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Translation is more difficult than original writing, I think, as you have first to deal with the idioms and peculiarities of what are often two staggeringly different ways of perceiving the world, and then must express those perceptions to others. Language, as Buddhists often emphasize, comprises a set of filters through which we dimly see the world-as-it-is, colored not only by our own experiences but those of others from whom we have learned, and by the collectivity of the culture in which we grew up--of which language is the prime determinant.

Then you add to the task of conveying in one language what someone wrote out of their experience in another that of keeping true not only to the information but to the voice in which they wrote.

I grew up in two languages--Spanish and English--have since learned French, and am studying Japanese. As reader, writer, editor, and one who loves to go among strangers and speak with them in any tongue that we may have in common, I have well learned both the strengths and limitations of speech and writing; and I have committed myself to nurturing this great gift of our humanity with honesty, rigor, and love.

When I translate, I re-create not only the original information but the original author's voice in English. I limit myself to translating from Spanish and French into English at present; although I can speak and write elegantly in those Latin tongues I cannot guarantee an effective re-creation of a person's voice, other than my own, when I translate from, rather than to, English.