To translate, one must have a style of his own, for otherwise the translation will have no rhythm or nuance, which come from the process of artistically thinking through and molding the sentences; they cannot be reconstituted by piecemeal imitation. The problem of translation is to retreat to a simpler tenor of one’s own style and creatively adjust this to one’s author.
ATTRIBUTION:
Paul Goodman (1911–1972), U.S. author, poet, critic. “Summer 1957, in Europe,” sct. 8, Five Years (1966).
