An amusing anecdote with only slight relation to Tim's digression here...
I know the Russian language, am a translator of the Russian poets (mostly Anna Akhmatova), and several years ago, was invited by Dana Gioia and Michael Peich to participate in a West Chester critical seminar which brought together a panel of about seven translator/poets from Moscow, to discourse with an American group including such translators as F.D. (Frank) Reeve -- Frost's translator in Russia -- as well as Jim Kates, Russian translator and co-director of Zephyr Press, with a number of professors, etc., from across the United States.
Len Krisak moderated our group, and made me the "sacrificial lamb" of sorts, throwing a few of my translations first thing out on the table, to get our discussions going. One of those was the translation of a poem originally by the Russian writer Marina Tsvetaeva. We discussed my attempt at length; then, when our allotted time was up, one of the Moscow gentlemen approached me, to continue giving a few insights into some of the peculiarites of Marina's work in general, and mine in particular. I have largely forgotten the conversation, though one thing remains. Just before we separated, he concluded his observations to me with a passionate insistence that Tsvetaeva "must only be translated by a woman"!
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