A deep dive into the nature of translation from one of its most acclaimed practitioners
Avoiding theoretical debates and cliched metaphors, award-winning translator Damion Searls has written a fresh, approachable, and convincing account of what translation really is and what translators actually do.
As the translator of sixty books from multiple languages, Searls has spent decades grappling with words on the most granular level: nouns and verbs, accents on people's names, rhymes, rhythm, "untranslatable" cultural nuances. Here, he connects a wealth of specific examples to larger philosophical issues of reading and perception. Translation, he argues, is fundamentally a way of reading-but reading is much more than taking in information, and translating is far from a mechanical process of converting one word to another.
This sharp and inviting exploration of the theory and practice of translation is for anyone who has ever marveled at the beauty, force, and movement of language.
Industry Reviews
"Damion Searls is one of the most erudite and original-and provocative-thinkers on one of today's most important cultural subjects: translation. This book is vast, generous, charming, and profound, a brilliant meditation on how we read and what it means to move in and out of languages and language."-Jennifer Croft
"Translators are priceless, and their task is often thankless. Now more than ever, readers who have been confused by Google Translate do not understand the project of translation. The Philosophy of Translation makes clear the mission of the translator, the amazing task of offering an extant work by constructing a new work. This book is open, honest and, most of all, smart; it makes clear that the act of translation is an act of creation. Remarkable."-Percival Everett
"From a rich and unexpected array of sources ranging from Mayan etymology to the psychology of airplane pilots, Searls weaves a compelling case for translation as a creative act of individual human perception. Like Edith Grossman's Why Translation Matters, The Philosophy of Translation addresses the practices and politics of literary translation in a way that is both brilliant and useful."-Esther Allen
"It's no easy task to explain what translators do all day. Damion Searls's lively book explains the conceptual and practical challenges in terms that will be accessible for nonspecialists and invigorating for translators and theorists."-Emily Wilson
"Damion Searls is perhaps the only translator in the world who could write a book with the title The Philosophy of Translation and be taken seriously by theorists and practitioners of translation alike. This erudite and accessible volume takes us on a tour of the world of translation where the familiar is made unfamiliar and back again. A stellar work I will be quoting from and returning to for years to come."-Anton Hur
