Translation Quotes
Quotes tagged as "translation"
Showing 1-30 of 444

“But what is the opposite of fidelity?' asked Professor Playfair. He was approaching the end of his dialitic; now he needed only to draw it to a close with a punch. 'Betrayal. Translation means doing violence upon the original, it means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So, where does that leave us? How can we conclude except by acknowledging that an act of translation is always an act of betrayal?”
― Babel
― Babel

“So, you see, translators do not so much deliver a message as the rewrite the original. And herein lies the difficulty - rewriting is still writing, and writing always reflects the authors ideology and biases.”
― Babel
― Babel

“Who can say if the thoughts you have in your mind as you read these words are the same thoughts I had in my mind as I typed them? We are different, you and I, and the qualia of our consciousnesses are as divergent as two stars at the ends of the universe.
And yet, whatever has been lost in translation in the long journey of my thoughts through the maze of civilization to your mind, I think you do understand me, and you think you do understand me. Our minds managed to touch, if but briefly and imperfectly.
Does that thought not make the universe seem just a bit kinder, a bit brighter, a bit warmer and more human?
We live for such miracles.”
― The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
And yet, whatever has been lost in translation in the long journey of my thoughts through the maze of civilization to your mind, I think you do understand me, and you think you do understand me. Our minds managed to touch, if but briefly and imperfectly.
Does that thought not make the universe seem just a bit kinder, a bit brighter, a bit warmer and more human?
We live for such miracles.”
― The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

“The word 'translation' comes, etymologically, from the Latin for 'bearing across'. Having been borne across the world, we are translated men. It is normally supposed that something always gets lost in translation; I cling, obstinately to the notion that something can also be gained.”
― Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991
― Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991

“I say unto you: one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. I say unto you: you still have chaos in yourselves.
***
Where is the lightning to lick you with its tongue. Where is the frenzy with which you should be inoculated. Behold. I give you the Ubermensch. He is this lightning. He is this frenzy.”
― Thus Spoke Zarathustra
***
Where is the lightning to lick you with its tongue. Where is the frenzy with which you should be inoculated. Behold. I give you the Ubermensch. He is this lightning. He is this frenzy.”
― Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“Every act of communication is a miracle of translation.”
― The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
― The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

“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.”
― Illuminations: Essays and Reflections
― Illuminations: Essays and Reflections
“We cannot control the way people interpret our ideas or thoughts, but we can control the words and tones we choose to convey them. Peace is built on understanding, and wars are built on misunderstandings. Never underestimate the power of a single word, and never recklessly throw around words. One wrong word, or misinterpreted word, can change the meaning of an entire sentence and start a war. And one right word, or one kind word, can grant you the heavens and open doors.”
― Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
― Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“In my opinion, there are two things that can absolutely not be carried to the screen: the realistic presentation of the sexual act and praying to God.”
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―

“Reading a poem in translation," wrote Bialek, "is like kissing a woman through a veil"; and reading Greek poems, with a mixture of katharevousa and the demotic, is like kissing two women. Translation is a kind of transubstantiation; one poem becomes another. You choose your philosophy of translation just as you choose how to live: the free adaptation that sacrifices detail to meaning, the strict crib that sacrifices meaning to exactitude. The poet moves from life to language, the translator moves from language to life; both like the immigrant, try to identify the invisible, what's between the lines, the mysterious implications.”
― Fugitive Pieces
― Fugitive Pieces

“All explicit knowledge is translated knowledge, and all translation is imperfect.”
― The Wise Man's Fear
― The Wise Man's Fear

“Oh, no-" They weren't even on the runway, and Jonah's father was already immersed in his BlackBerry. "Remember those 'Live Large with the Wiz Generation' posters? Well, guess how that translates into Chinese- 'Jonah Wizard Makes Your Ancestors Fat'.”
― The Emperor's Code
― The Emperor's Code
“A satisfactory translation is not always possible, but a good translator is never satisfied with it. It can usually be improved. (Newmark)”
― Manual de traducci贸n (Linguistica / Linguistic)
― Manual de traducci贸n (Linguistica / Linguistic)

“Literary translation is not merely an act of picking words from one language and keeping it by dipping in the vessel of another language. Those words need to be rinsed, washed, carved and decorated as much as possible.”
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―

“So many people consider their work a daily punishment. Whereas I love my work as a translator. Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other. Sometimes I think of myself as a smuggler: I cross the frontier of language with my booty of words, ideas, images, and metaphors.”
― Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio
― Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio

“In literary translations, it is this very articulation of expressions that matters the most to bring home to the readers the full essence of the original text in question.”
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―

“It is hard indeed to notice anything for which the languages available to us have no description.”
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“Strength of creative writing lies in the skill of handling words and articulating artistic expression of feelings”
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“Imagination is a very high sort of seeing, which does not come by study, but by the intellect being where and what it sees, by sharing the path, or circuits of things through forms, and so making them translucid to others.”
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“it is better to have red a great work of another culture in translation than never to have read it at all.”
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“I think the Greek New Testament is the strongest and most successful misreading of a great prior text in the entire history of influence.”
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“Abba is not Hebrew, the language of liturgy, but Aramaic, the language of home and everyday life 鈥� We need to be wary of the suggestion 鈥� that the correct translation of Abba is 鈥楧addy.鈥� Abba is the intimate word of a family circle where that obedient reverence was at the heart of the relationship, whereas Daddy is the familiar word of a family circle from which all thoughts of reverence and obedience have largely disappeared 鈥� The best English translation of Abba is simply 鈥楧ear Father.”
― The Forgotten Father
― The Forgotten Father

“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.”
― Illuminations: Essays and Reflections
― Illuminations: Essays and Reflections

“Don't fret my dear. If art is translation of the ephemeral into observable form, then always remember that it is the translationn that is the craft. The craft is that which can always be improved. But the ephemeral is that which only you have been able to observe, and that which only you have chosen to translate, and so in a way, the ephemeral is you, and it is already beautiful.”
― Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too
― Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too
“Never trust the translation or interpretation of something without first trusting its interpreter.”
― Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
― Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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