Lost in Translation

I came across a writing by Paulo Coelho on translators, and I was interested to read what he has to say, simply because I too have done some translation work for Institut Terjemahan Negara (translating books by Dato' Saifuddin Abdullah & Prof. Zaini Ujang), altho of course I did those during my spare time and hence I am not a professional or even a serious translator (or maybe a serious translator that cannot be taken seriously!).

I came to the realisation that yeah, but for people who are translators, I would not have been able to enjoy many books that I really love simply bcz they were originally written in languages that I do not understand. Paulo Coelho's books themselves (which I am a fan of) are written in Portuguese, and I also have a collection of Boris Akunin's books on Erast Fandorin, the Russian detective, written in Russian (well, duh). But for translators, I would not even fully understand my own book of guidance, the Holy Qur'an...

Isn't God great, that when he created diverse people of different tounges, he also gives the wisdom to a number of them to be able to understand more than one language, so that they can spread knowledge to the four corners of the world! So that in people's unquenched search for knowledge (as enjoined by God Himself), we would not get Lost in Translation...