Translation Is Speeding My Re-emergence
I am an older Iranian woman. About twenty-six years ago, during one of my trips to New York (New York, USA) to visit my daughter, I took an RC fundamentals class. After that I decided to continue Co-Counseling in Iran, where RC had not yet begun. I started from scratch [from a point at which nothing had been done]!
I had to smuggle RC books and magazines into the country. I sometimes relied on my daughter or Harvey [Jackins] to send me books and Present Time through the mail and hoped that they would not be confiscated.
I would translate articles into Farsi, print them, and use them in my classes. Over the years I got better at translating. I translated The Human Side of Human Beings, the Fundamentals of Co-Counseling Manual, most of the chapters in The Human Situation, and the pamphlet How Parents Can Counsel Their Children. These translations are still being used by Iranian Co-Counselors.
About two years ago, I decided to make translating my other RC priority. Of course, my first priority is teaching RC. My goal is to make as much RC theory as possible available to the present and future Iranian RC Community.
When I am in the United States visiting my children, I have more time and better access to RC books and articles, and I attend classes and workshops in which I am exposed to the most recent RC theory. So when I am there, I translate five to seven hours a day. This has transformed my life. I am forced to try to understand RC theory. I become aware of what Harvey actually said and how Tim is pushing us to look at early childhood hurts and work on the early unbearable material [distress]. I have to discharge a lot to understand the text I am translating, and every time I re-read my translations into Farsi, I understand RC theory more fully and it becomes more interesting and alive. All this has affected my way of looking at things, my appreciation and enjoyment of life, and even my discharge process!
I am still a slow translator and my work is far from perfect, but I am trying. And I’m enjoying the challenge of making RC literature available to Iranian people in Farsi.
Thank you, my beloved RCers,
Iran