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At least since the Romans--who brought Greek writing into Latin--writers and scholars have engaged in translation: in bringing into their own language works written in a foreign language.

I maintain that translation is the highest form of scholarship, for the translator must assimilate completely the meaning and purpose of the writer which he/she is translating. In addition, I think of the process/skill of translation as an important part of my own writing: as a means of making new poems, or recasting old poems into new languages. In a great poem, there is something magic, a haunting spirit. It is so rare that you keep looking for it.

--From The Mid-America Poetry Review, Summer-Autumn, 2008

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