#wyrmspeak

I saw a tweet where OP was saying something like "after reading books in source language I didn't start to appreciate translators, I've started to hate them more. Why are they even sticking their oar in if they can't write themselves" and it made me so mad!

yes writing ability is a great skill to have while translating but when you translate you're mostly battling with "what the fuck the author meant by this" and "how do I say this in my target language so the reader gets it with most nuances possible" like the most core skills are understanding of both languages and the ability to solve complex problems while also analyzing the narrative for most probable author intent... you can't keep all the intricacies of the original, it's impossible!! you can do whatever you can though and if you're skillful you serve as an instrument between the author and new audience!