Top Gregory Rabassa Quotes

Gregory Rabassa Biography

Gregory Rabassa, ComM (March 9, 1922 – June 13, 2016) was an American literary translator from Spanish and Portuguese to English. He taught for many years at Columbia University and Queens College.

Read about Gregory Rabassa in Wikipedia

Random Authors

Gregory Rabassa Quotes

One of my favorite tricks was taking a page and having the first student translate it from English into whatever language he or she was working on, and the next one would translate it back into English and then into the foreign language, and we'd go around the room and compare the two English versions at the end, and it would be amazing how much survived.

Amazing, Compare, The Next One, Translate, Two, Would Be

A translator is essentially a reader and we all read differently, except that a translator's reading remains in unchanging print

Except, Language, Reader, Reading, Translator, Unchanging

Translation is a disturbing craft because there is precious little certainty about what we are doing, which makes it so difficult in this age of fervent belief and ideology, this age or greed and screed.

Age, Crafts, Greed, Ideology, Precious

I have always maintained that translation is essentially the closest reading one can possibly give a text. The translator cannot ignore "lesser" words, but must consider every jot and tittle.

Essentially, Give, Giving, Jot, Language, Reading

Teaching translation is more of an editing job. You act as editor. But you can have fun with it.

Editor, Fun, Job, Jobs, Teaching

When you hear Portuguese, if you're listening fleetingly, it's as if you're hearing Russian, which never happens with Spanish. Because the Portuguese and the Russians share the open vowels and the dark "L," the "owL" sound.

Dark, Happens, Listening, Owl, Share, Spanish

Every act of communication is an act of translation.

Act, Communication, Translation, Translations

A translation can never equal the original; it can approach it, and its quality can only be judged as to accuracy by how close it gets.

Approach, Equal, Gets, Language, Quality

Andre Glucksmann

Bo Belinsky

Sylvester Croom

Lionel Barrymore

Jay Kay

Bohumil Hrabal

Stacy London

Henryk Sienkiewicz

Mark Sheppard

Jean Case

Christina Romer

Kim Heechul

Gregory Rabassa Biography

Contact Us

About us