Quotes About Translation

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

I don't think it's by accident that I was first attracted to translating two French women poets.

I worked with two young women translators. One died and the other received a death threat from the Taliban.

Silence is God's first language; everything else is a poor translation.

There is in fact no Greek equivalent to our barren term 'sex.' This English word in its present usage emerged only in the nineteenth century, out of clinical discourse. Greeks spoke of what we now call 'sex' by referring to gods - Eros and Aphrodite.

What is Logicke but the highe waie to wrangling, contayning in it a world of bibble babble. Need we anie of your Greek, Latine, Hebrue, or anie such gibbrage, when we have the word of God in English?

What is Logicke but the highe waie to wrangling, contayning in it a world of bible babble. Need we anie of your Greek, Latine, Hebrue, or anie such gibbrage, when we have the word of God in English?

Every man who knows anything of languages, knows that it is impossible to translate from one language into another, not only without losing a great part of the original, but frequently of mistaking the sense.

The continually progressive change to which the meaning of words is subject, the want of a universal language which renders translation necessary, the errors to which translations are again subject, the mistakes of copyists and printers, together with the possibility of willful alteration, are of themselves evidences that human language, whether in speech or in print, cannot be the vehicle of the Word of God.-The Word of God exists in something else.

Günümüzde var olan tüm bilimsel bilgi bize ya Eski Yunanl?lardan ya da Eski Yunanca konuÅŸan topluluklardan gelmiÅŸtir. Bu nedenle, baÅŸka uluslar?n Yunanl?lar?n sahip olduÄŸu bilgiyi edinebilmesi için bu uluslardan baz? kiÅŸilerin Yunanca öÄŸrenmesi ve Yunanca bilim ve felsefe kitaplar?n? bu uluslar?n dillerine çevirmesi gerekmiÅŸti.

The continually progressive change to which the meaning of words is subject, the want of a universal language which renders translation necessary, the errors to which translations are again subject, the mistakes of copyists and printers, together with the possibility of willful alteration, are of themselves evidences that the human language, whether in speech or in print, cannot be the vehicle of the word of God. The word of God exists in something else.

The vocabularies in the world add up, they do not overlap. Translation is something else.

We must begin to find the untranslatables in each culture and return them to world history.

I wouldn't like to have to translate Márai myself. At times, his ordering of words can be as intricate and polished as Ovid's. It is worth pointing out that the original Hungarian title of Embers is "Candles Burn to the End" - a little unwieldy, perhaps, in English, but a title better suited to a novel about how the important emotions never end until death.

Do not disturb!' 'No molestar!'—ever get the idea some things aren't translating right?

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.

Translation work involves knowing not just the structure of the language to be translated, but the cultural framework that surrounds it.

Translators need a lot of skills besides fluency in at least two languages; translators need to be excellent writers in their native language and need to be interested in and skilled at terminology research using both paper dictionaries and the Internet.

Today, most translation work happens remotely, and translators can live almost anywhere. The up and down nature of most freelancers' work loads also lends itself to using free time to take classes, pursue hobbies, travel or spend time with family.

Most translators, even if they work 40 hours a week or more, live a very self-directed lifestyle and can tailor their work day around other interests or commitments such as families.

The name of the child, "Jesus," is a Greek translation of the Hebrew, "Joshua

The pleasure of heaven are with me, and the pains of hell are with me, The first I graft and increase upon myself . . . . the latter I translate into a new tongue.

Languages are not strangers to on another.

Fragments of a vessel which are to be glued together must match one another in the smallest details, although they need not be like one another. In the same way a translation, instead of resembling the meaning of the original, must lovingly and in detail incorporate the original's mode of signification, thus making both the original and the translation recognizable as fragments of a greater language, just as fragments are part of a vessel.