Translation Quotes · Page 6

“[reading a work in translation] is like viewing a piece of Flemish tapestry on the wrong side.”

— Cervantes

Fidelity to meaning alone in translation is a kind of betrayal.

— Paul Valery

Even a poor translator couldn't kill a style that moves with such narrative clarity.

— William Zinsser

Regarding R. H. Blyth: For translations, the best books are still those by R. H. Blyth. . . .

— Reginald Horace Blyth

“Remember that writing is translation, and the opus to be translated is yourself.”

— E.B. White

The translation of social media buzz does not really happen. Films do well through word of mouth.

— Varun Dhawan

“As long as human beings speak different languages, the need for translation will continue.”

— Nataly Kelly

Something may have been lost in translation, but it certainly wasn't love

— Erich Segal

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

— John Millington Synge

“One reason Bible translation is a difficult task is that, in many cases, there is no direct one-to-one parallel between words in…

— Ron Rhodes

the translator, a lonely sort of acrobat, becomes confused in a labyrinth of paradox, or climbs a pyramid of dependent clauses and…

— Lydia Davis

“It is the nature of languages that a pretty translation is not accurate, and an accurate translation finds its own beauty without…

— Fraus-Dolus

In Washington, the translation of E Pluribus Unum has been lost. The belief that we are one nation - united in purpose…

— Madeleine M. Kunin

“I've done a Russian movie," Claire said. "Thank God they're still stuck in realism, Zola-crazy. Subtitling their films is like captioning a…

— Paula Fox

“An ideal translation should, I believe, reproduce the effect of the original, but I have found that the best any translator can…

— Harold G. Henderson

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that…

— Voltaire

A screenplay is really an instruction manual, and it can be interpreted in any number of ways. The casting, the choice of…

— David Nicholls

The oldest cliché in the world is about "what's lost in translation," but you don't very often read much intelligent about what's…

— Sam Hamill

“Beowulf is usually seen as a masculine text, but I think that's somewhat unfair. The poem, while (with one exception) not structured…

— Maria Dahvana Headley

I'm interested in the murky areas where there are no clear answers - or sometimes multiple answers. It's here that I try…

— Taryn Simon

“To translate a text is to be conducted into its mysteries in a way that no mere act of reading—however conscientious or…

— David Bentley Hart

Translation from one language to another is like viewing a piece of tapestry on the wrong side where though the figures are…

— Miguel de Cervantes

I have many, many editions of the books, and they are all rather different. In the end, the one I used was…

— Marina Warner

My metaphor for translation has always been that translation is really a performance art. You take the original and try to perform…

— Ken Liu

“The reality is that Bible translation is not an easy task.”

— Ron Rhodes

“Poetry translation is like playing a piano sonata on a trombone.”

— Nataly Kelly

“Du skal bare huske at det ikke er en perfekt krig i en perfekt verden.”

— Jonathan Franzen

Translators are like ninjas. If you notice them, they’re no good.

— Etgar Keret

If you've got some to say to Ric Flair, you come say it to me, and I'll make the translation.

— Roddy Piper

“it is better to have red a great work of another culture in translation than never to have read it at all.”

— Henry Gratton Doyle

The translation called good has original value as a work of art.

— Benedetto Croce

Mathematics to me is like a language I don’t speak though I admire its literature in translation.

— David Quammen

As a true translator you will take care not to translate word for word.

— Horace

Translation is the circulatory system of the world's literatures

— Susan Sontag

Teaching translation is more of an editing job. You act as editor. But you can have fun with it.

— Gregory Rabassa

A translator is to be like his author; it is not his business to excel him.

— Samuel Johnson

“Living as he now lived was like reading a good book in a poor translation...”

— Henry James

I feel French is very close to Urdu. Both languages are beautiful. Sadly, their beauty is lost in translation.

— Amisha Patel

By reason of weird translation, many such sets of instructions read like poems anyhow.

— Brian Ferneyhough

'Lost in Translation' was a year of my life, if not more, and then 'Marie Antoinette' was about three years of my…

— Brian Reitzell