Translators Quotes - Page 4

• Men talk of "the mistakes of Scripture." I thank God that I have never met with any. Mistakes of translation there may be, for translators are men. But mistakes of the original word there never can be, for the God who spoke it is infallible, and so is every word he speaks, and in that confidence we find delightful rest.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Mistake, Men, Thank God

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• The sciences of only one nation, the Greeks, have come down to us, because they were translated through Al-Ma'mun's efforts. He was successful in this direction because he had many translators at his disposal and spent much money in this connection.

  Ibn Khaldun

  Successful, Effort, Greek

  "Muqaddimah" translated by Franz Rosenthal, Princeton University Press, 1981.

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• It's important to get a translator who will ask the questions in a sensitive and thoughtful way. Knowing the ethnicity issues, the tribal issues in some places...who your translator is can mean a lot.

  Peter Menzel

  Mean, Thoughtful, Ethnicity

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• Commemoration of Pandita Mary Ramabai, Translator of the Scriptures, 1922 A memory of yesterday's pleasures, a fear of tomorrow's dangers, a straw under my knees, a noise in my ear, a light in my eye, an anything, a nothing, a fancy, a chimera in my brain, troubles me in my prayers.

  John Donne

  Prayer, Memories, Eye

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• When my works are being translated, I always get this question from my translators: Up or down? Which means, should it sound biblical and highbrow, or should we take it all down to sound colloquial? In Hebrew, it's both all the time. People in Israel would write in a high register, they wouldn't write colloquial speech. I do a special take on colloquial speech.

  Etgar Keret

  Writing, Mean, Biblical

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• I think that if you are sticking to the text, essentially, you're not trying to write your own version of it. I mean, of course, it is your own version of it. And every translator would probably have a different version. But I think that that's what keeps the writers from being individual in English. They may be my English, but I don't think that Ferrante sounds like Levi.

  Ann Goldstein

  Mean, Writing, Thinking

  "Translator Behind Elena Ferrante Novels Says Her Job Is To Be An 'Enabler'". "Weekend Edition Saturday" with Linda Wertheimer, www.npr.org. February 20, 2016.

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• What is the task of the translator? I think the task depends on the book and on the translator.

  Idra Novey

  Book, Thinking

  Source: therumpus.net

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• When I was 16 years old, I assembled a 2.3 million electron volt beta particle accelerator. I went to Westinghouse, I got 400 pounds of translator steel, 22 miles of copper wire, and I assembled a 6-kilowatt, 2.3 million electron accelerator in the garage.

  Michio Kaku

  Years, Wire, Pounds

  "'Physics Of The Future': How We'll Live In 2100?". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. November 29, 2011.

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• A satisfactory translation is not always possible, but a good translator is never satisfied with it. It can usually be improved. (Newmark)

  Peter Newmark

  Satisfied, Translations

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• For hundreds of years the use of the word 'man' has troubled critical scholars, careful translators, and lawyers. Difficulties occur whenever and wherever it is important for truth-seeking purposes to know what is being talked about and the context gives no intimation whether 'man' means just a human being irrespective of sex or means a masculine being and none other.

  Mary Ritter Beard

  Sex, Mean, Men

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• It was an epiphany when I realized you don't have to call yourself a linguist, a translator, a poet. You can call yourself an artist and you can do all these things.

  Jan Peacock

  Artist, Poet, Epiphany

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• Effective translation of natural languages comes awfully close to requiring a sentient translator program.

  Vernor Vinge

  Language, Natural, Program

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “Zones of Thought: A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky”, p.257, Hachette UK

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• Eve talking to someone on her computer and having trouble with the language translator....."I have two like crimes. Your data and your input on Leclerk would be very helpful"Marie pursed her lips and humor danced in her eyes."It says you would like to have sex with me. I don't think that is correct""Oh, for Christ sake" Eve slammed a fist against the machine.

  Nora Roberts

  Sex, Eye, Thinking

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• An actor's life is the shadow of a cloud, the echo of a sound, the memory of a dream, nothing come of nothing. The finest actor does not create, he is but a translator of another man's work.

  Fanny Kemble

  Dream, Memories, Men

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• The biggest markets for my books outside the UK are France and Italy, and those are the two countries where I also have the closest personal relationships with my translators - I don't know whether that's a coincidence, or if there's something to be learned from it.

  Jonathan Coe

  Country, Book, Two

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• Thomas Teal, a luminous translator of Jansson's twin talent for surface and depth, simplicity and reverberation in language, and someone who knows exactly how to convey her gift for sensing the meaning embedded in the most mundane act or turn of phrase.

  Ali Smith

  Simplicity, Depth, Phrases

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• And I always read the English translation and always have conversations with my translator, for example about the names. I always have to approve it.

  Cornelia Funke

  Names, Example, Conversation

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• There is no such thing as a perfect, ideal, or 'correct' translation. A translator is always trying to extend his knowledge and improve his means of expression; he is always pursuing facts and words.

  Peter Newmark

  Mean, Expression, Always Trying

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• We need to be skilled into knowing God and His Word, then act as excellent translators of these things to the people in our churches.

  Vicky Beeching

  Knowing, People, Church

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• I think there are a lot of writers who would never have an opportunity to make their work. Some presses rely heavily on the NEA. Translators cannot support themselves on translating. It would be isolating artistically. It would diminish experimental output. It would have a homogenizing effect on the work that was made.

  Kimberly Peirce

  Opportunity, Thinking, Support

  Source: www.esquire.com

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• Obviously there are many, many ways of being an outsider, but having immigrant parents is one of them. For one thing, it makes you a translator: there are all kinds of things that American parents know about life in America ,and about being a kid in America, that non-American parents don't know, and in many cases it falls on the kid to tell them, and also to field questions from Americans about their parents' native country.

  Elif Batuman

  Country, Fall, Kids

  Source: www.commonwealmagazine.org

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• I remember having a discussion with [Kaz] about his translation of the word shunyata as "boundlessness," instead of the more traditional "emptiness." I said: "Kaz, everyone is used to the word emptiness for shunyata. This might not sit well with people. He said: "Translator's prerogative!" Then he added, "One cannot assume we know what they meant...." I agreed.

  Joan Halifax

  People, Might, Emptiness

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• I have a few minor rules for myself but I break them all the time. For example, when translating from Romance languages to English, there is often a choice between a Latinate cognate and a Germanic equivalent. An easy example would be the Portuguese escuridão: English offers both obscurity and dark or darkness, and some translators will tell you the Latinate word is generally reserved for poetic and figurative expressions, while the Germanic word is used for colloquial and idiomatic use.

  Adam Morris

  Dark, Choices, Romance

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I am not one of those translators who think that working closely with the writer will yield the best translation.

  Adam Morris

  Thinking, Translations

  Source: therumpus.net

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• For me, every translation is a new book, with the translator inevitably broadening the meaning of the original book in any translation.

  Agustin Fernandez Mallo

  Book, Translations

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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