Another great line about translations is that they are like lovers, they can be faithful and they can be beautiful, but you are very lucky if they are both.
> Another great line about translations is that they are like lovers
It's a great line _if_ one hasn't had much experience with lovers or thought deeply enough about such experiences or thinks of lovers casually. :(
Basically, we love someone because we're attracted to them, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We also often love someone for their character which is why we are charmed by them.
It's really difficult to love someone who is unfaithful because our obsession with them merely affirms our own lack of character, and our lack of good judgement, and our inability to discern good character over and over.
Ah, I rant, sorry for that :), but my point is, it's a bad analogy because it doesn't tell us anything true about translations nor of lovers.
