Typing things like "we're not in a courtroom" is generally something people do when they don't like the level of critical analysis being employed by their opponents.

The primary focus of the article was not authorial intent, but rather, how translation can fail in a variety of ways. I think of it as being similar to someone attempting to study art solely from black and white photographs of famous works of art. Yes, it can give you a good idea of the feeling that a masterwork evokes, but it leaves out some major components because of the way it was reproduced.

Your initial response seemed a bit flippant, when you could have had a really interesting discussion - particularly given that the author of the article mentioned Nabokov. Nabokov also found translation to be a sticky point (pun intended with reference to his "thorns" to Pushkin's "roses" ) and was very set on translating his own works into languages that he spoke for that reason. Even with someone functional in as many languages as Nabokov, I choose to read his stories in whichever language he wrote them in to avoid the flaws of translation.

But I digress. My attempt was to call you out for that and hopefully start a discussion, but apparently the fact that I wrote "hell no" in the subject line was a bit too strong for you (sarcasm is intentional here but without particular intent to insult).

Oh, and not having heard of Eugene Onegin is awful if you tend to read something other than the dreck of choice at this website. I strongly recommend you take a look at Pushkin.