Can you translate that?

Translation is something I struggle with. What is a "good" translation? Can a narrative ever be successfully translated? I've read some writing on this, but the consensus seems to be that there is no universal answer. The work done by every translation is unavoidably different from the original and different to the reader. Sebald famously wrote with a translator and marveled that their work was a work of its own. Other writing I've read mention the difficulty of word choice, of the untranslatable word. There's an entire shelf in the NYPL branch I frequent dedicated to this, and then the expected shelf promoting learning another language.

Language is something I've unfortunately only come to appreciate in its untranslatability (is this a word?) and its absence. How often I've thought is there a word for this? And then there are other times when a word brings to light cultural ideologies worth study. For example, the Spanish word esposa means "wife." The plural, esposas, means "wives," but also "handcuffs." A tour guide I once overheard at the MET explained to her group that public use of the word to express a style was what gave validity to the movement; without the word, the seriousness of the matter would not exist. 

I'm not sure where this post is going other than to say language is so fascinating, so diverse, and so powerful.