These days, as leaders of all nations come together more and more to strengthen ties or resolve differences, international spokesmen rely heavily on a select band of expert linguists to transmit—often by simultaneous translation—both literal meanings and the diplomatic nuances which can mean even more. The pressure is terrific. One diplomatic interpreter offered a wry description of himself as a man with a ruined liver and worse nerves who turns up in press photos between two world leaders lacking a common language. "I am the one referred to as unidentified," he says. Colleagues find the image not wholly inaccurate. Like electricity, a good interpreter is never noticed unless something goes wrong. The glass booth in which the conference interpreter usually works can be a private chamber of horrors.