Is That a Fish in Your Ear?

Starred review from August 22, 2011
Written by an award-winning translator and professor of comparative literature, this book is informed by considerable culture and an original, probing intelligence with a mostly light touch—the title riffs off of Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, whose babel fish, when inserted in one’s ear, could translate any imaginable language. If only it were that easy. Bellos gets readers to think in new ways about the implications of moving a series of words from one language and society to another. Of the 7,000 tongues currently used by humankind, works are translated between roughly 50. The preponderance of translation is into English, which explains why translating is a well-paying profession in Japan, Germany, and France but not here. Whether translating Astérix comics or caustic Chinese doggerel, puns and wordplay or even legalities at the groundbreaking Nuremberg Tribunal, translators are far more than a kind of literary middleman. It is a breeze to get lost in translation, and for this reason Bellos cannily exclaims, “We should do more of it.”

August 15, 2011

An award-winning translator describes and defends his profession.

Bellos (French and Comparative Literature/Princeton Univ.; Romain Gary: A Tall Story, 2010, etc.) has a broad definition of translation: in general, the ability of the human mind to convert stimuli into meaning. He begins by imagining a world without translation—recognizing the unpleasant possibility of such a situation—and then identifies and analyzes key issues of his discipline. He dispenses with some common misconceptions about translation ("Translations are substitutes for original texts. You use them in the place of a work written in a language you cannot read with ease") and examines some of the difficulties and oddities of the enterprise. For example, how to translate into French those portions of War and Peace that are already in French? Bellos also discusses dictionaries (observing that, in one sense, a language becomes a language when it has a dictionary) and dismisses what he calls the myth of literal translation (word-for-word substitution). He reminds us of the canard about Eskimos having scores of words for "snow" and deals with issues like the translation of sacred texts, the difficulty of simultaneous oral translation and translation problems in the fields of law and journalism. There are some stunning moments along the way, as when he offers a dozen variations of a translation of a Chinese shunkouliu ("oral grapevines"). There are moments of humor, too (oh, the problems translating naughty jokes!). Bellos realizes that in literary translation, the only way to experience the author's original effect is to read the text in the original language. His passion sometimes propels him into hyperbole, but never for long.

Erudite and occasionally dense, but ultimately illuminating, even transformative.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 1, 2011

What would happen if someone in each community used a Babel fish, a device imagined by Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that translates from any received language when placed in the ear? Starting with this allusion, as per his title, Bellos (director, program in translation & intercultural communication, Princeton Univ.) employs familiar topics to explore the function and nature of translation. Thirty-three brief chapters focus on historic and current translation, including translation of classic literature, subtitles in movies, and language parity in the European Union. While occasionally presenting examples of differing translations of the same text, Bellos does not instruct how to translate. Instead, he highlights translation's role outside of family relationships, such as in religion, education, economics, and politics. Both anecdotes and scholarly references support the narrative. The author's casual tone and emphasis on translation's function distinguish the work from such new books as Susan Bassnett's essay collection Reflections on Translation. VERDICT An entertaining yet still scholarly introduction for interested readers, undergraduates, and language professionals.--Marianne Orme, Des Plaines P.L., IL

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.