In recent years theories about translation have proliferated.  Yet surprisingly little has been written about what it actually
feels like
to be a translator: to spend one's days devoted to the words of another.  Bernard Turle's
Diplomat, Actor, Translator, Spy
seeks to address certain prevailing translation theories, but above all to give a sense of the true task of the translator — a daily grind that is anything but abstract.  Through twenty-six alphabetically organized recollections, anecdotes, fantasies, and dreams, he vividly conveys what it is that drew him to becoming a translator, evoking the delights as well as the frustrations of his chosen profession.
The original French text is included in an insert.