Gallery of Translators of Qartuzhia

Gallery of Translators अनुवादक गॅलरी Anuvādaka Gĕlarī
3rd Regency Gallery
Type
Type	lower house of the Great Court of Qartuzhia
Term limits	None
History
Preceded by	Palace Library
Leadership
Secretary of the Books	Teyma Azamar, Naturalists
Structure
Seats	130
Political groups	Naturalists (91)   Physicians (32)   Mohists (7)
Meeting place
Yellow Hall, Turajia

The Gallery of Translators is the primary deliberative body of Qartuzhia, which when combined with the Assembly of Lances, forms the national legislature.

The Gallery was originally a physical gallery in the courtrooms of the Tuzhkhans for the Khan's personal librarians to collect, translate, and distribute his personal comments and the edicts he issued. They quickly became an indispensable organ of state and gave many more people access to the government since they could read laws, present petitions to the Khan, and engage in debates in their own language. During the later years of the Heliolatric Khaganate, however, the Khans greatly reduced their dependence on the librarians and embraced the mysticism of an esoteric language not commonly spoken in Qartuzhia.

Membership

"The good government of the whole people extends from the good government of the rulers themselves. The wise farmer divides his herds when they grow too large to be easily managed, so too the wise king divides his advisers into many groups when they grow too large for him to listen to them all at once."
Xüsusi məktublar, Lale Nedim

There is no fixed number of Translator Gallerists and their numbers have varied greatly at the whim of various monarchs. During the regency period, however, a number of Nedim's personal letters were translated, one in particular making the comment observation that deliberative bodies should be small and compared them to a herd of cattle. The standard size of a herd for tax purposes was 130 cattle, including calves. Since then, the membership has remained at or below 130 members. Members of the gallery were originally appointed by the Khagan or Khan and also also served at his pleasure, however, the various monarchs typically depended on recommendations from the sitting translators or from foreign courts of the desired language since they seldom spoke more than one language. During the regency, translators select their own candidates for the gallery and the current members of the gallery vote to approve.

Anyone who can demonstrate fluency over both the court language and at least one other language are eligible for the gallery, but almost all translators historically have been trained by sitting members of the gallery. Because of the fierce competition for attention, aspirants to the gallery typically master at least four languages and also have a grasp of several others. Most aspirants also hold graduate degrees in linguistics or a related field, but that is not a requirement because the gallery administers its own exams when vacancies for an office become available. Gallery vacancies are created when a current member dies or retires. There is no form of official dismissal, but the election of a new Gallerist before the sitting Gallerist has retired indicates the desire of the whole body for someone to retire.

Officers

The chief officer is the Secretary of the Books who has the exclusive authority to authorize a work for publication in the Book of Tongues (the legal canon of Qartuzhia), or in any ancillary or other periodical. The Secretary is appointed by the monarch, but during the regency, the gallery has appointed its own leader. The Secretary appoints inferior officers, presides over meetings of the whole, and publishes the gallery's decisions. Most of these duties, however, are delegated to other officers.

The gallerists are organized into benches, each of which has a dedicated steward. The bench stewards are typically younger gallerists who oversee the housing and care of members of their bench. This includes transportation to and from meetings and other basic tasks that would be difficult for older members to care for on their own. Stewards also report on the activity of their benches to ensure that they are all engaged in their assigned work and manage the paperwork of senior members. The position is viewed as an honorable one for young members, but also has relatively little influence on the politics of the organization.

Members who are free to pursue their own projects as approved by the secretary are called Senior Translators, whereas those who have not been approved are Junior.

Procedure

There are many ongoing activities that require the dedicated attention of the gallerists, each of which has a dedicated officer. Senior members of the gallery are allowed to pursue their own projects, which are assigned or approved by the Secretary. When not engaged in a specific project, however, gallerists are placed in a general pool of translation to re-translate materials from the senior members. For example, a senior gallerist might be engaged in translating an annotated version of the poetry of Nedim from classical Tangut into modern Tangut. This first translation focuses on capturing meaning or essence. After an adequate body of work has been translated in modern Tangut, the gallerist will pass his work onto the general pool where it will be translated into every other recognized language in Qartuzhia. The second translation focuses on a strict adherence to the first translation's meaning. Even though little actual translation is done by each of the gallerists in either position, they are ultimately responsible for the content of the finished works.