Gregory Rabassa

A translator is essentially a reader and we all read differently, except that a translator's reading remains in unchanging print

— Gregory Rabassa

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

— Gregory Rabassa

A translation can never equal the original; it can approach it, and its quality can only be judged as to accuracy by…

— Gregory Rabassa

Translation is a disturbing craft because there is precious little certainty about what we are doing, which makes it so difficult in…

— Gregory Rabassa

I have always maintained that translation is essentially the closest reading one can possibly give a text. The translator cannot ignore "lesser"…

— Gregory Rabassa

“So the poor translator must not just go back and forth between two languages, but if he is worthy of his calling…

— Gregory Rabassa

“The translator, we should know, is a writer too. As a matter of fact, he could be called the ideal writer because…

— Gregory Rabassa

When you hear Portuguese, if you're listening fleetingly, it's as if you're hearing Russian, which never happens with Spanish. Because the Portuguese…

— Gregory Rabassa

Every act of communication is an act of translation.

— Gregory Rabassa

One of my favorite tricks was taking a page and having the first student translate it from English into whatever language he…

— Gregory Rabassa