Translators Quotes

Translators Quote of the day

Rhythm is one of the principal translators between dream and reality.

Translators are like ninjas. If you notice them, they’re no good.

Either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as is possible, and moves the reader towards him: or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards him.

We are all mediators, translators.

I have a tendency to trust translators, mainly because nobody does it for the money.

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.

It is useless to read Greek in translation; translators can but offer us a vague equivalent.

Common European thought is the fruit of the immense toil of translators. Without translators, Europe would not exist; translators are more important than members of the European Parliament.

God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice.

The translators of the Bible were masters of an English style much fitter for that work than any we see in our present writings; the which is owing to the simplicity that runs through the whole.

A translator is to be like his author; it is not his business to excel him.

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

Writer's make national literature, while translators make universal literature.

Many of the Central Asians know Russian, and Ted Levin speaks it fluently. I speak Chinese, but Mongolian is completely different, so we had to have translators.

It is only logical for the translator to become a part of the world of the author.

Translators can be considered as busy matchmakers who praise as extremely desirable a half-veiled beauty. They arouse an irresistible yearning for the original.

The vices and the virtues are written in a language the world cannot construe; it reads them in a vile translation, and the translators are Failure and Success.

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

Writers rush in where publishers fear to tread and where translators fear to tread

I worked with two young women translators. One died and the other received a death threat from the Taliban.

I've heard of translators collaborating closely with their authors, sometimes even living with them for a while, but that's not me.

The translator constantly learns new things about himself.

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

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

...literary translators are the interpreters of human values - and the true peacemakers.

Those who can't, and can't teach, translate.(attrib: F.L. Vanderson)