Any interaction, between societies or between individuals, can involve power differentials and exploitation. This is also true of translation—but what distinguishes translation is that it requires intimate engagement with at least two languages, their sounds, patterns, and afferent cultures. Translating presupposes a philology, a willingness to take on the task of learning another way of speaking, listening, and being, a process that changes the brain and heart of the practitioner. In these respects, translation can be compared, as the word philology suggests, to love. Love, too, can involve power differentials and exploitation but above all it means intense engagement. These connections are particularly acute in the case of oral texts, and the stages of transcribing and translating a Himalayan text are presented as illustration.