In his article Ian McDonald states that it is frustrating to think how much one misses by not knowing any language except one’s own. A country does not open its heart to you unless you know the language. For another thing, great literatures in other languages hide their glories from us. It is simply not possible to get the full flavour, the soul, the innermost sense of writing in another language through translation.

He believes that this is especially true of poetry and agrees with Robert Frost’s definition of poetry as “what gets lost in translation.” Translate a poem and the essence escapes us.

But he believes that some translations stand as literature in their own right, transfigurations rather than literal translations.

See: StabroekNews