Quote

Often, the idea that there can be a wide range of translations of one text doesn't occur to people - or that a translation could be bad, very bad, and unfaithful to the original.

Translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful.

I guess the toughest things in translations are word play, which can never be reproduced exactly.

The best translations are always the ones in the language the author can't read.

Yes, translation is by definition an inadequate substitute for being able to read a masterpiece in the original.

Translation is not original creation - that is what one must remember. In translation, some loss is inevitable.

A translation is no translation, he said, unless it will give you the music of a poem along with the words of it.

I encourage the translators of my books to take as much license as they feel that they need. This is not quite the heroic gesture it might seem, because I've learned, from working with translators over the years, that the original novel is, in a way, a translation itself.

Originality is undetected plagiarism.

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.