Quotes on Translations

I read the Bible to myself; I'll take any translation, any edition, and read it aloud, just to hear the language, hear the rhythm, and remind myself how beautiful English is.

Poetry cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the language.

The Christian "doctrines" are translations into our concepts and ideas of that which God has already expressed in language more adequate, namely the actual incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection

A written discourse on any subject is bound to contain much that is fanciful.

The gift of language is the single human trait that marks us all genetically, setting us apart from the rest of life.

A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations.

It is neither the best nor the worst things in a book that defy translation.

I do not hesitate to read. all good books in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable-any real insight or broad human sentiment.

Translations are a partial and precious documentation of the changes the text suffers.

Lente, lente currite, noctis equi. Translation: Run slowly, slowly, horses of the night.

Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.

Reading is perception as translation. The inert signs of an alphabet become living meanings in the mind.

I want my words to survive translation.

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

Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents." Translation by Sharon Lebell