Un pez en la higuera

This book is not so much a translation manual as an entertaining cultural guide. It does not deal with methodology or technique, but with the bananas or the fig trees that grew in the Gospel of Saint Matthew according to the different translations, or with the fish of Babel, a wonderful creature that only had to be brought close to the ear to instantly understand all the languages of the world. In other words, this work reveals to us what translation is capable of doing for us in all the areas in which it intervenes, from literature to diplomacy, passing through philosophy, subtitling, news or tourism. How do we know for sure that we have understood what others are saying, in our language or any other? What is the difference between translating colloquial words and a book like Madame Bovary? What really happens when world leaders speak at the UN? These are, among many others, the themes that the reader of this work encounters as he progresses through the reading. An erudite and humorous journey through the wonderful land of words, where the comedian Chaplin and the philosopher J. L. Austin, Christopher Columbus and Saint Jerome appear, but also Franz Kafka, Georges Perec, Andreï Makine... An extraordinary book for all lovers of the language and also for those who like to be told stories.