The translator of poetry must realize that word-for-word equivalents do not exist across languages, any more than piano sounds exist in the violin. The violin can, however, play recognizably the same music as the piano, but only if the violinist is guided by the nature and possibilities of the violin as well as by the original composition. As applied to the act of translating poetry from one language into another, the analogy above can best be understood as saying that ['some languages are inherently more musical and more suitable to poetic composition than others', 'the translator must observe the spirit of the original and also the qualities of expression that characterize the language into which the original is translated', 'the translator should be primarily concerned with reproducing the rhythms and sound patterns of the original, not with transcribing its meaning exactly', 'poetry is easier to translate if it focuses on philosophical insights or natural descriptions rather than on subjective impressions']