American Translator Quotes

William Wetmore Story

Whittaker Chambers

John Ciardi

Jane Kenyon

Ann Hasseltine Judson

Elisabeth Marbury

Miller Williams

It is a mistake to suppose, with some philosophers of aesthetics, that art and poetry aim to deal with the general and the abstract. This misconception has been foisted upon us by mediaeval logic. Art and poetry deal with the concrete of nature, not with separate 'particulars,' for such rows do not exist.

Ernest Fenollosa

Over the centuries we have transformed the ancient myths and folk tales and made them into the fabric of our lives. Consciously and unconsciously we weave the narratives of myth and folk tale into our daily existence.

There are philosophies which are unendurable not because men are cowards, but because they are men.

Ludwig Lewisohn

Take care of things close to home first. Straighten up your room
before you save the world. Then save the world.

Mindfulness was experienced as not holding onto the past, the future, or 'nowness:' but relaxing into the immediacy of whatever was happening.

I survived, carried on, glad to be like a weed, a wild red poppy, rooted in life.

The long-haired Yak has long black hair, He lets it grow — he doesn't care. He lets it grow and grow and grow, He lets it trail along the stair. Does he ever go to the barbershop? NO! How wild and woolly and devil-may-care A long-haired Yak with long black hair Would look when perched in a barber chair!

William Jay Smith

When the machine grinds to a halt, the cogs themselves begin wondering about their function.

I think our lives are surely but the dreams
Of spirits, dwelling in the distant spheres,
Who as we die, do one by one awake.

Wherever the Jew is found he is a problem, a source of unhappiness to himself and to those around him. Ever since he has been scattered in your midst he has had to maintain a continuous struggle for the conservation of his identity.

Throughout my life, I have always found that events which seemed at the time disastrous ultimately developed into positive blessings.

Elisabeth Marbury

Like the best convenience store in the world, / the mind is always open.

The moon, appearing every month in several phases, is symbolic of the Jewish people whose history has assumed a variety of phases. Like the moon, they reappear aftern being eclipsed.

Philip Birnbaum

The Hindus are busy letting themselves be seen riding in Cadillacs instead of smearing themselves with sandalwood paste and bowing in front of Ganpati. The Moslems would rather miss evening prayer than the new Disney movie. The Buddhists think it's more important to take over in the name of Stalin and Progress than to meditate on the four basic sorrows. And we don't even have to mention Christianity or Judaism.

Time is of the essence,
The crowd and players
Are the same age always,
But the man in the stand,
Is older every season.

Rolfe Humphries

I manage a toast to the Christmas tree and one to the sweet absurdity in the miracle of the verb to be. Lucky you, lucky me.

Miller Williams

No one warns young people to follow Adam's example. He waited till God saw his need. Then God made Adam sleep, prepared for his mate, and brought her to him. We need more of this 'being asleep' in the will of God. Then we can receive what He brings us in His own time, if at all. Instead we are set as bloodhounds after a partner, considering everyone we see until our minds are so concerned with the sex problem that we can talk of nothing else when bull-session time comes around. It is true that a fellow cannot ignore women — but he can think of them as he ought — as sisters, not as sparring partners!

What is difficult to understand is that without conscious effort, nothing is possible. Conscious effort is related to higher nature. My lower nature cannot lead me to consciousness. It is blind. But when I wake up and I feel that I belong to a higher world, this is only part of conscious effort. I become truly conscious only when I open to all my possibilities, higher and lower. There is value only in conscious effort.

Jeanne de Salzmann

Offspring were a joy or a shame, but still the crown of their elders, nature's unpredictable creatures.

The shadows of twilight grow,
And the tiger's ancient fierceness
In my veins begins to flow.

William Wetmore Story

What I love is slowness. Slow people, slow reading, slow traveling, slow eggs, and slow love. Everything good comes slow.

Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Miracles happen all the time.
We're here, aren't we?

Men of an amiable, yielding temper, willing to take the lowest place; to be least of all; and the servants to all...who live near God, and who are willing to suffer all things for Christ's sake without being proud of it - these are the men we need.

Ann Hasseltine Judson

I divested myself of despair and fear when I came here. Now there is no more catching one's own eye in the mirror, there are no bad books, no plastic, no insurance premiums, and of cours eno illness. Contrition does not exist, nor gnashing of teeth. No one howls as the first clod of earth hits the casket. The poor we no longer have with us. Our calm hearts strike only the hour, and God, as promised, proves to be mercy clothed in light.

A translator is essentially a reader and we all read differently, except that a translator's reading remains in unchanging print

Gregory Rabassa