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Irina provides simultaneous translation for high-pressure situations such as political and diplomatic meetings, conferences and court hearings. Those attending listen to her translation via an earpiece. If it’s for a news programme, she may have the “luxury of re-translating” in the edit, but much of what she does is in the moment.

When Michael asks her what makes a good simultaneous translator, Irina says that she thinks that there is a “neurological side to it” and that people with “an innate ability of reacting quickly”, such as “people with a short attention span”, might be good at it because “they can only receive small bits of information, then they have to put them out straightaway.”

Irina hit the ground running

Rather than any neurological pre-disposition, Irina was among those who “just discover they are good at it.” Her own realisation came after graduating from Kiev Foreign Languages Institute (now Kyiv National Linguistic University) and going into journalism. At the time of the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev and Ukraine’s declaration of independence in 1991, she was covering the Ukrainian parliament. As there was no interpreter service there for the Western press, Irina interpreted for them. “I realised that I could actually do it in real time, and I've been doing that ever since.”

The first principle of simultaneous translation is "do no harm"

Like medicine, the first rule of simultaneous interpreting is "do no harm". Conveying the message is the “minimum standard”, says Irina, “and then after that, of course, a good simultaneous interpreter will also project the flavour, the manner of speaking and the idiomatic use of language.”

A knowledge of history can come in handy for a translator. Irina recalls President Zelensky’s world tour of parliaments and his mention of the Berlin Airlift in the German parliament. “But in Ukrainian,” says Irina, “it's like the ‘Berlin Air Bridge’, and, of course, I grew up in the Soviet Union and we were not taught about the Berlin Airlift because it wasn't a favourable moment in their history. So it didn't come to me automatically, and I just said ‘Air Bridge’."

Occasionally, knowing too much history can be a disadvantage. When President Zelensky was speaking to the Danish parliament, Irina asked her husband, who has a degree in history, what references Zelensky might bring up. Possible historical events were suggested but, in the end, the homegrown reference Zelensky used was "hygge", the Danish word for cosy, but specifically in relation to lighting candles for the victims of the war in Ukraine.

President Zelensky is a stream-of-consciousness speaker

Though he was once a comedian, President Zelensky has, it seems, deliberately put behind him anything that could be seen as throwaway or gaggy – but he still riffs. “He speaks like a jam session in jazz,” says Irina, “He starts somewhere and then goes into a lot of sub-clauses and very long sentences and explains things in a very unorthodox manner. He takes things very emotionally so grammatically it's quite difficult to interpret him – he's quite a challenging subject.”

Simultaneously translating President Putin is a different kind of challenge. Putin doesn’t shy away from vulgar language for a start. For example, speaking about NATO last year he was been interpreted as saying “they screwed us over”. At the St Petersburg International Economic Forum this year he told the audience that countries talking about nuclear arms reduction could “shove it”.

Meanwhile, talking of the agreements after the invasion of Crimea, Putin has said: “Whether you like it or not, you have to put up with it, my beauty.” This is a phrase seen as misogynistic but also, says Irina, an example of using “street language, very informal, almost gangster-like expressions” to project the image of a “macho man in control”. Irina adds: “He always uses a new idiom, and so we're always a bit on edge when we're translating him.”

Notably, Irina observes that Putin only uses these expressions “when he feels relaxed”. After the Wagner Group’s attempted coup in June, Putin didn’t reach for any of these kinds of idiom, “and that tells me he wasn’t completely in control”.