We are told that in translation there is no such thing as equivalence. Many times the translator reaches a fork in the translating road where they must make a choice in the interpretation of a word. And each time they make one of these choices, they are taken further from the truth. But what we arent told is that this isnt a shortcoming of translation; its a shortcoming of language itself. As soon as we try to put reality into words, we limit it. Words are not reality, they are the cause of reality, and thus reality is always more. Writers aren't alchemists who transmute words into the aurous essence of the human experience. No, they are glassmakers. They create a work of art that enables us to see inside to help us understand. And if they are really good, we can see our own reflections staring back at us.
alchemists art artists artwork aurous authors choice choose chose comprehend equal equivalence equivalent explain explanation fork glass glassmaker gold help human-experience interpret interpretation interpretation-quotes interpreter kamand kamand-kojouri kojouri language limit limitation linguistics mirror paraphrase poets portray read reading reality reflection restate reveal road shortcoming simplify speak talk told translating translation translation-quotes translator transmute truth understand words write writer-quotes writers writing writing-quotes

About This Quote

About Kamand Kojouri

Kamand Kojouri.

Themes

  • Art — Creativity, expression, and the role of art in society
  • Truth — Meditations on honesty, authenticity, and the search for truth

More quotes by Kamand Kojouri

“You have no choice. You must leave your ego on the doorstep before you enter love.”
— Kamand Kojouri
beloved choice couple door

“Lisbon, to me, is the Lisbon of Pessoa. Just like London is Woolfs, or rather, Mrs. Dalloways. Barcelona is Gaud's and Rome is da Vincis. You see them in every crevice and hear their echoes in ever...”
— Kamand Kojouri
barcelona britain cathedral child

“I dont want to be remembered for my work. I want to be remembered for my love.”
— Kamand Kojouri
all-you-need-is-love author kamand kamand-kojouri

“This is a day of celebration!Today, we are divorcing the pastand marrying the present.Dance,and you will find Godin every room.Today, we are divorcing resentmentand marrying forgiveness.Sing,and Go...”
— Kamand Kojouri
accept acceptance apathy beloved

“You know how it goes:at some point in your life, you fell in love with someone and had a glimpse of God.Then you abandoned life and loverand started celebratingyour love for God.”
— Kamand Kojouri
abandoned beloved celebrate celebrating

“Of course, I am religious.I worship love.”
— Kamand Kojouri
believer beloved divine divinity
View all quotes by Kamand Kojouri →

Related Quotes

“All people want to belong to some sort of hierarchy. Allow me to explain. The rich want to be the richest; the poor want to be the smartest; those who are both rich and smart want to be the better ...”
— C. JoyBell C.
alchemists divine-nature guidance-quotes hereticism

“Approaching the forest from the west was no army, but a delegation of Grailsundanian master surgeons on their way to an appendix conference . . . But that isn't the craziest part of the story - oh,...”
— Walter Moers, Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures
alchemists armourers coincedence funny

“We wait, starving for moments of high magic to inspire us, but life is full of common enchantment waiting for our alchemists eyes to notice.”
— Jacob Nordby
alchemists alchemy beauty enchantment

“To create art with all the passion in one's soul is to live art with all the beauty in one's heart.”
— Aberjhani, Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry
art artists beauty creativity

“art is risk made visible”
— Arno Rafael Minkkinen
art artists-quotes inspirational-quotes photography

“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”
— Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park
art love

“The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great...”
— Oscar Wilde
artists life

“What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. ... In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, sportmen the cove...”
— John Lubbock
artists botanists farmer flowers

“What we get when we turn pro is we find our power. We find our will and our voice and we find our self-respect. We become who we always were but had, until then, been afraid to embrace and live out.”
— Steven Pressfield, Turning Pro
artists authors creativity motivation