Quotes About Translation

With two books open on my lap, one in my hand, two on the floor, I'm surrounded by imperfect translations: a gathering chaos; something mysteriously formed; without beginning, without end; formless and perfect.

Translation is so far removed from being the sterile equation of two dead languages that of all literary forms it is the one charged with the special mission of watching over the maturing process of the original language and the birth pangs of its own.

Any translation which intends to perform a transmitting function cannot transmit anything but information -- hence, something inessential. This is the hallmark of bad translations.

It is the task of the translator to release in his own language that pure language that is under the spell of another, to liberate the language imprisoned in a work in his re-creation of that work.

The doctrines of Christianity, or the many different theologies, are less true than the true myth because they are only attempts to translate the story, while God has expressed it all more adequately in the real incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.

bestselling and award-winning author Wanda E. Brunstetter is one of the founders of the Amish fiction genre. She has written close to 90 books translated in four languages. With over 10 million copies sold, Wanda's stories consistently earn spots on the nation's most prestigious

For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?

A translator ought to be faithful, but is not bound down to being literal.

The difference between a translation and an original is not of the same order as the difference between powdered and steamed coffee.

It is translation, more than speech itself, which provides incontrovertible evidence of the human capacity to think and to communicate thought. We should do more of it.

I express not the word for the word but the sense for the sense.

Would we have ever asked what it is that a translator 'carries across' the 'language barrier' if he or she were called a 'turner', 'tongue-man', or 'exchanger'? Probably not.

A desire to believe (despite all evidence to the contrary) that words are at bottom the names of things is what makes the translator's mission seem so impossible.

The real story is the other way around. Without translators, Western dictionaries would not exist.

The natural way to represent the foreignness of foreign utterances is to leave them in the original, in whole or in part.

Translation-?based language teaching is no longer in fashion, but its ghost still inhabits a number of misconceptions about what translation is or should be.

Translation is not just one thing; how best to do it depends on what you are doing it for.

This way of dealing with an untranslatable by not translating it while making it pronounceable (sound translation, homophonic translation: see here) could be considered the primary, original meaning of the term literal translation.

Once again, the expression uttered (in speech or writing) is not the sole or even the primary object of translation when the force of an utterance is what matters, as it always does.

Assim sendo a boa tradução não é impelida pelas motivações do domínio e da aquisição, mas pelo respeito. Tradução é uma palavra que deigna um conjunto de práticas mediante as quais aprendemos a conviver com as diferenças, com a fluidez da cultura e com a instabilidade do eu.

Abba is best translated "Dear Father." It is a term of intimacy, but it also contains a sense of obedience.

Is there any purpose to translating poetry? A poem does not contain information of importance, like a signpost or a warning notice.

There is little taste for 'high culture' especially in Evangelicalism, where the tendency has long been toward translation - making things accessible to the largest number of people.

No one has claim to originality in literature; all writers are more or less faithful amanuenses of the spirit, translators and annotators of pre-existing archetypes.