The importance of "a deeper knowledge" of the source language in translation

"Teaching translation, I frequently deal with students who write well in their mother tongue, but whose translations into that tongue lack fluency. This brings us to a paradox at the heart of translation: the text we take as inspiration is also the greatest obstacle to expression. Our own language prompts us in one direction, but the text we are trying to respect says something else, or says the same thing in a way that feels very different. [...] All the same, what often frees the student to offer better translations is a deeper knowledge of the language he is working from: a better grasp of the original allows the translator to detach from formal structures and find a new expression for the tone he is learning to feel: in this case, however, every departure from strict transposition is inspired by an intimate and direct experience of the original."

Tim Parks, "Translating in the Dark", New York Review of Books, November 30, 2011. (http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/nov/30/translating-dark/)