David Constantine

But Brecht was himself skeptical about translating poems. He thought that the greatest fault was to try to translate too much. He once wrote that one should aim only to translate “the thoughts and the attitude” of the poet—although then in practice he seems to have preferred translations that stuck as close as possible to the original in every imaginable respect.

But Brecht was himself skeptical about translating poems. He thought that the greatest fault was to try to translate too much. He once wrote that one should aim only to translate “the thoughts and the attitude” of the poet—although then in practice he seems to have preferred translations that stuck as close as possible to the original in every imaginable respect.