The best translations are always the ones in the language the author can't read.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
What is lost in the good or excellent translation is precisely the best.
I guess the toughest things in translations are word play, which can never be reproduced exactly.
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.
Yes, translation is by definition an inadequate substitute for being able to read a masterpiece in the original.
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.
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.
I want my words to survive translation.
Fantastic writing in English is kind of disreputable, but fantastic writing in translation is the summit.
The problem is that it is difficult to translate.
Of course we may have any number of translations of a given text - the more the better, really.