The Art of Translation

To me, words have texture, color, temperature, shape, smell, volume, intensity, depth, dimension.... They live and breathe.
The art of translation is to transfer the same texture, the same color, the same ...the same SENSE.

When you say "joy", you should know if it's long term or short term, deep or shallow, and that where it's coming from, where the source is.

Words sometimes do not translate, or translate well. When they don't, the translator should stop, yet do not betray.

If the words are spatial,-in many cases they are, we should make sure the newly created space is having the same environment, the same structure, the same proportion, the same "feel".

But it's always captivating to see how people from two far places of earth, even at different times thought exactly the same or complemented each other's words. That common humanity or wisdom.

The interesting part, we do tranlation all the time, when we talk, when we write and when we listen even in the same language. We translate memories each time we look back at them. We translate thoughts, feelings. We translate people. From our own vocabulary to someone else's and vice versa.