Don Watson
Author
"Pictures rule, but words define, explain, express, direct, and hold together our thoughts and what we know."
Translations quotes
Translations
37 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Joseph Brodsky
Poet, Essayist
"Poetry is what is gained in translation."
Gunter Grass
Novelist
"Translation is that which transforms everything so that nothing changes."
Victor Hugo
Novelist, Poet
"A translation in verse . . . seems to me something absurd, impossible."
Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosopher
"A major difficulty in translation is that a word in one language seldom has a precise equivalent in another one."
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"Translation is the art of failure."
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"Cómo se acuerda con los pájaros la traducción de sus idiomas?"
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"One of the others shouted a translation: "The beautiful couple is beautiful."
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"Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain. (Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.)"
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"Poetry cannot be translation"
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