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In my newly born Healing Words space, poetry and medicine blend in a way that heals me and reminds me of the beauty and wisdom that only the soul may bring to the heart both in lovely and in difficult times. In the sharing and conversation between soul friends, we grow and sustain each other. This poem is especially for all those who are missing in our lives (even ourselves), who live silent and in a deep state of wordless despair, loneliness, regardless of being physically alone or accompanied. To those who are crushed by life in ways that we cannot even pronounce due to any kind of loss and for whom maybe poetry will bring some drops of kindness and embrace. Whoever you are, someone looks for you, has compassion and infinite love for you, knows you and will find you and hold you until you may realize that everything has always held you. Just as I was found and helped remember that when all is shattered, the ground under your feet, the wind, the dancing trees, even your own hands are already sustaining you and reminding you that you exist and of the impossibility of aloneness. A question that I walk with: What parts of me do I feel are missing that I don't even realize? Who is missing in my life and needs shelter and a loving presence? 

 

LOOK FOR THE ONE WHO IS MISSING

 

Look for the one who is missing

that muted voice holding the pain unuttered

ice bound somewhere

in time’s prison held.

 

The tearless

who bares the unbearable

who waits

invisible

who is the one missing inside you

who is the one missing in your presence

who is the one silenced.

 

The true meeting melts the ice

by being found

the frozen pearl emerges

alive

in each other’s eyes.

 

Look for the one who is quiet

in the crash of being in-life

wounded beyond words

that only poetry may utter.

 

In despair silent

that only color and clay

music and the dancing waves

may express.

 

In grief suspended

that only kindness

as the arms of a mother

may embrace.

 

 

From Inner Light by Nur Ferrante (unpublished)

 

This poem is dedicated to David White and Thomas Hübl after having heard both of them in conversation.

I cannot express better than with poetry the gratitude and deep sense of belonging and love that I sense from both of you. Within me lives the poet and the mystic together, and this marriage gives meaning to the act of being alive. This conversation has opened me in ways that I could not have imagined, and I am grateful for having been seen, for having been looked for and found by Thomas and for receiving the letter of David from his mother at a time when Thomas’ mother just passed. I felt that it was my own mother saying to me what I have not been able to hear for 20 years. I really cannot express the meaning of such a gift but through mystic poetry. What you have inspired me with this conversation. With all my heart. To you.

I am happy to announce my upcoming linguistic validation course for medical translators to be held in June 2024 (in English live streaming on-line).

 

As a medical translator, maybe you are already familiar with linguistic validation and you are presently working on LV projects, if that is the case, I invite you to take a look at the course and see if it may offer something of interest to you.

 

On the other hand, if you haven't heard about linguistic validation, and you don't know if this field may be a thing for you, I invite you to find out more, in case this is something that may be a perfect fitting in your career as it was in mine.

 

The life sciences industry has a huge demand for the translation and cultural adaptation of clinical outcomes assessments (COAs), and the role of medical translators specialized in linguistic validation (LV) is paramount, mostly those who can provide cognitive debriefing services.

 

No matter your language pair, you are in demand, even though you may not realize it yet! If you have a rare language pair, you are indeed needed, and if you have a common language pair, you are indeed needed as well because clinical trials are being run in your language in great amounts.

 

Vendor managers (working in LSPs or CROs in the linguistic services) have a very difficult time trying to find what we call "linguistic validation consultants" for the countless of projects and language variants needed in LV projects.

 

As a side note, a lovely thing about LV is that it requires pure human expertise and the use of AI is not as applicable as in other medical translation fields we are seeing today, mostly when it comes to working directly with patients during the interviewing process of cognitive debriefing. We seldomly use MTPE or any other form of AI. Although it may be used in the future for some aspects of the process, who knows...

 

I love LV and I must say that today I have the privilege of working exclusively on LV projects. Not because I do not enjoy purely medical translation projects, but because I simply do not have the time for taking on more projects due to the volume of LV ones!

 

I have been working as a linguistic validation expert for over ten years now and I have trained several companies for the implementation of the LV service. Besides the complexity of the workflows in this type of projects, what always comes to the front is the pressing need for medical translators who are also linguistic validation consultants and may be trained or have experience in this highly complex field.

 

Keeping this in mind and seeing that there are no courses available for medical translators beyond the internal training within a specific company, and blending my knowledge in the field with my love for teaching, I decided to create this course, in order to bridge this gap and open new opportunities for my medical translators colleagues to expand their careers in a very rewarding niche and to help LSPs and CROs in being able to find the necessary trained LV experts.

 

Patient-centered clinical trials are multiplying worldwide, and it seems that the increase will be exponential at least up to 2050. The use of COAs is almost a must and nowadays it is rare to find a clinical trial without a COA as an endpoint (either primary or secondary).

 

Here you have an overview of the course, feel free to leave comments, reach out and find out more! I will be happy to assist you😊

 

Thank you for reading and wish you a lovely day!!!

 

Warm regards,

Nur Ferrante