Real things in the darkness seem no realer than dreams. - Arthur Waley

When translating prose dialogue one ought to make the characters say things that people talking English could conceivably say. One ought to hear them talking, just as a novelist hears his characters talk.

Since the classical language has an easy grammar and limited vocabulary, a few months should suffice for the mastering of it.

To the European poet the relation between man and woman is a thing of supreme importance and mystery. To the Chinese, it is something commonplace, obvious—a need of the body, not a satisfaction of the emotions.