This fourth volume of the American Translators Associa tion Scholarly Monograph Series is concerned with the profession and discipline of interpretation. The range of perspectives presented in this collection of essays exemplifies the rich diversity of the pro fession as we know it today. Nevertheless, interpreting has been known to exist through the ages, though it was not necessarily considered a profession as such. Many diplomats who had the language back ground and other qualifications served their governments and inter preted at functions, state visits and crucial negotiations — the Yalta conference is but one example. But these diplomats usually ceased to interpret when they moved ahead to higher ranks, sometimes even becoming ambassadors. We can attribute the current standing of the practice, in large part, to the historical circumstances which deter mined it and the efforts of those who responded to the need for com munication within these circumstances. In the same way, our anticipation of future needs and the measures we are taking to pre pare our next generation of interpreters to meet them will undoubt edly shape the direction our profession takes in the twenty-first century. The contributors to this volume are practicing interpreters, teach ers of interpretation, and administrators. Many contributors, of course, span two or three of these categories, while others devote themselves to one exclusively. We have divided their contributions into five areas of concentration: the history of interpreting, interpreter training, court interpreting, community interpreting, and future developments. In the first group we have an archival overview of the U.S. government's language services, two examples of oral history by the interview technique, and reports from two very different settings —Central Europe and West Africa. Interest in the past of our profes sion has been growing. In 1988, the General Assembly of the Inter national Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) organized an exhibition of memorabilia and other similar exhibitions may follow. The focus of this interest is on working conditions and qualifications rather than on a journalistic peek behind the scenes of high diplo macy. Hana Kučerová's contribution is a case in point and also illus trates the constraints of working with a language that is not among the official ones adopted by international organizations. The diplomatic interpreter is a conference interpreter. His job clas sification may vary, though it usually follows the rankings of foreign service officers in many Western countries. Having to work from his country's language into the language of the foreign counterpart is one of the special constraints described by Harry Obst, the Director of the Office of Language Services of the U.S. Department of State. This practice runs counter to the more recent ones of the intergovernmental organizations. Paul Schmidt, who has gone down in interpreting his tory as "Hitler's interpreter," although he started his career as a train ee and then an official of the Weimar Republic's foreign office, states in his autobiography that, according to official policy, "delicate ne gotiations could not be handled by a foreigner." So, Schmidt trans lated into French for the German delegation and his French version was the only official one for the record of the League of Nations. In contrast, the interpreters employed directly by the League of Nations as international civil servants would normally work into their mother tongue.
