Instead of applying a transform for every RenderObject, pass down an Offset for where to paint.

sky/sdk/lib/rendering/paragraph.dart

Index: sky/sdk/lib/rendering/paragraph.dart
diff --git a/sky/sdk/lib/rendering/paragraph.dart b/sky/sdk/lib/rendering/paragraph.dart
index b3afa86be6570e8d772b6afa0306aa93a36ba850..ce0502f2213a50e6d9e8a73024734b299e8676d3 100644
--- a/sky/sdk/lib/rendering/paragraph.dart
+++ b/sky/sdk/lib/rendering/paragraph.dart
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ class RenderParagraph extends RenderBox {
                                           _applyFloatingPointHack(root.height)));
   }
 
-  void paint(RenderCanvas canvas) {
+  void paint(RenderCanvas canvas, Offset offset) {
     // Ideally we could compute the min/max intrinsic width/height with a
     // non-destructive operation. However, currently, computing these values
     // will destroy state inside the layout root. If that happens, we need to
@@ -181,7 +181,9 @@ class RenderParagraph extends RenderBox {
     // TODO(abarth): Make computing the min/max intrinsic width/height a
     //               non-destructive operation.
     _layout(constraints);
+    canvas.translate(offset.dx, offset.dy);
     _layoutRoot.paint(canvas);
+    canvas.translate(-offset.dx, -offset.dy);

[abarth-chromium, 2015/06/27 00:39:37]

Ouch.  Can you add a TODO about teaching layoutRoot about offset?  I'm sure the
underlying C++ code can handle it.

   }
 
   // we should probably expose a way to do precise (inter-glpyh) hit testing