CRITICS

From chapter IV of "The Tunnel" by Ernesto Sabato. (As translated by Margaret Sayers Peden):

"... THE CRITICS. They are a plague I have never understood. If I were a great surgeon, and some fellow who had never held a scalpel in his hand, who was not a doctor, and who had never so much as put a splint on a cat's paw, tried to point out where I had gone wrong in my operation, what would people think? It is the same with painting. What is amazing is that people do not realize it is the same, and although they would laugh at the pretensions of the man who criticizes the surgeon, they listen with nauseating respect to the charlatans who comment on art. There might be some excuse for listening to the opinions of a critic who once painted, even if only mediocre works. But that is just as absurd; because what could be reasonable about a mediocre painter giving advice to a good one?"

(Original)

"... LOS CRITICOS. Es una plaga que nunca pude entender. Si yo fuera un gran cirujano, y un senor que jamas ha manejado un bisturi, ni es médico, ni ha entablillado la pata de un gato, viniera a explicarme los errores de mi operacion, ¿que se pensaria? Lo mismo pasa con la pintura. Lo singular es que la gente no advierte que es lo mismo y, aunque se ria de las pretensiones del critico de cirugia, escucha con un increible respeto a esos charlatanes. Se podria escuchar con cierto respeto los juicios de un critico que alguna vez haya pintado, aunque mas no fuera que telas mediocres. Pero aun en ese caso seria absurdo, pues ¿como puede encontrarse razonable que un pintor mediocre de consejos a uno bueno?"