Jul. 21st, 2011

ivyfic: (Default)
I've been reading Eastern wisdom literature (the Bhagavad Gita, and now the Tao Te Ching--which is interesting on the subway, let me tell you). In both these, especially the Gita, there are some words that aren't translated, because no English word encompasses the entirety of the idea (moksha, karma, dharma, etc, and tao, yin, yang, etc).

So this had me thinking--what words in English are untranslatable? There must be some, though I don't really have the perspective to know what they are. When I was studying French, I noticed that there was no equivalent for "home." The closest was "chez moi," which means where I live, but without those overtones of belonging that are in the English word.

What do you think are the untranslatable words in English?

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ivyfic

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