It’s worth checking out every week, but especially this week, since the main focus is on translation. Starting with a bit about Google Translate (and the word “antidisestablishment”), the podcast also includes a conversation with the head of the American Translators Association, one about Madeline Miller糖心传媒檚 new novel, The Song of Achilles and what it owes to Homer糖心传媒檚 The Iliad, and a great talk with David Bellos:

And some people even translate books. David Bellos does that. He has translated, among other novels, Georges Perec糖心传媒檚 La Vie mode d糖心传媒檈mploi 糖心传媒淟ife: A User糖心传媒檚 Manual糖心传媒�), a book once considered untranslatable. Bellos is also the author of the recently published Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything.

Bellos糖心传媒� book has been a hit with reviewers. No wonder. With all those reasons (global marketing, espionage, immigration) why translators are needed now more than ever, it follows that we should question more closely what translation is, what it does, and what it misses. I don糖心传媒檛 know if translations of novels and poems have improved over time, each translator shaving his or her own microsecond off some previous world record, but in one small way it糖心传媒檚 a shame: it may discourage us from reading books in their original languages. But that糖心传媒檚 a minor worry, certainly not an argument against good translations.

It’s a great episode, and another great opportunity to encourage everyone to buy Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Or at least, you should

And to listen to the full World in Words podcast, just or you can to listen to it in iTunes.