> ... and poetry translation? You have to be a poet to translate poetry, I think, which is why I never tried my poetic license on that.


‘Poetry translation’. Is such a thing possible?. I think it must be like giving a picture to a musician and asking for a symphony.

Another anecdote about translations. This one was solved not with creativity but with chutzpah:
A ‘translator’ when working on a French novel mistook ‘ancre = anchor’ for ‘encre = ink’. And he wrote the paragraph this way:
‘The sailors threw the ink to the water’.
After reading that he must not be happy at all so he wrote at the end of the page.

Translator’s note:
‘Throwing the ink’: Old custom among French sailors.


Juan Maria.