Untranslatable emotions

[firecat]

via jae

Artist Pei-Ying Lin, Master of Art in Design Interactions, is doing a project called "Unspeakableness." Part of the project is this infographic that takes an emotion classification map designed by W. Gerrod Parrott and overlays "untranslatable emotions in languages other than English."

http://uniquelang.peiyinglin.net/visualization/Other_Languages_b.png

I looked at the overlay and found several words that were supposedly untranslateable but I know words in English that seem to mean the same thing. For example, there's a Chinese word that is supposed to mean "A rather relaxed emotion and attitude towards everything, accept all the facts instead of worrying about it." I think a word for that in English is "equanimity." (This is a word commonly used in Buddhist studies, and it is an emotion, although some people probably don't think of it that way.) "Equanimity" doesn't appear on Parrott's map.

Other words or phrases I think translate into English well enough:
"(Hebrew) Literally means 'I'm sick on you.' It describes the feeling of obsession with someone or something." Crush? (Not on Parrott's chart) Obsession? (Not on the chart.) Infatuation? (On the chart...although it's connected to "lust" and not to "longing," which I disagree with.
"(Chinese) The feeling somewhere between sympathy and empathy, to feel the suffering of loved ones." I would call this "compassion." But Parrott has "compassion" connected to "affection" with no connection at all to "sadness" or "sympathy."
"(Japanese) The bubbly feeling of the moment of falling in love." The poly community calls something like this "new relationship energy," although that means more the first several months of falling in love, not the first instant. I'm not sure why it's different from "infatuation."

What do you think?

Comments

[oyceter]

For the Chinese for compassion at least, xin tung (my pin yin is probably wrong sorry) isn't quite compassion, because it really strongly means that you are hurting for the person and kind of aching when you hear about their plight. Like, I think you can feel compassion from a distance, but xin tung feels to me more like a very direct emotional connection. Alas, my Mandarin isn't good enough for the equanimity one =(.

[firecat]

Thanks!

[feuervogel]

I grumped about this on twitter the other day (after seeing the Atlantic article retweeted for the dozenth time). A concept is not untranslatable if you can provide a translation for it! Just because English doesn't have a single word for something but requires a phrase doesn't mean we can't translate it.

Kind of like this Language Log post about a different "untranslatable words" article.

[firecat]

Yeah, that's not the right term for it. "No stock English word or phrase, must build to order" maybe.

[feuervogel]

"Words that give professional translators headaches when they have to fit them into prose without being clunky and awful."

[firecat]

Ah, good point.

[feuervogel]

I'm considering studying translation, and I occasionally translate sport articles for friends who don't speak German, so this is one of those things I think about sometimes. Does gemütlich mean cozy? Or is comfy better? (dict.cc gives 20 ways to translate it.) Also, idioms are the worst.

[firecat]

I don't have enough skill with languages to translate myself, but I sometimes ponder these things when looking at side-by-side original and translated poetry.

[foxfirefey]

I don't see "limerance" up there, which is kind of "I'm sick on you" I think.

[firecat]

Yeah. "Limerance" sounds so technical to me that I sort of forgive them for not including it.

[foxfirefey]

I admit to being a little partial to the word because it reminds me of "luminance", which ends up making it feel very descriptive.

[bitterlawngnome]

I like it because "Limerick", which reminds me of leprechauns.

[el_staplador]

Oh, what a lovely word! I hadn't come across that before, so thank you! (Now, where can I use it?)

[mdlbear]

Limerance and NRE are different -- Limerance is what you have *before* the relationship starts, when one is longing for the other person but you haven't gotten together with them yet. The Japanese word seems to refer to the moment of transition between the two.

(Sanscrit) Mudita -- "especially sympathetic or vicarious joy, the pleasure that comes from delighting in other people's well-being rather than begrudging it." The poly community's "compersion" is a subset.

[selki]

I was very happy when I came across the term "mudita".

[ironed_orchid]

I use crush and infatuation in similar ways to you.

To me, compassion has nothing to do with affection, as I can feel compassion without liking someone.

[eggcrack]

To me crush and infatuation is not quite the same thing. I view crush as something that feels like being in love, with same happy rush of emotion but that can pass rather easily. Infatuation makes me think of something more lasting, but with less strong emotions involved. I have no explanation for this differentiating and they aren't based on any specific examples, for some reason I have just decided that this makes sense.

I also agree that it's not quite untranslatable that is being discussed here.

[owlectomy]

There's a word in Japanese that isn't in the chart but I find hard to put into English -- kuyashii, which I often see translated as "bitter," but isn't, quite. "Ego-bruised" would maybe be better. It's what you feel when you get passed over for a promotion, or when you lose the race, or when you back down from a fight -- that feeling that you ought to have been better than you were, and you're mad at yourself for not being better.

[firecat]

disspirited? humiliated?

[bitterlawngnome]

This whole debate makes me think of idioms in Yiddish.

schmuck, putz, verklempt, zaftig, mensch

[firecat]

Yeah! Verklempt is one that doesn't have an exact equivalent in English.