Lost in Translation is a slim volume of doodles with accompanying definitions of untranslatable words from many languages around the globe. It’s a treat.
There are words for feelings that I’m certain everyone has experienced… we just lacked the language to describe it appropriately.
This book showed me how universal emotions and perceptions can be and the difficulty of capturing the indescribable in words.
But we’ve certainly given it a good try.
I liked the words that described fleeting moments of beauty in nature the most. All of the following are from Lost in Translation but the pages are un-numbered so you’ll just have to trust me that they’re in there:
Komorebi: (Japanese noun) The sunlight that filters through the leaves of the trees.
Waldeninsamkeit: (German noun) The feeling of being alone in the woods, an easy solitude and a connectedness to nature.
Mangata: (Swedish noun) The road-like reflection of the moon in the water.
And, finally, a word that perfectly describes one of my vices:
Tsundoku: (Japanese noun) Leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with other unread books.
I didn’t realize that was actually a thing.
Ah, the joys of reading and cluttering up my house with tsundoku. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
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