Fantastic writing in English is kind of disreputable, but fantastic writing in translation is the summit.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The best translations are always the ones in the language the author can't read.
Great writing can be done in biography, history, art.
I say that glorious prose is a fine and laudable thing, but without an enthralling story, it's just so much verbal tapioca. Simply put, the best books have both, and the best writers disparage neither.
A lot of times you get people writing wonderful sentences and paragraphs, and they fall in love with their prose style, but the stories really aren't that terrific.
What is lost in the good or excellent translation is precisely the best.
If a translation doesn't have obvious writing problems, it may seem quite all right at first glance. We readers, after all, quickly adapt to the style of a translator, stop noticing it, and get caught up in the story.
There is good and mediocre writing within every genre.
No translation can possibly be perfect. Every production and every performance is a different path up the mountain, and nobody ever makes it all the way to the summit.
Yes, translation is by definition an inadequate substitute for being able to read a masterpiece in the original.
As far as modern writing is concerned, it is rarely rewarding to translate it, although it might be easy. Translation is very much like copying paintings.