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We may certainly, from the foregoing observations, conclude, that is impossible to do complete justice to any species of poetical compositin in a prose translation; in other words, that none but a poet can translate a poet.

— Alexander Fraser Tytler Essay on the Principles of Translation (1791)

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More quotes by Alexander Fraser Tytler

Patriotism always exists in the greatest degree in rude nations, and in an early period of society.

An ordinary translator sinks under the energy of his original: the man of genius frequently rises above it.

Essay on the Principles of Translation (1791)

Works which consist of fact and detail demand a more scrupulous fidelity than those of which the basis is sentiment.

Essay on the Principles of Translation (1791)

The utility of translations is universally felt, and therefore there is a continual demand for them. But this very circumstance has thrown the practice of translation into mean and mercenary hands.

Essay on the Principles of Translation (1791)

In Latin two negatives make an affirmative; but it is otherwise in Greek, they only give force to the negation ...

Essay on the Principles of Translation (1791)

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