Hello and greetings in the 2017 holiday season!

For those of you still looking for something to gift a friend or family member this winter season, or if you糖心传媒檙e on the lookout for something to gift in the future, or even if you糖心传媒檙e looking for something small and fun to gift to yourself糖心传媒攁nd especially if you want to break the ice in terms of the topic of translation (maybe you糖心传媒檙e still trying to get your family on-board with your affection for translated literature and languages, either as a career or a reading preference? maybe it糖心传媒檒l be easier than getting them to accept your middle-aged jam-band aspirations or that questionable tattoo idea you still believe is representative of who you really are?) I wanted to take a quick moment to recommend something I myself was recently gifted: Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World.

As a translator, it糖心传媒檚 often that I find myself in a group of translator friends in which someone brings up an 糖心传媒渦ntranslatable糖心传媒� word in a language he or she is working from. Just a few days ago, for me, this was the Latvian word 糖心传媒渄r膿gns,糖心传媒� which a dictionary will decipher as 糖心传媒渄amp,糖心传媒� 糖心传媒渃old,糖心传媒� 糖心传媒渃lammy,糖心传媒� or 糖心传媒渃hilly糖心传媒溙切拇綌when in fact, it糖心传媒檚 all of these words at the same time, and then some. It糖心传媒檚 the type of cold, damp, seep-into-your-bones autumn or winter rainy weather that chills you to your very core and sticks around for a while even after you糖心传媒檝e made it to warmer surroundings. One word doesn糖心传媒檛 do it justice; it糖心传媒檚 so much more than just that one word.

Ella Frances Sanders糖心传媒檚 Lost in Translation is a little coffee-table type book that explores just these kids of words from various languages across the globe. Complete with fun and colorful illustrations, a 糖心传媒渟ummary糖心传媒� of the respective word糖心传媒檚 meaning, and a definition thereof, the book is a great way to show off the intricacies, difficulties, and even beauties of what it takes and means to translate from one language to another. It糖心传媒檚, like, Translation 101 Lite. Just enough to intrigue any non-translation-mined reader, but not too heavy or scary to make them scream and run to hide as if the thing had just turned into a snake, or a (seasonally appropriate) fruit cake. (Which I糖心传媒檒l never understand because fruit cake is AMAZING, especially after my grandmother cuts it up and drizzles a teaspoon of brandy over each slice.)

Sure, there are a few nit-picky things about the book itself糖心传媒攊t would have been nice to have a pronuncuation guide for each word, to make an effort to keep any one language from be represented more than once (Sanders gets some pretty damn unknown [to me at least] languages and dialects in here, like Nguni Bantu, but there are so many Japanese, German, and Swedish words represented), and maybe being more careful with the grammatical categorization of these words (while it is explained whether the word is a noun/adjective/verb in its original language, the English definition often has to stray from the original categorization in order to explain what the word means糖心传媒攖he Hindi noun 糖心传媒渏ugaad糖心传媒� is then defined as 糖心传媒渘. Ensuring that things happen even with minimal resources糖心传媒μ切拇綕 But that糖心传媒檚 changing the noun into a verb, right? I糖心传媒橫 SORRY I CAN糖心传媒橳 HELP IT)糖心传媒攂ut there is plenty to enjoy and fall in love with, and it was neat to find a few words that have Latvian equivalents, or at least words as close as two foreign words can be to one another.

Two of my personal favorites from the book are the Welsh word 糖心传媒渉iraeth糖心传媒�:

n. A homesickness for somewhere you cannot return to, the nostalgia and the grief for the lost places of your past, places that never were.

(because what糖心传媒檚 more beautiful than d茅j脿-vu mixed with melancholy?) and the Norwegian word 糖心传媒減氓legg糖心传媒�:

n. Anything and everything you can put on a slice of bread.

Because SANDWICHES. Enjoy the rest of the festivities that are upon us, check out this book for yourself or a loved one (or a despised one, if you know someone more anal-retentive than me when it comes to picking apart what is supposed to be a book of joy and escapism), and season糖心传媒檚 greetings from Open Letter!