Relish broken words

George Steiner, After Babel: aspects of language and translation, Oxford Univ. Press 1975, p. 398. Quoted in Paul W. Kroll, "Recent Anthologies of Chinese Literature in Translation," Journal of Asian Studies 62.3 (2002), p. 99. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3096353

We must not trust the translator whose words are entirely 'unbroken.' As with a seashell, the translator can listen strenuously but mistake the rumour of his own pulse for the beat of the alien sea.