... When he paused and everyone looked at me for a response, ... i said "... What we're here to do is not to talk about Puerto Rico or past. What we're here to do is to see if we can figure out a way to stop the suffering and the bloodshed in Chechnya." The conversation got back on track. That's the role of the third party. It is to help the parties to go to the balcony.

How can we translate "go to the balcony"?

My comments:

“I”, the third party, asked both sides to go to the balcony.

That’s asking them to go to the balcony to get a breath of fresh air and, more importantly to cool their heads.

You can assume the discussion had been heated.

Anyways, if anyone goes to the balcony during tough bargaining sessions, he/she wants to take a timeout, calm down and return to the negotiating table with a cooler head, and hopefully, fresh ideas.

By taking the time to go to the balcony, they may be able to avoid making rash, stupid, heat-of-the-moment decisions.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.