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They say it is impossible to re-create a poem in another language, and perhaps it is. It is also irresistible.Translators may attempt the impossible because they want to share their enjoyment or because they need versions for teaching or because they like word games-translation is as much fun as DoubleCrostics. My own reason is the challenge of the irresistible; I am like the mountain climber who says, "Because it's there." And in fact, mountain climbing and poetic translation have some points in common. The translator and the climber may find smooth stretches on their rough paths, and they both struggle upward, but at the goal the similarity disappears, for the climber may succeed absolutely. There are no absolute successes in translation, which John Ciardi calls the art of failure. On the other hand, the translator will never find himself in the anticlimactic position of having climbed Mount Everest. He always has more worlds to attempt to conquer, and his old worlds to improve.

The essay explores the potential contribution of Third World nations to a more equitable and just world. It asks a basic question: if such a world does not seem to emerge out of the designs of the rich and powerful, can it emerge out of the policies of the less-privileged members of the world system? Several world-order crises are identified as the yardstick with which we can judge the feasibility of a populist Third World platform that offers alternatives to the designs of the rich and the powerful. The conclusion the author draws is that populism is a useful and promising concept and strategy, but that it cannot be based on the designs and preferences of governmental units and entities.

The nations of the modern world community have been working together on international health problems for a century and a half. They have collaborated because they have realized that disease does not respect national boundaries. In doing so, these states have learned that their selfinterests are best served by world-wide collective action to eradicate communicable disease and to promote positive health conditions everywhere.