“How do you recognize a work of art? How can it be kept apart, even if only for a moment, from its critics, commentators, its indefatigable plagiarists, its defacers and its final destiny in solitude? Simple — just translate it.”

—  Roberto Bolaño

Entre Paréntesis (2004) edited by Ignacio Echevarría, p. 223

Original

¿Cómo reconocer una obra de arte? ¿Cómo separarla, aunque sólo sea un momento, de su aparato crítico, de sus exégetas, de sus incansables plagiarios, de sus ninguneadores, de su final destino de soledad? Es fácil. Hay que traducirla.

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Roberto Bolaño 49
Chilean author 1953–2003

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