Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation
Author: Ella Frances Sanders
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2014-09-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1607747111

From the author of Eating the Sun, an artistic collection of more than 50 drawings featuring unique, funny, and poignant foreign words that have no direct translation into English Did you know that the Japanese language has a word to express the way sunlight filters through the leaves of trees? Or that there’s a Finnish word for the distance a reindeer can travel before needing to rest? Lost in Translation brings to life more than fifty words that don’t have direct English translations with charming illustrations of their tender, poignant, and humorous definitions. Often these words provide insight into the cultures they come from, such as the Brazilian Portuguese word for running your fingers through a lover’s hair, the Italian word for being moved to tears by a story, or the Swedish word for a third cup of coffee. In this clever and beautifully rendered exploration of the subtleties of communication, you’ll find new ways to express yourself while getting lost in the artistry of imperfect translation.

Dictionary of Untranslatables

Dictionary of Untranslatables
Author: Barbara Cassin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 1339
Release: 2014-02-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1400849918

Characters in some languages, particularly Hebrew and Arabic, may not display properly due to device limitations. Transliterations of terms appear before the representations in foreign characters. This is an encyclopedic dictionary of close to 400 important philosophical, literary, and political terms and concepts that defy easy—or any—translation from one language and culture to another. Drawn from more than a dozen languages, terms such as Dasein (German), pravda (Russian), saudade (Portuguese), and stato (Italian) are thoroughly examined in all their cross-linguistic and cross-cultural complexities. Spanning the classical, medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary periods, these are terms that influence thinking across the humanities. The entries, written by more than 150 distinguished scholars, describe the origins and meanings of each term, the history and context of its usage, its translations into other languages, and its use in notable texts. The dictionary also includes essays on the special characteristics of particular languages--English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Originally published in French, this one-of-a-kind reference work is now available in English for the first time, with new contributions from Judith Butler, Daniel Heller-Roazen, Ben Kafka, Kevin McLaughlin, Kenneth Reinhard, Stella Sandford, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jane Tylus, Anthony Vidler, Susan Wolfson, Robert J. C. Young, and many more.The result is an invaluable reference for students, scholars, and general readers interested in the multilingual lives of some of our most influential words and ideas. Covers close to 400 important philosophical, literary, and political terms that defy easy translation between languages and cultures Includes terms from more than a dozen languages Entries written by more than 150 distinguished thinkers Available in English for the first time, with new contributions by Judith Butler, Daniel Heller-Roazen, Ben Kafka, Kevin McLaughlin, Kenneth Reinhard, Stella Sandford, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jane Tylus, Anthony Vidler, Susan Wolfson, Robert J. C. Young, and many more Contains extensive cross-references and bibliographies An invaluable resource for students and scholars across the humanities

They Have a Word for it

They Have a Word for it
Author: Howard Rheingold
Publisher:
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2000
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781889330464

They Have a Word for It takes the reader to the far corners of the globe to discover words and phrases for which there are not equivalents in English. From the North Pole to New Guinea, from Easter Island to Tibet, Howard Rheingold explores more than forty familiar and obscure languages to discover genuinely useful (rather than simply odd) words that can open up new ways of understanding and experiencing life. --Sarabande Books.

The Loom of Language

The Loom of Language
Author: Frederick Bodmer
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 724
Release: 1985
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780393300345

Here is an informative introduction to language: its origins in the past, its growth through history, and its present use for communication between peoples. It is at the same time a history of language, a guide to foreign tongues, and a method for learning them. It shows, through basic vocabularies, family resemblances of languages -- Teutonic, Romance, Greek -- helpful tricks of translation, key combinations of roots and phonetic patterns. It presents by common-sense methods the most helpful approach to the mastery of many languages; it condenses vocabulary to a minimum of essential words; it simplifies grammar in an entirely new way; and it teaches a language as it is actually used in everyday life.

Against World Literature

Against World Literature
Author: Emily Apter
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2014-06-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1784780022

Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability argues for a rethinking of comparative literature focusing on the problems that emerge when large-scale paradigms of literary studies ignore the politics of the “Untranslatable”—the realm of those words that are continually retranslated, mistranslated, transferred from language to language, or especially resistant to substitution. In the place of “World Literature”—a dominant paradigm in the humanities, one grounded in market-driven notions of readability and universal appeal—Apter proposes a plurality of “world literatures” oriented around philosophical concepts and geopolitical pressure points. The history and theory of the language that constructs World Literature is critically examined with a special focus on Weltliteratur, literary world systems, narrative ecosystems, language borders and checkpoints, theologies of translation, and planetary devolution in a book set to revolutionize the discipline of comparative literature.

Between Dog & Wolf

Between Dog & Wolf
Author: Sasha Sokolov
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2016-12-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0231543727

This “intricate and rewarding” novel by the renowned author of A School for Fools is “a Russian Finnegan’s Wake” finally available in English translation (Vanity Fair). One of contemporary Russia’s greatest novelists, Sasha Sokolov is celebrated for his experimental, verbally playful prose. Written in 1980, his novel Between Dog and Wolf has long been considered impossible to translate because of its complex puns, rhymes, and neologisms. But in this acclaimed translation, Alexander Boguslawski has achieved “a masterful feat…remarkably faithful to the subtleties of Sokolov's language” (Olga Matich, University of California, Berkeley). Alternating between the voices of an old, one-legged knife-sharpener, a game warden who writes poetry, and Sokolov himself, this language-driven novel unfolds a story of life on the upper Volga River, in which time, characters, and death all prove unstable. The one constant is the Russian landscape, where the Volga is a more-crossable River Styx, especially when it freezes in winter.

Love Letter to the Earth

Love Letter to the Earth
Author: Thich Nhat Hanh
Publisher: Parallax Press
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2013-06-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1937006387

World-renowned Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh champions a more mindful, spiritual approach to protecting nature and limiting climate change—one that recognizes people and planet as one and the same. While many experts point to the enormous complexity in addressing issues ranging from the destruction of ecosystems to the loss of millions of species, Thich Nhat Hanh identifies one key issue as having the potential to create a tipping point. He believes that we need to move beyond the concept of the “environment,” as it leads people to experience themselves and Earth as two separate entities and to see the planet only in terms of what it can do for them. Here, Thich Nhat Hanh points to the lack of meaning and connection in peoples’ lives as being the cause of our addiction to consumerism. He deems it vital that we recognize and respond to the stress we are putting on the Earth if civilization is to survive. Rejecting the conventional economic approach, Thich Nhat Hanh shows that mindfulness and a spiritual revolution are needed to protect nature and limit climate change. Love Letter to the Earth is a hopeful book that gives us a path to follow by showing that change is possible only with the recognition that people and the planet are ultimately one and the same.

The Illustrated Book of Sayings

The Illustrated Book of Sayings
Author: Ella Frances Sanders
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2016-09-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1607749343

From the New York Times bestselling author of Lost in Translation and Eating the Sun, a charming illustrated collection of more than fifty expressions from around the globe that explores the nuances of language From the hilarious and romantic to the philosophical and literal, the idioms, proverbs, and adages in this illustrated collection address the nuances of language in the form of sayings from around the world. From the French idiom “to pedal in the sauerkraut” (meaning, “to spin your wheels”), to the Japanese idiom “even monkeys fall from trees” (meaning, “even experts can be wrong”), The Illustrated Book of Sayings reveals the remarkable diversity, humor, and poignancy of the world’s languages and cultures.

Eating the Sun

Eating the Sun
Author: Ella Frances Sanders
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2019-04-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 052550494X

Winner of the 2019 Whirling Prize “Strong on science but just this side of poetry.” —Nature A beautifully illustrated exploration of the principles, laws, and wonders that rule our universe, our world, and our daily lives, from the New York Times bestselling creator of Lost in Translation Have you ever found yourself wondering what we might have in common with stars, or why the Moon never leaves us? Thinking about the precise dancing of planets, the passing of time, or the nature of natural things? Our world is full of unshakable mystery, and although we live in a civilization more complicated than ever, there is simplicity and reassurance to be found in knowing how and why. From the New York Times bestselling creator of Lost in Translation, Eating the Sun is a delicately existential, beautifully illustrated, and welcoming exploration of the universe—one that examines and marvels at the astonishing principles, laws, and phenomena that we exist alongside, that we sit within. “[A] lyrical and luminous celebration of science and our consanguinity with the universe. . . . Playful and poignant.” —Brain Pickings