There is a very interesting conversation going on over at Avraham's Blog about whether one should translate Pachad Yitzchaq, the collected drashot of R. Hutner. I decided to move my comments over to my blog because I felt it was imperative to discuss reading translated works.

Translating texts is important because people should not be forced to remain ignorant simply because of a language barrier. Having said that, I do grant that translations often lose the flavor of the original or are often edited for content based on the biases of the translator. One recent translation which I perused decided to translate the word Israel to mean the world. The funny thing is the person was most likely trying to be anti anyone not Jewish but instead ended up sounding much more universal.

Ultimately, one must be wary of translations, but, at the same time, better to have access to something in a loose translation than not to have access to it at all.