Comment by neuralkoi

Translation is an art. [0]

Each of us carries a slightly different model of reality shaped by our genetics, society, and our subjective experience, and we try to share pieces of this model with others through a deeply flexible but inherently ambiguous medium called language.

As I read [1] a bit into the Spanish conquest of the New World, I just can't help but think about how butchered the translations of the Spanish friar's "Requerimiento" to Atahualpa were [2]. A few words trying to compress 1500 years of Christianity and European society structure. How did the native translator (who had only spent a few years with the Spanish crew) translate "Church" and how did the natives interpret/imagine it?

I've also been reading the Tao Te Ching lately, and I find it fascinating authors are able to "translate" the original even though they don't speak Chinese. That is, they have read in between the lines of the existing translations and eeked out the "juice" of the original or at least the truth the author tried to communicate.

[0] https://scroll.in/article/876969/what-makes-a-translation-gr...

[1] The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Requirement_of_1513