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Complex words in other languages
Translation is about nuance; there's often meaning embedded in a word that is difficult to convey in another language using the same succinct package. Adam Jacot de Boinod has collected some of the more nuanced words from languages other than English in a new book, and The Times has a review.
There would be heavy use among motorists of an English equivalent of the Russian shnourkovat'sya, which means to lace up one's boots, but which they use on the streets of Moscow to describe a driver who constantly, and unnecessarily, changes lanes.
The concept behind this book reminds me of one that came out a few years ago, Christopher Moore's In Other Words. While I'd argue against classifying anything as completely "untranslatable," NPR has a good round-up of some of the words Moore collected on their website, including the Czech word litost, which is defined by Milan Kundera as "a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one's own misery." Sounds like a concept created by a translator to me. (SUZANNE)
November 5, 2007
