Like a landscape reflected on water, translation conveys an image or a thousand words through a different medium, or making use of a different structure. How different are language systems from one another? How different is water from air? While it’s never exactly the same, one is perfectly recognizable in the other. A reflection is not merely a copy — the medium where it is conveyed changes with the context and depends on the viewer’s perspective as well. They are intrinsically connected, and while the reflection would not exist without the landscape, it is the reflection that takes the landscape farther, making it higher and brighter.

Image credits:

“Mirror Pond” by Kevin Dinkel (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Cropped, text overlaid. Reproduced under permission.

“Lake Reflections”  by Yinan Chen (CC BY 2.0)
Good Free Photos
Cropped, text overlaid. Reproduced under permission.

“Five Rocks” by Andrea Lastri (CC BY-SA 2.0)
 Cropped, text overlaid. Reproduced under permission.

“Mirror image sunrise on Padarn lake” by Hefin Owen (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Cropped, text overlaid. Reproduced under permission.

“Mirror Lake The Canadian Rockies” by Abigail Pires (CC BY 2.0)
 Cropped, text overlaid. Reproduced under permission.

“Mirror Lake, New Zealand” by Patrick Kiteley (CC BY 2.0)
 Cropped, text overlaid. Reproduced under permission.