You are as young as the woman you feel

From The New York Times OPINIONATOR | DRAFT come an essay on translation, a subject we detest, "The Treachery of Translators." The Times reports how, A translator learns that the law of karma can be unforgiving.

We suffered for years translating and publishing rabbinic texts, Mishnah and Talmud. Oh yes we pretended it was fun. And sure it gave us daily puzzles to solve and limitless opportunities to be clever.

It was in fact wretched and tormenting work. We don't do it any more. And we don't miss it even for a nano second.

The Times essay uses the silly clever funny suggestive assertion, "You are only as old as the woman you feel" as a quintessential instance of a sentence whose double meaning cannot be conveyed in a word for word translation.

Doh. As if we did not know that much stuff, "loses in the translation." It's always unnerving to confront those well written pieces that start off with a universally obvious premise, probe and poke it and conclude with nothing new.

Okay, this blog post tells you that the Times does that and you say that's obvious. Touché.