Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Third Series

Fragment ID: 21033

The proper rule about literalness in translation, I suppose, is that one should keep as close as possible to the original provided the result does not read like a translation but like an original poem in. Bengali, and, as far as possible, as if it were the original poem originally written in Bengali. I admit that I have not practised what I preached,– whenever I translated I was careless of the hurt feelings of the original text and transmogrified it without mercy into whatever my fancy chose. But that is a high and mighty criminality which one ought not to imitate. Latterly I have tried to be more moral in my ways, I don’t know with what success. But anyhow it is a case of “Do what I preach and avoid what I practise.”