When you live a life as long as Jimmy Carter, you’re bound to have stories to tell. Add a term as president of the United States to the list of accomplishments and the stories grow exponentially.
The former president, who entered hospice care in February 2023, died at the age of 100 on Sunday, December 29 — the 47th anniversary of the global translation controversy that developed during his first international tour as president.
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On December 29, 1977, President Carter arrived in Poland to begin a nine-day, seven-country peace tour, nearly a year into his presidency. Before he could even leave Warsaw airport, he made headlines for the wrong reasons – albeit through no fault of his own.
The State Department’s Language Services Division assigned freelance interpreter Steven Seymour to accompany Carter to the then-communist nation, believing him to be the most qualified person to handle the rare high-profile English-to-Polish translation, according to The New York Times‘ report the day after the incident.
Seymour, who was reportedly paid $150 a day for his translation services, lasted less than a day on the job before being replaced.
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Polish communist leader Edward Gierek walks with President Jimmy Carter at a welcoming ceremony at Warsaw Airport on December 29, 1977.
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During an icy, 25-minute welcoming ceremony for Carter, the southern lawmaker spoke of his desire to improve East-West relations, saying in part that he was happy to travel from the United States to Poland because he wanted to learn more about the Polish people’s aspirations for the future.
His words caused bursts of laughter from the audience, according to the timeand soon Polish journalists discovered that Seymour had not delivered the message very well, mixing up several words and in some cases accidentally translating phrases into Russian instead of Polish, which came across as offensive.
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When Carter said he had left the United States that morning, it was translated as something along the lines of, “I left the United States, never to return,” according to The Washington Post.
When Carter said he wanted to know more about the country’s desires, it was translated as wanting the Poles in the flesh.
And — while Polish reporters were said to have gone overboard on this part — Seymour was also widely said to have mistranslated an innocuous statement that Carter was happy to be in Poland into the far less innocent claim that he was “happy to grab Poland’s private parts . ”
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President Jimmy Carter sits next to Polish Communist Party leader Edward Gierek on December 30, 1977.
Bettmann Archive
Seymour was fired the next day, though he later said The New York Times that he had no idea it was because of his performance – or that he had quickly made America the subject of jokes in Poland – until an American reporter asked him about his inaccuracies two days later, on New Year’s Eve.
“I was proud of what I did in such a difficult situation,” he told the newspaper. “I was proud of what I did because my face was cold, my hands were numb and I was wet. What affected me was the lack [previewing Carter’s speech]and absolutely dismal conditions.”
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Seymour’s replacement, Polish translator Jerzy Krycki, reportedly confided, “I’m really scared,” before standing by the president at a press conference on Dec. 30, 1977, according to Fast.
Krycki’s fears did not disappear quickly either. As Carter began to speak, the translator remained silent, later admitting that he could not understand the president’s Southern accent and decided it was better to remain silent than to mistranslate his words.
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President Jimmy Carter bids farewell to Polish officials as he departs for Iran on December 31, 1977.
UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty
Despite a series of translation errors that overshadowed Carter’s diplomatic efforts in the headlines, the world leaders involved were lenient.
The Fast reported at the time that the leader of the Polish Communist Party, Edward Gierek, told American reporters that while he found Seymour’s translations unpleasant, “no Pole would say a bad word about a lady or a translator, even when we have to grit our teeth.”
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Without Seymour being embarrassed by honest mistakes, Carter made sure, whose honest speech was reported as a sexual innuendo.
When the translator died in 2014, his colleagues found the letter in Seymour’s archive, writes The Guardian. “Don’t let excessive criticism upset you,” read the letter, signed “Your Friend Jimmy Carter.”
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