I know, right? ADDING THINGS TO YOUR TRANSLATION. That is not translation! And Burton was by far not the only one to do that! *flails* But yeah, I'm pretty sure Burton was a very impressive dude. I mean, look what his wikipedia page says about him: "explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat." And spoke something like 29 languages! DUDE. And it sounds like he had the, ah, ego to go along with it, to go by what he did with his 1001 Nights translation...

(He travelled in disguise to Mecca! YUP, big balls and bigger ego.)