Selected translations

"The type of translation we are seeking can be described as literal, though not literal in a strict or pedantic sense... We feel that as soon as devices extraneous to the original are employed for the purpose of recreating its 'spirit', the value of the whole enterprise is called in question... Poetry inevitable loses hugely in translation, but those purists who claim that it is precisely "the poetry" which is lost are speaking as though 'the poetry' were some separable ingredient, some additive like the whitening agent in a detergent... The very oddity and struggling dumbness of word versions is what makes our own imagination jump."