| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: tongue. Ah, translating is not every one's skill as some mad
saints think. A right, devout, honest, sincere, God-fearing
Christian, trained, educated, and experienced heart is required.
So I hold that no false Christian or divisive spirit can be a good
translator. That is obvious given the translation of the Prophets
at Worms which although carefully done and approximating my own
German quite closely, does not show much reverence for Christ due
to the Jews who shared in the translation. Aside from that it
shows plenty of skill and craftsmanship there.
So much for translating and the nature of language. However, I was
not depending upon or following the nature of language when I
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: to the memory of the mighty King with a double-edged sword in one
hand, and in the other holding out rewards of great daily runs and
famously quick passages to those of his courtiers who knew how to
wait watchfully for every sign of his secret mood. As we deep-
water men always reckoned, he made one year in three fairly lively
for anybody having business upon the Atlantic or down there along
the "forties" of the Southern Ocean. You had to take the bitter
with the sweet; and it cannot be denied he played carelessly with
our lives and fortunes. But, then, he was always a great king, fit
to rule over the great waters where, strictly speaking, a man would
have no business whatever but for his audacity.
 The Mirror of the Sea |