You can't help but have stories to share when you've lived as long as Jimmy Carter. The list of accomplishments increases tremendously when you include a term as president of the United States.
The former president passed away at the age of 100 on Sunday, December 29, the 47th anniversary of a worldwide translation controversy that erupted on his first foreign journey as president. He had entered hospice care in February 2023. Almost a year into his office, President Carter began a nine-day, seven-nation peace trip in Poland on December 29, 1977.
Even though it wasn't his fault, he had already made headlines for the wrong reasons before he could even leave the Warsaw airport.
According to The New York Times' debriefing the day after the event, the State Department's Language Services Division had sent part-time interpreter Steven Seymour to go with Carter to the then-communist country because they thought he was the best person to perform a rare high-profile translation between English and Polish.
Seymour, who allegedly charged $150 per day for his translation skills, was replaced after less than a day on the job.
The Southern politician discussed his intention to strengthen East-West ties during a chilly 25-minute welcome ceremony for Carter, adding that he was glad to have come from the United States to Poland in part to hear what the Polish people desired from their country's future. According to the Times, Seymour's comments caused the audience to erupt in laughter.
However, Polish journalists quickly exposed that Seymour had mispronounced a few words and inadvertently translated some phrases into Russian rather than Polish, which came across as offensive.
"I left the United States, never to return," is how The Washington Post translates Carter's statement that he had left the country just that morning. Carter's statement that he wanted to understand the nation's desires was interpreted as implying that he had a sexual yearning for Polish people.
Additionally, it was widely reported that Seymour mistranslated Carter's harmless statement that he was delighted to be in Poland to the far less innocent claim that he was "happy to grasp at Poland's private parts." However, it has been argued that Polish journalists exaggerated on this point.
Source: People.com