In this article, Thornberry explains why it is that individual works of translation are powerless before the contingencies of time, unlike the 'immortal' masterpieces they purport to serve. He refers to Walter Benjamin's statement that the transfer between two languages can never be total, since no two languages converge to such an extent that one language can convey all the denotations and connotations of the other. Another explanation stems from the discrepancy between the status of the original text and the translation. Thornberry also mentions the fact that translation is inherently inseperable from interpretation, and that there is always the likelihood of new readings and unterstandings of the text. The most basic reason seems to be the presence of mistranslations and errors in the translated text. There is also the ideological bent of translations by those in power, for instance under totalitarian regimes. Thornberry further elaborates on the fact that literary translation always entails a loss, the inevitable sacrifice of something significant in the source text. Finally, he states that nothing renders a translation obsolete more rapidly than the evolution of language itself and, in consequence, the need for up-to-date translations. The author concludes by proposing a means to slow down the processes by which individual translations become obsolescent.