US News

Own aide baffled by ‘Dafy-ese

After struggling to turn Moammar Khadafy’s insane ramblings at the United Nations into English for 75 minutes, the Libyan dictator’s personal interpreter got lost in translation.

“I just can’t take it anymore!” Khadafy’s interpreter shouted into the live microphone in Arabic.

At that point, the UN’s Arabic section chief, Rasha Ajalyaqeen, took over and translated the final 20 minutes. “His interpreter just collapsed. This is the first time I have seen this in 25 years,” another interpreter told The Post.

WATCH: LIBYAN TRANSALTOR COLLAPSES

Breaking with protocol, Khadafy brought his own interpreters from Tripoli for Wednesday’s speech rather than use one of the 25 Arabic translators supplied by the United Nations, staff interpreters said. Khadafy told the world body that he was supplying his own French and English interpreters because he would be speaking a special dialect only they would understand, but staff interpreters said he actually spoke standard Arabic.

“He’s not exactly the most lucid speaker,” another Arabic interpreter said. “It’s not just that what he’s saying is illogical, but the way he’s saying it is bizarre.”

Khadafy has a habit of repeating the same phrase over and over, “which is good because if you don’t understand what he says the first time, you can get it right the second or third time,” the interpreter said.

The colonel’s extemporaneous ramblings are a particular challenge, another interpreter said.

“Sometimes he mumbles, sometimes he talks to himself,” he said.

Ajalyaqeen, who had to rescue the beleaguered interpreter, was given the day off yesterday.

“Ten minutes with Khadafy earns you a lot of annual leave,” one interpreter said.

Meanwhile, Khadafy’s Libyan entourage once again erected a Bedouin-style tent on a Westchester County estate owned by Donald Trump. Bedford Town Supervisor Lee Roberts said it was taken down after a summons and a stop-work order were issued. She said she’d heard that the tent’s brief reappearance was to allow one of Khadafy’s sons to have his picture taken in it.

Additional reporting by Ed Robinson

jeremy.olshan@nypost.com