Hence the vanity of translation; it were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its color and odor,… - Percy Bysshe Shelley

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Hence the vanity of translation; it were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its color and odor, as seek to transfuse from one language into another the creations of a poet. The plant must spring again from its seed, or it will bear no flower — and this is the burden of the curse of Babel.