Kathrine Frich
Live translation is usually a test of focus, speed and discipline.
But sometimes, the pressure goes beyond professional stress and turns into something far more visceral.
For one veteran interpreter, a single assignment crossed that line.
A moment of fear
Magda Fitas-Czuchnowska, a veteran Polish simultaneous interpreter, says translating a speech by Vladimir Putin in real time was unlike anything else she has experienced.
“It was probably the only translation in my life where I truly felt fear. Not stress. Fear. Physical fear,” Fitas-Czuchnowska told Onet, recalling the moment she translated the Russian president’s words live.
She explained that the circumstances made the task uniquely unsettling.
Unlike working from a recording, live translation carries the weight of the unknown.
“When you’re translating footage from a playback, you already know the world hasn’t collapsed. But here you’re aware that history is happening right now, this very second, and that what he says could have real consequences in an hour or two,” she said.
Alone with history
The interpreter described sitting alone in a small room, watching a live feed and listening through headphones, fully aware that any announcement could instantly alter events beyond the studio.
Putin’s tone, she said, added to the unease.
“Putin began to speak calmly. Very calmly. Almost monotonously. But the longer he spoke, the colder it became. There was something icy in his voice: without emotion, without hesitation. And he was talking about terrible things. I felt chills run down my spine.”
No room for doubt
What made the situation especially heavy was the lack of any safety net.
“Putin could have said anything then: that they were entering, attacking Warsaw; that the war had just begun. And in that same second, I had to say it in Polish. Without a moment’s thought. Without the possibility of verifying any information. Without the possibility of taking back what I had said,” she told kobieta.onet.pl.
A different kind of challenge
Fitas-Czuchnowska, who has worked as a conference and simultaneous interpreter for more than three decades, says unpredictability is a constant part of the job.
She contrasted Putin’s delivery with that of Donald Trump, whose speeches pose a different difficulty.
“Then there are people like Trump, both unpredictable and surprisingly repetitive. You never know what he’s going to say next; his thoughts jump around, and he digresses. But once he gets into a certain topic, he can keep going with it forever.”
Translator, not commentator
After a recent recording of her translating Trump circulated online, some viewers accused her of irony. She rejected the suggestion.
“I accept legitimate criticism. But if I know I translated it faithfully, it doesn’t bother me. If someone has a problem with the sound of the translation, they should listen to the original. If they don’t like what was said, they should blame the speaker, not the translator,” she said.
For her, the rule remains absolute: emotions must give way to accuracy, even when history unfolds word by word.
Sources: Onet, kobieta.onet.pl,
