INTERPRETER, n. One who enables two persons of different languages to understand each other by repeating to each what it would have been to the interpreter's advantage for the other to have said.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the irony in communication, suggesting that interpreters may skew messages for their personal benefit.
In this quote, Ambrose Bierce cleverly critiques the role of interpreters, implying that they may not simply be neutral facilitators of communication. Instead, they can manipulate the meaning of the words exchanged to align with their own interests, reflecting on the complexity of communication and the potential for bias inherent in the act of interpretation.
In practice
In a discussion about translation during a language class.
PALM, n. A species of tree . . . of which the familiar "itching palm" ("Palma hominis") is most widely distributed . . . . This noble vegetable exudes a kind of invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece of gold or silver.
Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.
Indigestion: A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the Western Wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: 'Plenty well, no pray; big belly ache, heap God.'
Disobey n:To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command
NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
The law of the Creator, which invests every human being with an inalienable title to freedom, cannot be repealed by any interior law which asserts that man is property.
I observe the physician with the same diligence as the disease.
Over time, the welfare state has become dysfunctional in a surprising way. But in a way it became a victim of its own success: It became so successful at prolonging life, that it becomes financially unsustainable, unless you make major changes to things like retirement ages.
There is nothing respecting which a man may be so long unconscious as of the extent and strength of his prejudices.
Luck is not the hand of God.... Luck is the way the wind swirls and the dust settles eons after God has passed by.
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