translators
oh man! I can almost sorta read Spanish, so I can stumble through Juan Ramon Jimenez or Unamuno or Lorca or Octavio Paz or Pablo Neruda, but oh dear god! a translator helps, especially one who has an ear for both English and the particular Spanish of one of those poets. but I have no Russian. without a translator I would have no crush on Anna Akhmatova. once upon a time, I had just finished two years of German classes and could fight my way through Hesse or Brecht - not only could but did! - but oh how much better they sounded translated! I am told Rumi can only be read in Persian. Thank you, translators, for giving us English versions anyway. thank you three translators who made Beowulf available to me at different stages of my life. thank you for the Norse eddas and sagas. thank you for the Greek and Roman myths and legends. thank you, translators - even those I have not yet discovered.
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