Down there in Translation Inferno, next to the poetry-can't-betranslatedshades are the legions of those who find translation"problematic." These are the people who write nearly all thereviews that mention the translator a t all, and they are obsessed,like the Reverend Pat Robertson and Phyllis Schafly, with "fidelity"-in this case, the fidelity to the dictionary meanings of theforeign words. Any lapse in proper behavior- even a one-wordstand- is branded a "howler," presumably because they arehowling with glee at discovering the transgression. Of course itnever occurs to them that the translator, who knows the originalbetter than anyone and has spent months or years on the work,might have deliberately chosen t o translate the word in a way notimmediately apparent t o the reviewer's ten seconds of reflectionon the matter.