1Every translation of a great classic is also, in some small way, an act of quiet betrayal.
2A translator must always choose between loyalty to the words and loyalty to the music of the original.
3The rhythm that delighted readers in one language may vanish completely when the poem appears in another.
4Some translators deliberately modernise old texts in order to make them easier for new readers.
5Others carefully preserve the archaic expressions of the past in order to honour the original voice.
6Each new generation of readers seems to demand a fresh version of the great ancient epics.
7A single famous poem may exist at the same time in dozens of competing English versions.
8Most readers rarely realise just how much of the translator they are actually reading on the page.
9Yet without translation, most of world literature would remain silent and closed to us forever.
10Perhaps we should begin to think of translation as a creative art in its own right.
11The finest translators almost disappear from the text, leaving only the author's voice behind them.