---
product_id: 1705551
title: "Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything"
brand: "david bellos"
price: "10.70 OMR"
currency: OMR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.com.om/products/1705551-is-that-a-fish-in-your-ear-translation-and-meaning
store_origin: OM
region: Oman
---

# Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything

**Brand:** david bellos
**Price:** 10.70 OMR
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything by david bellos
- **How much does it cost?** 10.70 OMR with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.om](https://www.desertcart.com.om/products/1705551-is-that-a-fish-in-your-ear-translation-and-meaning)

## Best For

- david bellos enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted david bellos brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything

## Images

![Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bmMTK5OlL.jpg)
![Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514PjHQJ6IL.jpg)
![Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31HGBZZLbjL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Humor, Verve, and Style
  

*by J***K on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 7, 2011*

This author presents many fascinating ideas in this small volume dense with insights into language and communication.  And best of all, he delivers this information with humor, verve, and style.Bellos tells us that although there are perhaps as many as 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, most are spoken by very small groups.  To engage with the outside world, "vehicular languages" are needed; that is, languages learned by nonnative speakers for the purpose of communicating with native speakers of a third tongue.  Some eighty languages are considered vehicular, but knowing just nine of them would permit effective conversation with around 90 percent of the world's population.  The language with the largest number of nonnative users is English, but English is not the language with the largest number of native speakers, which currently is Mandarin Chinese.Perhaps I have thus far given the impression that this book is just  a compendium of fun language facts.  It is, but that's not the point of the book at all.  Rather, the author sets out to define translation, and then determine what makes a good translation, and finally to consider why we need translation at all?  Why don't we all just learn to speak a common language?In characterizing translation, Bellos explains that "meaning" is not the only component of an utterance; there is also tone of voice, context, layout, intention, culture, form (such as poem, play, legal document), the identities of the communicants together with the relationship between them, etc.  In fact, as Bellos observes, what matters the most is not a word-to-word congruence.  On the contrary, it is more important for the translator to preserve the force of the utterance in another language.  Thus the translator must take into account such factors as levels of formality in conversation, as well as customs and rules about how men and women and people of different social classes may relate to each other.  Importantly, he adds, "No sentence contains all the information you need to translate it."One of my favorite examples in the book is this anecdote:  "In many parts of Africa... casting branches in the path of a chief expresses contempt, whereas in the Gospels it is done to mark Jesus's return to Jerusalem as a triumph...  Revision of the Gospel's account of Palm Sunday is both absolutely necessary to avoid giving the wrong message to African readers and at the same time impossible without profoundly altering the story being told."Another great example given by Bellows concerns a statement released by the office of Otto von Bismarck, the German chancellor, in 1870.  The statement referred to a communication made to the French by "the adjutant of the day."  In German, this is a high-ranking courtier, but in French, this is a mere warrant officer.  The French took the meaning of this word-for-word translation as a sign of grievous disrespect, and an international incident ensued, culminating in a declaration of war by the French six days later.Translating humor is a particular challenge; meaning must almost always be changed to get the particular point across the original is trying to make.Moreover, translators try to get across the style of an author or what makes him or her distinct:  "The question is: At what level is the Dickensianity of any text by Dickens located?  In the words, the sentences, the paragraphs, the digressions, the anecdotes, the construction of character, or the plot?"All of these considerations (and many more delineated by Bellos) mean that just knowing the words of another language is insufficient to be a good translator.At the end of the book, Bellos asks if one day we might just be able to have the equivalent of a translation fish in our ears, as was the device used in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe," and then we would all be able to understand one another totally.  He suggests this is unlikely, since linguistic diversity serves other functions besides the conveyance of meaning in different formats:  it also serves to establish lines of in-groups and out-groups, and helps form part of the identity of an individual as a member of a specific community.  "Every language," he notes, "tells your listener who you are, where you come from, where you belong."  It is not poetry that is lost in translation, he avers, it is community.  But translation can accomplish almost everything else to enable human beings to communicate thought.  He concludes "We should do more of it."Evaluation:  This is a highly entertaining and thought-provoking treatise on what comprises communication and the surprisingly small but important role that language plays in the process.  I loved this book.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Everything you always wanted to know about translation... in an odd nutshell
  

*by S***B on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 28, 2011*

As someone who comes from a family of translators and who has worked in translation himself, I am utterly glad that someone has come up with a book like this, an honest and passionate attempt to unveil the world of translation to the average person and spark the debate among the more knowledgeable ones.In attempting to write a book that covers, well, pretty much everything about translation, David Bellos has produced a comprehensive and badly needed primer full of insight, yet a not-so coherent and cohesive unity. The book is divided into 32 small sections (yes, 32), each dealing with a different aspect of translation, from the meaning of "meaning", to the alleged "myth" of literal translation, with newswires and the ridiculous sophistication of coffee-shop language somewhere in-between. Some of these sections are delightful and concisely written, others are riddled with analogies and humorous attempts that distract from the main topic, yet others are frankly repetitive or well under-developed. The result is less a piece that seems to flow from chapter to chapter, but rather something that feels at times like a collection of disparate short essays that rumble from bananas to bibles to eskimos and back to translation. While some chapters indeed perform liaisons to previous or following ones, sadly that is not the overall feeling that one gets when tackling the text.I guess this is the unavoidable result of attempting to put together so many different topics under a single umbrella, while trying to give equal importance to each and every single one. But my other assumption is that the book could have greatly benefited from a better editing job, which in turn would have resulted in a more 'natural' feeling to the final product.On the other hand, I do not necessarily agree with everything that Mr. Bellos asserts and the way he does it (but that is a whole different story). I believe he gives too much credence to his own opinions and parades them as axioms, without even considering or giving some space to alternative or critical views. The issue of 'literal translation' is a good -but no the only one- example of this. According to the author's Manichean vision, a literal translation is 'not really' a translation and is such a daunting and fictitious task that is almost not worth trying. This whole argument is sustained in a verbal and semantic pirouette, given that he later on acknowledges that it really all depends on what 'literal' and, yes, 'translation' means to you. However, he does not even bother in considering the opinion of someone who believes that a literal translation (or something close to it) is possible. It simply can not happen, period. One wonders whether he is representing the entire translation community or just speaking for himself which, based on reading his text, is quite hard to tell.Now, on the positive side, the book is full of pearls of wisdom and clever insights into the world of translating. I really hope that this work contributes to spreading the word on the invaluable contribution of translators all over the world, and I hope as well that next time Mr. Bellos will find a better editor.

### ⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Fails to live up to its reviews
  

*by N***J on Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 24, 2017*

Am I missing something?  Or am I the boy in the Emperor's New Clothes?I make my living as a translator and I used to teach English at university level.  So this book ought to have appealed to me, especially if the fulsome reviews are to be believed.  But I found it just dull.  Bellos writes like an academic and that is not a compliment.  There are places - many places - where my brain just clouded over, either from information overload (as in the details of systems at the ECJ and UN), or from what I found the plodding nature of the prose.There are many things known to all translators but not to the general public that pass unmentioned.  For instance, Bellos notes that most translation is done into the translator's "mother tongue".  But he doesn't say why - and any commercial translator will tell you that the problem is rarely understanding the original (what else are dictionaries and contacts for?) but working out how to express it naturally in the target language (for which Google comes in useful).  And he never mentions that the most important factor in whether a text is hard or easy to translate is not the content but the quality of writing in the original (grammaticality, sentence structure, word usage, etc.).  Difficult stuff written well just requires work.  Easy stuff written badly is always a headache, because written badly almost invariably means ambiguity.  Bellos is presumably luckier than the rest of us in getting good texts to translate.He also gets literary texts, and talks a lot about them.  This may be interesting for the general reader but it has very little to do with how most of us make our living.There's also some very curious stuff presented, almost, as established fact.  For instance, while Bellos is right to point to the way that language is a very significant factor in establishing social identity, it is surely going way beyond justification claiming, as he does, that this is the main function of language and the main driver of its origins.There's no reason to doubt the sincerity of the ranks of critics and reviewers.  If they enjoyed this book, then that's great.  But plainly I didn't.  And that comes from someone from within the trade.  There's no reason why someone shouldn't be able to produce a good book about translation for the general reader, but this one didn't do it for me.

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.om/products/1705551-is-that-a-fish-in-your-ear-translation-and-meaning](https://www.desertcart.com.om/products/1705551-is-that-a-fish-in-your-ear-translation-and-meaning)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Oman*
*Store origin: OM*
*Last updated: 2026-03-14*