Translation Quotes

212 Translation quotes by 184 unique authors

All translation is a compromise - the effort to be literal and the effort to be idiomatic. — Benjamin Jowett
It is neither the best nor the worst things in a book that defy translation. — Friedrich Nietzsche
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… — Boris Pasternak
A translation can never equal the original; it can approach it, and its quality can only be judged as to accuracy by how close it… — Gregory Rabassa
I have always maintained that translation is essentially the closest reading one can possibly give a text. The translator cannot ignore "lesser" words, but must… — Gregory Rabassa
Translation is a disturbing craft because there is precious little certainty about what we are doing, which makes it so difficult in this age of… — Gregory Rabassa
The best thing on translation was said by Cervantes: translation is the other side of a tapestry. — Leonardo Sciascia
It is useless to read Greek in translation; translators can but offer us a vague equivalent. — Virginia Woolf
Translation rewrites a foreign text in terms that are intelligible and interesting to readers in the receiving culture. Doing so is akin to committing an… — Lawrence Venuti
Dreaming and hoping won't produce a piece of work; only writing, rewriting and rewriting (if necessary)- a devoted translation of thoughts and dreams into words… — Roberta Gellis
Like her friend and admirer Clarice Lispector, Hilda Hilst was a passionate explorer of the sacred and the profane, the pure and the obscene, and… — Benjamin Moser
The magic gets lost in translation. — Richard Roeper
Say that again, Commonwealth whit? (translation: what?) I'm no used tae hearing that. — Charlie Flynn
Just as typography is human speech translated into what can be read, so photography is the translation of reality into a readable image. — Herbert Bayer
The saxophone is actually a translation of the human voice, in my conception. All you can do is play melody. No matter how complicated it gets, it's… — Stan Getz
If the work of the city is the remaking or translating of man into a more suitable form than his nomadic ancestors achieved, then might… — Marshall McLuhan
Translators have to prove to themselves as to others that they are in control of what they do; that they do not just translate well… — Unknown Author
Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture. — Anthony Burgess
Intuition is a method of feeling one's way intellectually into the inner heart of a thing, in order to locate what is unique and inexpressible… — Henri Bergson
Translation is a kind of transubstantiation; one poem becomes another. You can choose your philosophy of translation just as you choose how to live: the… — Anne Michaels
The Haitians, who knew something about suffering and survival, had a beautiful phrase... The Translation is not perfect, but the nut of it was: 'The… — Rick Bragg
Christopher Lynch has made the best and the first careful translation of Machiavelli's Art of War. With useful notes, an excellent introduction, an interpretive essay,… — Harvey Mansfield
That's a waste of time. If you really understand Zen... you can use any book. You could use the Bible. You could use Alice in… — Alan Watts
Polly Findlay showed real insight and imagination in her production of my translation of Seneca's Thyestes at the Arcola. I enjoyed her use of the… — Caryl Churchill
In my writing, I strive for a lyrical beauty somewhere between Tolkien at his best and Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf — Christopher Paolini

Who Wrote These Translation Quotes

184 authors contributed a total of 212 Translation Quotes, led by these top contributors: