[riffraff]

For those with a passing interest in this topic and quite some patience, "le ton beau de Marót" by Douglas Hofstadter is a whole book of musings about translation, particularly of poetry.

It's a fun book full of interesting linguistic trivia.

The patience would be needed to get through the 50 or so translations of the same poem, all different and "wrong" in some way.

[kjellsbells]

also recommended: After Babel by George Steiner.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Babel

[jasomill]

See also the preface[1] to Hofstadter's translation[2] of Eugene Onegin.

[1] https://jasomill.at/HofstadterOneginPreface.pdf

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-465-0209...