What is a translation? -- Is translation avoidable? -- Why do we call it "translation"? -- Things people say about translation -- Fictions of the foreign : the paradox of "foreign-soundingness" -- Native command : is your language really yours? -- Meaning is no simple thing -- Words are even worse -- Understanding dictionaries -- The myth of literal translation -- The issue of trust : the long shadow of oral translation -- Custom cuts : making forms fit -- What can't be said can't be translated : the axion of effability -- How many words do we have for coffee? -- Bibles and bananas : the vertical axis of translation relations -- Translation impacts -- The third code : translation as a dialect -- No language is an island : the awkward issue of L3 -- Global flows : center and periphery in the translation of books -- A question of human rights : translation and the spread of international law -- Ceci n'est pas une traduction : language parity in the European Union -- Translating news -- The adventure of automated language-translation machines -- A fish in your ear : the short history of simultaneous interpreting -- Match me if you can : translating humor -- Style and translation -- Translating literary texts -- What translators do -- Beating the bounds : what translation is not -- Under fire : sniping at translation -- Sameness, likeness, and match : truths about translation -- Avatar : a parable of translation -- Afterbabble : in lieu of an epilogue.