a taste of something new
Hello there, yina here 👋
I’ve never tried writing directly to you before, so beg pardon if this feels strange — if it does, just know it also feels strange for me as well. But I assume all things new tend to feel this way.
And that’s exactly what this is — something new for The Character Project.
If you remember, I originally started this as an attempt to translate the untranslatable. Those unique words and phrases in a language that cannot be translated easily or completely, perhaps.
Words that get lost in translation.
Given my Chinese heritage, this project started with a focus on Chinese characters, translated and shared through personal life lessons and stories.
The more I research the etymology behind these characters, the more I’ve learned about my heritage, China’s history, culture, and ultimately, myself. And the more characters I discover.
As this collection of essays grows, so does the collection of Chinese characters I have yet to translate.
Yet, a new collection has developed. A collection of words in other languages that are also impossible to translate.
That, therein, lies the beauty of language.
So many words exist out there to capture emotions and experiences and ideas that we simply cannot put English words to. There’s a certain beauty to that, in words that only exist in other languages; that only make sense in other cultures.
That is fascinating to me.
And thus, I welcome you to this new side quest within The Character Project — a somewhat sporadic edition of other words in other languages.
Sometimes, instead of a character essay every other Thursday, you’ll find a drop like this, where I share four beautiful untranslatable words in other languages around the world. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed putting this together.
يقبرني (ya'aburnee) (v. phr) / Arabic
You bury me
I find myself often nagging my husband to eat more vegetables, exercise more, sleep more, and stress less. When he asks me why I nag him, I often simply reply: “I want you to live longer than me.”
I never could explain to him why I needed him to live longer than me, but it’s a wish I’ve had since we first got together. When I stumbled on this phrase, my eyes filled with tears.
It’s beautiful when a phrase makes you feel seen, the way it rocks you to your core.
Because يقبرني (ya'aburnee) is a way to declare your hope that your loved one will outlive you, as it would be unbearable to live without them. It expresses the desire to spare yourself the pain of a life without the person you love.
Which is exactly what I’ve been trying to convey, but never had the words for.
saudade (n.) / Portuguese
an immense longing for someone or something far away.
The Portuguese, I’ve learned, have an immense way of capturing that feeling of melancholy longing — from their fado music to Portuguese words like saudade; this type of yearning seems to be a large part of the country's identity.
Perhaps because for so many centuries, Portugal ruled the seas. So many men left their wives and families behind as they boarded ships bedecked in white sails, sometimes never to return.
And what of the people left behind?
Thus, the term is thought to have originated during the Portuguese Age of Discoveries as a way to express the longing felt for loved ones who had sailed away to distant lands.
kintsukuroi (n.) (v. phr) / Japanese
”to repair with gold”; the art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer
I love this phrase because of what it represents: an understanding that some things can be more beautiful for having been broken.
It’s a reminder to me that so many of us have experienced emotional suffering, trauma, or things that you could interpret as flaws. Or perhaps, by mending and tending to these broken parts of ourselves, we make ourselves whole — and it’s these broken pieces that make us beautiful, and more importantly, unique.
mångata (n.) / Swedish
the roadlike reflection of moonlight on water
Consisting of the prefixes “Måne” meaning moon, and “gata” meaning street/road, mångata literally translates to 'moon-road.’
I like to imagine Swedish culture, with its myriad fjords and close connection to the sea, created this ethereal term to remind us that we are all looking for a path forward. Perhaps no one more so than a sailor on a boat in the middle of the ocean in the night, looking out at the water for a moon road.
That’s it for now, thanks for reading!
Until next time,
👋 yina