The fact that many shelves could be filled with publications on the translation of the Bible and of Shakespeare (but not of, say, Homer, Cervantes, Racine, or Joyce) must have to do more with the unique cultural functions Shakespeare and the Scriptures have fulfilled through the centuries than with any concern for the intrinsic difficulties involved in translating them. The fact that many shelves could be filled with publications on the translation of the Bible and of Shakespeare (but not of, say, Homer, Cervantes, Racine, or Joyce) must have to do more with the unique cultural functions Shakespeare and the Scriptures have fulfilled through the centuries than with any concern for the intrinsic difficulties involved in translating ...