There is a general idea that a translation always fails to preserve some of the qualities that distinguish the original work . i.e., that 'something always gets lost in translation.' Writers, critics, and the general reading public unthinkingly accept this clich.. But this belief is unwarranted: translators are sometimes distinguished authors themselves, and some authors may even translate their own works. As the translator pointed out in the preface to an English version of Dante's works, the violin and the piano make different sounds, but they can play what is recognizably the same piece of music.