America's Woeful Devaluation of Literary Translation

By ROBERT WECHSLER

Literary translation is an odd sort of art, if it can be called an art at all. It consists of a person sitting at a desk, writing fiction or poetry that has already been written by somebody else. It's not even derivative; it seems like nothing more than copying.

Literary translation, however, is an art, and an art that matters a great deal. Our misperception of its value, based on a lack of understanding of