There is a sentence I keep returning to in every translation meeting: the translator is not a window. A window shows you what is on the other side; a translator has to build the room again, with the same light and a different set of bricks.
At Pine & Quill, we publish translated fiction and essays, and we try to treat translators as authors of the English text. Their names go on the cover. They are part of the editorial conversation from the first draft, not a final polish after the "real" work is done.
Loyalty is not the same as literalness
A translator is loyal to the book, not to the dictionary. That sometimes means changing a sentence to keep its rhythm, or finding a word that carries the same weight in a different culture. The result is not a copy. It is a second original.
This is why we ask for a sample and a short note about the translator's approach, not just a CV. We want to know how they hear the book.
A translation is a reading that has decided to become a writing.
The best translations make you forget that you are reading one, and then make you want to find the translator's other work.