And then a sudden calm fell on us like a cloud of fear. There! on the table, lay the Jewel of Seven Stars, shining and sparkling with lurid light, as though each of the seven points of each of the seven stars gleamed through blood!

An expression which lacks the proper specificity results in undertranslation; when the translator is too specific, on the other hand, overtranslation results.

[P]arts of him, uh, are as far away as the north forty. Muscle has been drawn out. . . . His arms—can you imagine?—feel longer.

In two pints of water boil one ounce of tan, and a like portion of nutgall till reduced to a pint.