"A translator is to be like his author, it is not his business to excel him." Accurate inelegance, in other words, is preferable to elegant invention. The point is well made, and yet there is something unsatisfactory in setting literal accuracy against elegance of style in such uncompromising opposition. For it is obvious that the character and effectiveness of any composition are profoundly affected by stylistic considerations.
The complete meaning of a statement, in content and nuance, derives not just from what is said, but also from how it is said--and when, and where, and to whom. A perfect translation, were such a thing to exist, would surely be one capable of producing in its readers an exact echo of the intellectual and emotional experience felt by native speakers in their own time and place on encountering the text in the original tongue.
---The Padmakara Translation Group---
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