An Italian translator’s bewildered reaction to Donald Trump speaking during a White House press conference has gone viral.
The 45th President of the United States isn’t particularly well known for his eloquence, and the job of having to translate some of his, erm, more unusual turns of phrases into Italian isn’t an enviable one.
The task appears to have taken somewhat of a toll on this translator, who looked perplexed to say the least while taking notes during a recent meeting between Trump and Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
You can watch a clip of this woman and her magnificently expressive eyebrows below:
Choice remarks include the assertion ‘the United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years to Ancient Rome’.
Now, as anyone with a Horrible Histories-level of understanding of history can tell you, the Roman Empire collapsed by 476AD, a full 1,300 years before the foundation of the USA in 1776.
Plenty of historians took to Twitter to mock the president for his woeful understanding of the very country he is supposed to be leading.
However, nobody has surpassed this translator in summing up these comments with a single glance, and her incredulous expressions have made her into something of an accidental hero.
Every one of us has had to sit and listen to someone droning on nonsensically, puffed up with their own unshakeable sense of self-importance.
Many of us have encountered a dull bloke in the pub wedging himself uninvited at you and your mates’ table. Or a relative who decides Christmas Day is the best time to air a few thoughts about ‘political correctness’ and ‘snowflakes’.
However, rarely do we experience this toe-curling variety of blustering on such a public platform, with the world’s attention fixed on said bore.
Worse still, this woman now has to shape this verbal garbage into something that can be comprehended in the rich, lyrical language of Italian.
People speaking a wide range of languages have taken her to their hearts, with plenty of Americans sympathising with the way her emotions appear to flicker continuously between concern and disbelief.
As one person tweeted:
The Italian translator trying to make sense of Donald Trump is all of us, all of the time.
Another person empathised:
As someone who actually took exams in ad hoc interpreting, I can verify that this is what an interpreter’s nightmare looks like.
‘Here…interpret something that makes in English and interpret it so that it makes sense in a foreign language’.
As reported by CNN, President Trump made at least 12 false claims during his meeting with the Italian president.
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via story@unilad.com
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.