For Meredith McKinney, translation is really a form of transformation.
“A transformation is very difficult to get until you’re right on top of both languages,” McKinney, 70, says. “You really have to make it work in your own language. And when I say work, I mean, really work at every level, including literary.
“You have to be able to breathe into yourself the Japanese quite deeply so that you're not missing what's going on underneath the literal translation, and then bring it out in some other form that is as natural as breathing in your own language.”