{"quotes":[{"text":"He's got a box with a demon in it that draws pictures,' said Rincewind shortly. 'Do what the madman says and he will give you gold.","author":"Terry Pratchett","tags":["photography","tourism","translation"],"id":5241,"author_id":"Terry+Pratchett"},{"text":"When I work, I'm just translating the world around me in what seems to be straightforward terms. For my readers, this is sometimes a vision that's not familiar. But I'm not trying to manipulate reality. This is just what I see and hear.","author":"Don DeLillo","tags":["familiarity","interpretation","literature","novels","readers","reading","realism","reality","robert-mccrum","translation","writing"],"id":18970,"author_id":"Don+DeLillo"},{"text":"Who can say if the thoughts you have in your mind as you read these words are the same thoughts I had in my mind as I typed them? We are different, you and I, and the qualia of our consciousnesses are as divergent as two stars at the ends of the universe.And yet, whatever has been lost in translation in the long journey of my thoughts through the maze of civilization to your mind, I think you do understand me, and you think you do understand me. Our minds managed to touch, if but briefly and imperfectly.Does that thought not make the universe seem just a bit kinder, a bit brighter, a bit warmer and more human?We live for such miracles.","author":"Ken Liu","tags":["consciousness","mind","miracle","thoughts","translation","universe"],"id":22383,"author_id":"Ken+Liu"},{"text":"Deep in her soul, however, she was waiting for something to happen. Like a sailor in distress, she would gaze out over the solitude of her life with desperate eyes, seeking some white sail in the mists of the far-off horizon. She did not know what this chance event would be, what wind would drive it to her, what shore it would carry her to, whether it was a longboat or a three-decked vessel, loaded with anguish or filled with happiness up to the portholes. But each morning, when she awoke, she hoped it would arrive that day, and she would listen to every sound, spring to her feet, feel surprised that it had not come; then at sunset, always more sorrowful, she would wish the next day were already there.","author":"Gustave Flaubert","tags":["depression","lydia-davis","madame-bovary","sad","simile","soul","translation","waiting"],"id":27136,"author_id":"Gustave+Flaubert"},{"text":"Thank you,’ I answered, unsure of the proper American response to her gracious enthusiasm. In the Arab world, gratitude is a language unto itself. “May Allah bless the hands that give me this gift”; “Beauty is in the eyes that find me pretty”; “May Allah never deny your prayer”; and so on, an infinite string of prayerful appreciation. Coming from such a culture, I have always found a mere “thank you” an insufficient expression that makes my voice sound miserly and ungrateful.” (169).","author":"Susan Abulhawa","tags":["american","arabic","compliment","expression","gift","gratitude","language","thank-you","translation"],"id":29173,"author_id":"Susan+Abulhawa"},{"text":"Translation is that which transforms everything so that nothing changes.","author":"Günter Grass","tags":["transformation","translation"],"id":29966,"author_id":"G%C3%BCnter+Grass"},{"text":"All religions are based on obsolete terminology.","author":"Vladimir Nabokov","tags":["faith","philosophy","philosophy-of-religion","religion","theology","translation"],"id":37170,"author_id":"Vladimir+Nabokov"},{"text":"I am writing this on a computer that I can’t imagine living without. This is an alarming thought, the extent to which I have organised my life around a metal box full of wires (and, via the Internet, to many other metal boxes full of wires). Someone told me most of the Internet is stored in a warehouse somewhere in North Carolina. I don’t know enough about technology to gauge if this is true, but it made me realise how little I actually understand about the world I inhabit. The world of Dr Wong’s childhood was significantly smaller than mine, but he understood every square inch of it.","author":"Jeremy Tiang","tags":["computer","internet","malaysia","singapore","technology","translation","wong-yoon-wah"],"id":37794,"author_id":"Jeremy+Tiang"},{"text":"I think, therefore I am. My fingers that caress these rose and frangipani petals are a result of my thoughts. I feel content, tender. I feel entranced, ecstatic and besotted by the fragrance of the flowers and this is because of my thoughts.","author":"Mohamed Latiff Mohamed","tags":["alfian-sa-at","epigram-books","fiction","grief","latiff","loss","mohamed-latiff-mohamed","mourning","novel","sg-lit","the-widower","translation"],"id":40071,"author_id":"Mohamed+Latiff+Mohamed"},{"text":"To deny access to translation and interpreting services oppresses human rights and violates laws.","author":"Nataly Kelly","tags":["interpreting","language","linguistics","translation"],"id":40776,"author_id":"Nataly+Kelly"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":83,"pages":9,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}