It is hard indeed to notice anything for which the languages available to us have no description.

We know there are colours in the spectrum untranslatable to our eyes; sounds beyond the range of our hearing; sensations beyond the tolerance of taste or touch. What else is there that we might be...

I’ll write the first sentence in English and the second sentence will be nonsense translated to Russian, to make the ultimate non sequitur.

I cannot say that I know Brahman fully.Nor can I say that I know him not….Nor do I know that I know him not.

Not everyone who knows how to write can be a writer. Not everyone who knows two languages can be a translator.

Sometimes words are just a crude translation of love.

The world cannot be translated; It can only be dreamed of and touched.

Al igual que todos nosotros, Klima también consideraba real únicamente aquello que llega a nuestra vida desde dentro, gradual, orgánicamente, mientras que a lo que llega desde fuera, inesperada y casualmente, lo veía como si...

I want to type one of my books into a free online translation website, and convert it from English to German and then publish the results as an exercise in the absurd.

That which is not comprehended by the mind but by which the mind comprehends—know that…

In Iraq, interpreters were ten times more likely to be killed than were U.S. troops.

All religions are based on obsolete terminology.

The Bible has been through at least half a dozen translations by the time you read it. Plus, when the word of God is infected by the hand of man, that is, written down, it...

Every text is unique and, at the same time, it is the translation of another text. No text is entirely original because language itself, in its essence, is already a translation: firstly, of the non-verbal...

A translator, caught in the space between two tongues. Such people tend to come a little bit unglued from the task of trying to convey meaning from one code to the other. The transfer is...

Imagination is a very high sort of seeing, which does not come by study, but by the intellect being where and what it sees, by sharing the path, or circuits of things through forms, and...

Poetry translation is like playing a piano sonata on a trombone.

There was once an abbot who had spent thirty-nine years alone in the temple with cats as his only companions. As someone who believed that faith and willpower could conquer any difficulty, the abbot began...

In the city, human beings celebrated and enjoyed material conditions and comforts, but were caught in the labyrinths and knots of spiritual shallowness and psychological confusion. In the city human beings wrestled with the demands...

The original language of Christianity is translation.

Don’t talk sign language and masturbate at the same time. Not unless you’re translating a Presidential State of the Union address.

The sensation of the ocean bearing my weight was the most carefree lightness I’d ever experienced. When we were halfway across the strait, the sound of an engine approached from a distance—it was probably the...

As long as human beings speak different languages, the need for translation will continue.

Mythmaking is the evolutionary enterprise of translating truths.

For him, the kampung was a place to live and work that was based on a steadfast and intimate relationship between man and nature. The village was a true reflection of life in the tropics.

Our words are often only vague, inadequate descriptions of our thoughts. Something gets lost in translation every time we try to express our thoughts in words. And when the other person hears our words, something...

Translation is that which transforms everything so that nothing changes.

Translation is the art of failure.

So many people consider their work a daily punishment. Whereas I love my work as a translator. Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other. Sometimes I think of myself...

Of the 193 recognized countries in the world, only politically isolated North Korea is considered monolingual.

Everything has been planned. The ascent will be completed in two days’ time. He will climb another one hundred floors today. Another hundred the next day. He does not want to take the lift. The...

Let not the rash marble riskgarrulous breaches of oblivion’s omnipotence,in many words recallingname, renown, events, birthplace.All those glass jewels are best left in the dark.Let not the marble say what men do not.The essentials of...

If laughter came in paste format you could squeeze out of a tube, I’ll bet nine out of ten dentists would recommend comedy before bed. The tenth doctor, having just read Tolstoy as deliberately mistranslated...

Abba is not Hebrew, the language of liturgy, but Aramaic, the language of home and everyday life … We need to be wary of the suggestion … that the correct translation of Abba is ‘Daddy.’...

Love and translation look alike in their grammar. To love someone implies transforming their words into ours. Making an effort to understand the other person and, inevitably, to misinterpret them. To construct a precarious language...

Translation software is not making translators obsolete. Has medical diagnostic software made doctors obsolete?

Sometimes I long to forget… It is painful to be conscious of two worlds.

It is naive to suppose that something that has been expressed in one form can be expressed in another without significantly changing its meaning, texture or value. Much prose translates fairly well from one language...

Deep in her soul, however, she was waiting for something to happen. Like a sailor in distress, she would gaze out over the solitude of her life with desperate eyes, seeking some white sail in...

The Tao Te Ching is partly in prose, partly in verse; but as we define poetry now, not by rhyme and meter but as a patterned intensity of language, the whole thing is poetry. I...

She turned, and at her turning came a fragrant airOf godhead, and her robe grew long; ambrosial hairFlashed, and a rosy brightness on her neck, and allThe goddess in her going was revealed. His callFollowed...

To deny access to translation and interpreting services oppresses human rights and violates laws.

When I work, I’m just translating the world around me in what seems to be straightforward terms. For my readers, this is sometimes a vision that’s not familiar. But I’m not trying to manipulate reality....

In my opinion, there are two things that can absolutely not be carried to the screen: the realistic presentation of the sexual act and praying to God.

I am writing this on a computer that I can’t imagine living without. This is an alarming thought, the extent to which I have organised my life around a metal box full of wires (and,...

Pak Suleh recalled the atmosphere on his island of Pulau Sebidang, which had been ruled by his ancestors for more than a hundred years. Now it had been passed to foreign hands—whichever nation from whatever...

Prowling the meanings of a word, prowling the history of a person, no use expecting a flood of light. Human words have no main switch. But all those little kidnaps in the dark. And then...

Det var det der holdt mig vågen om natten,” sagde Walter. “Den her opsplitning af landet. For det er det samme problem overalt. Det er ligesådan med internettet eller kabel-tv – der er aldrig noget...

But then it came time for me to make my journey—into America. [… N]o coincidence that my first novel is called Americana. That became my subject, the subject that shaped my work. When I get...

When you translate the Bible with excessive literalism, you demythologize it. The possibility of a convincing reference to the individual’s own spiritual experience is lost. (111)