Contents:
What's the difference between a native tongue and a learned one? Can you translate between any pair of languages, or only between some?
What really goes on when world leaders speak at the UN? Can machines ever replace human translators, and if not, why? But the biggest question Bellos asks is this: How do we ever really know that we've understood what anybody else says—in our own language or in another?
Surprising, witty, and written with great joie de vivre, this book is all about how we comprehend other people and shows us how, ultimately, translation is another name for the human condition. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. Sponsored Products are advertisements for products sold by merchants on Amazon.
When you click on a Sponsored Product ad, you will be taken to an Amazon detail page where you can learn more about the product and purchase it. To learn more about Amazon Sponsored Products, click here. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? Learn more about Amazon Prime. Read more Read less. Kindle Cloud Reader Read instantly in your browser. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. Through the Language Glass: Sympathy for the Traitor: Around Europe in Sixty Languages. The Novel of the Century: You Are What You Speak: Sponsored products related to this item What's this?
The Translator Training Textbook: This book includes professional translation best practices, how to build your career as a translator and interviews with experienced translators. Create an Engaging Syllabus: A Concise, 7-Step Guide for Professors. Are students not reading your course syllabus? Transform it now from a "lifeless" contract into an inspiring and clear document. English to Cebuano Translation Say 'the whole nine yards' 'at the drop of a hat'.
English meets Visayan wit in this translational guide. A dialect to English phrases in Cebuano. The most use The most used English business words with phrase examples. The Passive Income Playbook: Discover the most powerful way to make passive income. Then use it to make money for the rest of your life! Confidently teach in any college classroom using the approaches, strategies and techniques from the K and business marketing world!
Engrave these life-changing quotes as brain tattoos. Product details File Size: October 11, Sold by: Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention david bellos get ready literal translation fish in your ear professional translator years ago lost in translation vocabulary hoax hitchhiker guide another language theory and practice eskimo vocabulary required reading reading this book interested in languages biblical translation machine translation book was recommended recommend this book book to read.
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. As someone who comes from a family of translators and who has worked in translation himself, I am utterly glad that someone has come up with a book like this, an honest and passionate attempt to unveil the world of translation to the average person and spark the debate among the more knowledgeable ones.
In attempting to write a book that covers, well, pretty much everything about translation, David Bellos has produced a comprehensive and badly needed primer full of insight, yet a not-so coherent and cohesive unity.
The book is divided into 32 small sections yes, 32 , each dealing with a different aspect of translation, from the meaning of "meaning", to the alleged "myth" of literal translation, with newswires and the ridiculous sophistication of coffee-shop language somewhere in-between. Some of these sections are delightful and concisely written, others are riddled with analogies and humorous attempts that distract from the main topic, yet others are frankly repetitive or well under-developed.
When French seeped into English after the Norman conquest, our language was not eroded but enriched. And yet translation is necessarily approximate. No two languages divide up the world or our experience of it in exactly the same way. Almost always, this means paying close attention not just to the words but to complex and demanding questions of form.
And when you read the translated instructions for your Ikea bed, you are going to get very angry if a literal rendering of the Swedish does not tell you how the parts fit together in concise English. Bellos seems to have no anger in him whatsoever. Even as he demolishes the myths of translation, he delights in its chequered past and its contemporary ubiquity. While he acknowledges the current world dominance of English, he offers a string of examples of the ways in which translation still permeates our lives — with subtitles, computer instructions and legal documents; Google, the Bible and every utterance of the United Nations, World Trade Organisation and the European Union.
In the words of Bellos: The first is that we are all different: The second is that we are all the same—that we can share the same broad and narrow kinds of feelings, information, understandings, and so forth. Without both of these suppositions, translation could not exist. Nor could anything we would like to call social life. Translation is another name for the human condition. Hardcover , pages.
Published October 25th by Particular Books first published January 1st To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Translation and the Meaning of Everything , please sign up. Lists with This Book. In chapter fifty-two of Perec's La vie, mode d'emploi , a young man finds himself staring into the window of a printer's shop in Paris. The display is filled with examples of the printer's wares — fake letterheads and joke business cards. One of them reads: Now consider how you'd translate this into English — which is what David Bellos had to do.
It's worth spending a moment thinking about what a suitable equivalent might be. His solution is under the cut: The exercise calls for extreme measures, but I like it because it highlights a key fact about translation: This seems obvious, but it often gets overlooked by people who want to pick holes in existing translations on the grounds that individual words have not reappeared in a new language with identical meanings. And it was deliberately tin-eared: Nabokov believed that an assiduous translator should render the precise meanings of every word at the expense of English style, coherence and grammar.
This misses what is, to me, the essential principle: Words gain their full set of connotations from the context they are placed into, and from the other words that appear either side of them. The conclusion must be that considerable freedom from the original is needed, paradoxically, to make the same effects pop in the reader's brain.
Or as Bellos puts it: Translation presupposes not the loss of the ineffable in any given act of interlingual mediation such as the translation of poetry, but the irrelevance of the ineffable to acts of communication. If you know a foreign language at all well, this is a hard lesson to take on.
Once you understand the vast range of connotations held by even the simplest word in a given language, the idea of rendering it any other way seems unthinkable. Good translators will convince you that they understand connotation and subtlety perfectly well, and have redistributed it accordingly, or allowed for new subtexts that fulfill similar communicative goals. This book really helped me get a handle on some of the ideas about translation that I'd had for years and had been unable properly to articulate. I was never a professional translator, exactly, although when I worked in France, translating news scripts was a part of my job.
Incidentally, I think all translators should work in broadcasting at some point — your version of a source text may look reasonable on the page, but having to say it out loud on television really brings its defects into focus. The more I did it and the better I got, the further I found myself moving from the original on a word-for-word basis: In fact in my head, I visualise the ideal form of translation as one whereby you read a text, let its effects percolate on your mind, and then write a kind of independent piece that does the same thing to native speakers of your target language.
But the principle is there somewhere. Even really good translators tend to look first and foremost at glossing the words on the page; it's an effort to think constantly in terms of idiomatic expressions in the target language for conveying the same emotional ideas. This is something that comes up in all kinds of large and small ways. Bellos shows that left-dislocation occurs only half as often in translated novels as it does in native French-language ones. And half the uses in native novels occur in third-person narration, whereas all of the translated examples are in direct speech.
Because French people learn in school that left-dislocation is typical of oral language, and translators have obviously found it hard to unlearn the lesson. It's one illustration of a general truth: In important ways, translators are the guardians and, to a surprising degree, the creators of the standard form of the language they use.
There are so many other wonderful treats in this book, depending on where your interests lie. Diplomatic translation, the economics of translated fiction, twelve ways of translating a Chinese shunkouliu — this book is crammed with delights and Bellos knows what he's talking about. Foreign scripts are faithfully reproduced, and there are frequent irrepressible tangents and diversions into obscure corners of lexicography.
Anyone interested in foreign languages or thoughtful writing should be as enchanted and stimulated as I was. View all 10 comments. Apr 05, MJ Nicholls rated it really liked it Shelves: David Bellos, famous for translating Life: Covering the complexities of literary translation—from verbatim likenesses to humour to style—into wider world areas such as legal and political translation less captivating material for laymen , Bellos is a witty and super-smart writer who makes a convincing case for the importance of t David Bellos, famous for translating Life: Covering the complexities of literary translation—from verbatim likenesses to humour to style—into wider world areas such as legal and political translation less captivating material for laymen , Bellos is a witty and super-smart writer who makes a convincing case for the importance of translation and its unsung participants.
Last word from David: A translation is more like a portrait in oils. The artist may add a pearl earring, give an extra flush to the cheek or miss out the grey hairs in the sideburns—and still give us a good likeness. The mysterious abilities we have for recognizing good matches in the visual sphere lie near to what it takes to judge that a translation is good.
When it comes to speech and writing, people are an untrusting lot. View all 4 comments. This review sums up my problem with this book. For what it is, it's a well-written, informative and interesting book about the art of translation, its difficulties and the assumptions you have to make to translate. It reminded me of my experience in trying to translate Wulf and Eadwacer. To translate it, you have to decide what it means, to ensure that you translate it consistently. And there's four or five different readings of it, at least -- and ultimately I was left with the feeling that to This review sums up my problem with this book.
And there's four or five different readings of it, at least -- and ultimately I was left with the feeling that to translate it with any one of those meanings would be to translate it wrongly. I think the beauty of reading it in Anglo-Saxon, even if you need a glossary and ample help, is that all the meanings are there at once. But as the review I linked says, it doesn't talk about the implications of translation -- the politics and force of it. That in its turn reminds me of a scene in Kate Roberts' Feet in Chains, a Welsh book which, not coincidentally, I was only able to read in translation , in which a mother is informed of the death of her son in WWI via a letter in English, which she cannot understand.
There was a time, really not that long ago, where Welsh speakers were considered uneducated because they did not speak the language of their rulers, the English. Consider the Welsh Not or Brad y Llyfrau Gleision The Treason of the Blue Books -- all of that is the reason that I, raised by two Welsh people, of a family that has been Welsh for generations with the occasional addition of Romani and Irish blood, and probably some English, but we're ashamed of that one , do not speak my own language.
There's a certain arrogance to English. Take the Welsh word hiraeth: The minute I say that, half a dozen English people pop up to tell me there must be. Oh, there are approximations, but they aren't as succinct, as specific.
English doesn't hold all the answers. Unfortunately, this book is that bit Anglo-centric, and it isn't the book I wanted to read -- I wanted to read a book which considered the above issues, the political meaning and applications of translation.
It's not a bad book for what it is, but it's not what I was looking for. View all 13 comments. How do I know when a book is really interesting? If a book is really interesting, I will be compelled to read it aloud to whoever has the fortune or misfortune, depending on your point of view of being around at the time. Usually it's my poor, dear husband who is the witness to these readings.
Let's just say with this book, he got a lot of it read to him. Guys, I'm a word nerd. What does that mean? I love the written word, I love the spoken word, I love languages among other things. I think the way that we communicate with each other is fascinating. David Bellos has an extensive background in translation. He takes us through what translation is and what translation isn't. Translations are really substitutes for reading something in another, more accessible to you language than it was originally written in.
There are so many books that I would never have access to if it weren't for some really good translations where would I be without my love, Murakami??? I learned so much from this book. There's not one way to translate and a lot of times, it seems to be an iterative process to get to a true understanding of the original text.
Who knew so much had to go into it? I think this book is good for anyone who has ever read a translation of a book and wondered about if the book was really getting to the original author's true meaning? How do we know that Murakami or Tolstoy sound the same way that they do in Japanese and Russian as they do in English? It's truly awesome to think about. This book is for my fellow word nerds. Jun 03, Cheryl rated it it was ok. From the title, I expected this to be friendlier, to be a good introduction to issues of translation.
Instead, I found much of it to be nearly impenetrable nitpicking, and much of the rest to be obvious to any student of human nature, any auto-didact of modern psychology. I wanted examples, anecdotes, something a bit like They Have a Word for It: Author is guilty of saying "Chinese" language in every context, From the title, I expected this to be friendlier, to be a good introduction to issues of translation.
Author is guilty of saying "Chinese" language in every context, instead of acknowledging that there are actually many Chinese languages It looks through established translated documents for the the given text, often finding a "pivot" language between the two. We all know it doesn't yet work wonderfully, but as of Bellos' writing it is the best available machine translation, at least in his opinion.
Good clue to whether a person is reciting a prepared lie or speaking extemporaneously - are they gesticulating? Most ppl can't help but use their hands to help their brain organize their thoughts and come up with words. Bellos gives interesting evidence. I also noticed a distinct absence of So. I forgot to mark it, but to paraphrase from memory: Others may certainly get more out of the book than I. Probably not readers who already have studied translation, or readers who struggle with the writing of academics, but surely there's somebody who actually would enjoy, and learn from, this.
I'm going to try Through the Language Glass: Oct 11, Filip rated it really liked it. This book ended up on several Best Books of lists, yet I wonder if every reviewer read past the sexy title and consumed it from end to end. David Bellos is a professional translater French to English and has some very interesting and enlightening views on communication and translation. In this book, he doesn't shy away from radical overstatement such as when he says that nowadays English is the only lingua franca that the various Belgian linguistic communities can still use to communicat This book ended up on several Best Books of lists, yet I wonder if every reviewer read past the sexy title and consumed it from end to end.
In this book, he doesn't shy away from radical overstatement such as when he says that nowadays English is the only lingua franca that the various Belgian linguistic communities can still use to communicate with each other. But he is easily forgiven, because he really provides new insight on what a translation is or should be.
Unavoidably, this leads to meta-meta-paragraphs about language which can be quite dense at first glance. Other parts are seriously theoretical such as the Axiom of Ineffability , which make this book's position on the Best Books list rather surprising, as I doubt that many people are interested in this level of theoretical analysis I am, so I enjoyed it. View all 3 comments. David Bellos, the translator of Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual, has a point to prove, and he makes it several times over.
Translation is a substitute for the original, because most of us will never what the original is like. I sort of liked how much effort and historical knowledge he put into arguing that any assumptions about translation are largely wrong, and should be no obstacle to reading. The book liberated me - next time I read in translation I hopefully won't get stuck in that odd dissatisfied limbo where I wonder what I'm missing out on. He makes a convincing case for how common presumptions about translators have been tied with their shifting, vital role in historical exchange, with the many gendered truisms about translation reflecting the distrust and suspicion of their activities.
But then such formalisations and Anglicisations if in English make it back into the first language he gives the example of Swedish-language detective novels which have taken on the constructions of English sentences common in English-language translations of Swedish novels. Anyway, here are a few quotes that stuck in my head, and perhaps convey Bellos' free-roaming, open-ended vision: But in practice, we are not born into any particular language at all: The second is that we are all the same — that we can share the same broad and narrow kinds of feelings, information, understandings and so forth'.
Ce livre est un essai sur l'acte et l'art de la traduction.
Translation and the Meaning of Everything has ratings and reviews. by Jeffrey Eugenides The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta The Sense of an Ending by. Translation and the Meaning of Everything (): David Bellos: Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Save an extra $ when you apply this coupon.
It is always interesting to see what the colleagues and friends are doing, which books I missed but should read soon, what they think about books I reviewed recently — and sometimes what they are thinking about other book-related topics. As I have said several times before, I am much more aware now that translations matter and are extremely important. Even when you can speak an http: Even when you can speak and read five or six languages it will still widen your horizon beyond imagination when you have access to translated books.
The availability and also the quality of translations are therefore one of the most important defining elements of an existing book market. In an older blog post https: Many experts view L2 translations with skepticism or reject them completely, while some consider indirect translations as acceptable when there are no translators available for this particular combination of languages.
I think what counts at the end of the day is the quality of the translation, no matter if it is L1, L2, or indirect. Of course, chances that the translation is excellent are much higher with direct translations. When writers are sometimes using a language that is not their native one, why shouldn't some translators be able to do the same? Since Nabokov grew up bilingual, I wouldn't include him in this list of writers, but there are plenty of them and not the worst — An indirect translation might be a kind of second-best solution in cases when there are really no translators available for this particular combination.
For Kadare it shouldn't be a problem to be translated directly into English, since there is not one, but plenty of literary translators for that combination. But Kadare is a special case: That means that a translation of the same book from French to English contains a sometimes very different text than when you would make a direct translation from the Albanian version. The revised editions of the pre novels of Kadare in Albanian language were published after the French versions, if I am not mistaken.
For the past novels, the situation is different: There are also other authors we know mainly from indirect translations. The works of Israel Bashevis Singer are usually translated from English — there are even a lot of people that think Singer was an English-language author. Especially in the case of the translations of Singer to German that is a real pity: