Book description
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…
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Why read it?
1 author picked Dictionary of Untranslatables as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This is a huge book—in size, as an object, and in number of pages (almost 1400). It's a book for people like me who enjoy exploring words, language, and ideas. It was created by over 160 distinguished scholars working in twelve languages and translated into English by five translators.
There are around four hundred words selected from many different fields. For me, it is a deep well into which to dip and draw out new insights and discoveries. It recognizes that words change in meaning in translation. This becomes very clear as a word is passed through different…
From Tony's list on make a difference to people and their worlds.
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