[ericra]

Yes this is similar to the popular Stephen Mitchell "translation" in that neither spoke the original language.

That being said, I'm glad both of them exist. They are interesting and feel much different to me than the literal translations.

[A_D_E_P_T]

Ezra Pound did an awful lot of translation from Japanese, though he didn't know the language. He got rough word-for-word translations from friends, and used them as a starting point.

When poets translate poetry, I believe that this is usually the case.

[nine_k]

"In prose, the translator is a servant to the original.author; in poetry, a rival" (don't remember the attribution).