Is That a Fish in Your Ear? — Translation and the Meaning of Everything — By David Bellos — Book Review – NYTimes.com

Is That a Fish in Your Ear? — Translation and the Meaning of Everything — By David Bellos — Book Review – NYTimes.com.

 

It’s often said, for instance, that a translation can’t ever be an adequate substitute for the original. But a translation, Bellos writes, isn’t trying to be the same as the original, but to be like it. Which is why the usual conceptual duo of translation — fidelity, and the literal — is too clumsy.