Bellos

The book is brisk—speedy, even—but Mr. Bellos does slow down occasionally to squash this or that pernicious bit of linguistic folklore.

Lost and Found In Translation Lee Sandlin 2011

Mr. Bellos has no trouble demonstrating that the whole idea is deeply confused and philosophically naïve.

Lost and Found In Translation Lee Sandlin 2011

Bellos gives the most succinct explanation of its mechanics: Translation is what you get, but translation isn't really what Google does.

The worldwide upsurge in demand for English versions of foreign bestsellers, coupled with the growing power of Google Translate, suggest we may be closer than ever to escaping the age of Babel 2011

Mr. Bellos offers no simple answer, and with good reason: A convincing anti-nomenclaturist theory would require a long exploration of the wilder shores of linguistic philosophy including, inevitably, a close study of Wittgenstein, one of the toughest reads on earth, and Mr. Bellos is reluctant to drag readers into such harsh terrain.

Lost and Found In Translation Lee Sandlin 2011

These are not doubts that would meet with much sympathy from David Bellos.

Lost and Found In Translation Lee Sandlin 2011

This, says Bellos, has been the "hopeless pursuit of the purely hypothetical language which all people really speak in the great basement of their souls".

The worldwide upsurge in demand for English versions of foreign bestsellers, coupled with the growing power of Google Translate, suggest we may be closer than ever to escaping the age of Babel 2011

Bellos doesn't make it entirely clear if the English text here actually corresponds to any Albanian version of Kronikë në gur.

July Books 19) Verdigris, by Paul Magrs nwhyte 2009

The truth is sometimes a bit difficult to pin down, and so is the exact text: the cover of the book says that the translation is by David Bellos, but Bellos in a very good introduction explains that the translation is mostly by Albanian dissident Arshi Pipa, who fell out with the original publisher and demanded that his name be removed.

July Books 19) Verdigris, by Paul Magrs nwhyte 2009

Of the mature Monte Bellos, the legendary 1970 exhibited a gorgeous nose of delicate tobacco with the wine in a lovely place, mature yet still very much alive.

Ridge Monte Bello and Paul Draper's forty years of making it | Dr Vino's wine blog 2010

A strictly literal translation is a mirage—it looks like unadorned accuracy, but that's really just a stylistic trick, which, Mr. Bellos says, is "unrelated to authenticity, truthfulness, or plainness of expression."

Lost and Found In Translation Lee Sandlin 2011