NPR interviews three translators, providing an insight into the particular challenges faced by the translator of drama and poetry. From the interview:

Bea Basso, who came from Italy to the United States in 2000 to study and work in theater, has done a lot of translating from Italian to English. She says that the choice of a single word can determine the arc of an entire work.

“There is no such thing as a literal translation, by nature of choosing one word or another, you influence the next step,” she says.

Read or hear the interview on the NPR site here: The Art of Translation