminal Court. Just a few weeks ago I was watching a documentary about art and revolution in Syria, in which the protesters were singing:

Bashar Bashar, bye bye

We want to see you in La Hi

But how did it become 'La Hi' in Arabic, which sounds nothing like the Dutch or even the English name?

The city first became known to Arabs in the 19th century, when it was under French occupation. So the name was transferred not through direct translation from the Dutch, but via an intermediary language: La Haye in French became La Hi in Arabic.

This little anecdote is just one example of the games and risks involved in translation — especially when it's through an intermediary tongue.

I had another lesson in this yesterday. When I met with the other writers and translators over dinner, English was the dominant language of conversation. But names can't be translated — and when you have four writers coming from diverse linguistic backgrounds, the situation turns comic as each person repeats their name at least twice for it to be pronounced properly by the others.

The funniest was Yan Ge, who introduced herself by saying: "Yen...like the Japanese currency."

These misunderstandings in translating names (whether of cities or of people) is one of the keys to crossing borders. Names, which can't be translated and are thus rendered meaningless in other languages, have significations and connotations in their original tongue. And so, after the initial stage of learning to pronounce 'Yan Ge' and 'Kaweh' correctly, came the stage of finding out the meaning of each name, the stories that lurk behind it. Yan Ge does not, in fact, mean Japanese currency — it means 'colour song'. And Kaweh's namesake is the hero of a Persian legend.

"Are you Persian?"

"Yes, but I left when I was five years old..."

He tells a story, and someone else on the table responds with another. Little by little, the borders between the individuals fall. Translation may involve risks, and challenges, and mistakes — but the stories embedded in these pitfalls are themselves an experience in crossing borders.