Rick Kleffel’s piece begins by pointing out the impossibility of a literal translation, then focuses on three translators: Bea Basso, who points out the difficulty of capturing the culture, dialect of a particular region; Julie Rose, who was the third person to translate Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables; and Burton Raffel, who has translated Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, and Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel.

Like I said, nothing new to see here—I expect nothing more from NPR these days—but this story from Raffel is worth the price of admission:

“Rabelais, the author of this very strange book, ends the chapter with a sputtering iteration. I believe it’s something like 43 different words in French for s- – -,” says Raffel. “My problem was finding 43 different words because English is not so plentiful in these things.”