“If the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy.”
Translation is not the transfer of a detachable “meaning” from one language to another, often it is said good translation is one that doesn’t feel like a translation.
Translation is a dialogue between two Languages, it occurs in a space between two languages and most often between two historical moments.
What the translator should seek in his own language is the equivalent of that specific artistic medium. He must have the freedom in his own language to be faithful to the original.
The charm of Tolstoy’s sentence comes from the fact that he does not explain in an adult way what the children are doing; he enters into the spirit of their game by phrasing he uses to describe it, and the whole atmosphere of the moment is suddenly there, naive, natural and alive.
Rhetorical power, sharp irony and astonishing delicacy.
