well, maybe that's an exaggeration. but in any case, its better than my take on it i think. i quote from All the Fun's in How You Say a Thing by Timothy Steele:
"In chapter 62 of part 2 of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, the hero falls into converstaion with a bookseller and remarks of translation:
[I]t appears to me that translating from one language to another, unless it be from one of those two queenly tongues, Greek and Latin, is like gazing at a Flemish tapestry with the wrong side out: even though the figures are visible, they are full of threads that obscure the view and are not bright and smooth as when seen from the other side.
We call a literary work a "text", and Cervantes' simile about translations may remind us that "text" comes from the Latin texere, meaning "to weave". Lovers of verse will find this etymology appropriate, because excellent poetry has a texture as palpable as that of beautifully woven cloth. Poets do not literally interlace lines warp-and-woof fashion, but they do draw them together into a single verbal fabric. And this process contributes, no less than does the modulation of individual lines, to the distinctive rhythms of a poem."
well ok, pretty cool stuff. well that's still better than "translation is betrayal" so...
anyway i wonder why only Greek and Latin are "queenly tongues". and for that matter, why "queenly"? hm. and i maybe im just ignorant, but y Flemish tapestry? they're the best in the world? or is it jus don quixote being... don quixote. uh.
well the metaphor of poetry as fabric, or tapestry, rather, is interesting. i'm not sure if it fully encapsulates it, but its an interesting comparison to draw. and of course, i think that the analogy for translation is quite well expressed. well, better than my attempts earlier on in the year... hm. mebbe there'll be better still.
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