Le Ton Beau de Marot

Le Ton beau de Marot, by Douglas Hofstadter - remarkable exploration of language and translation, in all its magic and complexity…both deeply personal and deeply researched, a must-read for lovers of language

on HN, 2017

Was blown by his description of how making the typographical choice of starting the first word of each chapter with letters decreasing in height to the normal page font size, caused him to rethink a whole chapter (he couldn't use descenders, which limits the first word, which limits his first sentence, which constrains his first paragraph and so on).

on HN, 2015

If you want something less theoretical, more personal, poetic and emotional, his "Le ton beau de Marot" (English, despite the title) is also fabulous. He takes a short poem and translates it a hundred different ways, all the while musing about what "translation" means (literal, conveying the same emotion, using the same metaphors, between cultures...) as well as about thought, language and meaning more generally.

on HN, 2015

And then, while he writes the book, his wife gets a brain tumor and dies, and the book becomes part of his mourning.

on HN, 2015

I also liked "le ton beau de marot", on the art of translation, but that's less of a general appeal book.

on HN, 2019

Also by Hofstadter: Le Ton beau de Marot was a good read.

on HN, 2014