“Perhaps, sadly, in the end, cinema is only a translator's art, and you know what they say about translators: traitors all.”

—  Peter Greenaway

"105 Years of Illustrated Text" in the Zoetrope All-Story, Vol. 5 No. 1.
105 Years of Illustrated Text

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Perhaps, sadly, in the end, cinema is only a translator's art, and you know what they say about translators: traitors a…" by Peter Greenaway?
Peter Greenaway photo
Peter Greenaway266
British film director 1942

Related quotes

Herbert Giles photo

“It must however always be borne in mind that translators are but traitors at the best, and that translations may be moonlight and water while the originals are sunlight and wine.”

Herbert Giles Gems of Chinese Literature

Gems of Chinese Literature, Preface to the first edition (dated 16 October 1883)

“The best critic of a translation is its second translation and nothing else. The person who translates a text should have something to say about that.”

Media Kashigar (1956–2017) Iranian translator, writer and poet

Source: The best critic of a translation is its second translation, Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia, 2013 https://www.cgie.org.ir/fa/news/3001

Umberto Eco photo

“Translation is the art of failure.”

Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist

“The translator translates a book for the ones who are not familiar with its language of origin. If someone can read it in the language of origin, he will not need to read its translation. So, when you translate, you first suppose that you translate it for someone who does not know its language and could not explore that world and that thought.”

Media Kashigar (1956–2017) Iranian translator, writer and poet

Source: The best critic of a translation is its second translation, Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia, 2013 https://www.cgie.org.ir/fa/news/3001

“Wherever God has planted you, you must know how to flower - translated from a French saying”

Alan Furst book The Spies of Warsaw

Source: The Spies of Warsaw

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff photo

“The essence of art can never change. I'm convinced you can't talk about art. At best, you will have a translation, a poetic paraphrase, & as for that I'll leave that to the poets.”

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884–1976) German artist

Source: New Program - Kunst & Kunstler, Berlin 1914

Marjane Satrapi photo

“The words are not the same and the feeling is not the same. You know, they say in France that translation is like a woman. She is either beautiful or faithful. So it’s better when she’s beautiful because when she’s too faithful it might be very ugly. This is French people. This translation, though, is very well made. This is my American editor, who knows me very well who has made the translation. But in any translation you lose a little bit.”

Marjane Satrapi (1969) Artist

On her views regarding the translation of works in “AN INTERVIEW WITH MARJANE SATRAPI” http://www.bookslut.com/features/2004_10_003261.php in Book Slut (October 2004)

Patrick Rothfuss photo

“All explicit knowledge is translated knowledge, and all translation is imperfect.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Robert Frost photo

“You've often heard me say – perhaps too often – that poetry is what is lost in translation. It is also what is lost in interpretation. That little poem means just what it says and it says what it means, nothing less but nothing more.”

Robert Frost The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost: A Backward Look, by Louis Untermeyer (1964), p. 18
1960s

Related topics