Translation is the art of revelation. It makes the unknown known. The translator artist has the fever and craft to recognize, re-create, and reveal the work of the other artist.

When one poet knows the other’s tongue, it is a start. If not, a third person, a friendly and responsible human dictionary, can be an intermediary. Enter the informant.

All literature is translation and all translation is unique and therefore original. Octavio Paz goes so far as to declare, “Every text is unique and, at the same time, is a translation of another text.” Whether wonderful or monstrous, the version is always a version, another working and retelling.

In a translation, without art there can be no friendship between poets. Although it is best when one poet can chat with the other poet, the ability to chat in the foreign tongue does not create a poet. Nor does knowledge of the language of the original text qualify a translator.