#15 Read 16 Works of Non-fiction

In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World by Christopher Moore translates some of the foreign words and idiomatic expressions that are reckoned to be "untranslatable."


Words I wish I could remember so that I could use them more:

• esprit de l'escalier (French) witty remark or smart retort that you think of too late to say (in fact, on the stairs)
• korinthenkacker (German) raisin pooper--someone taken up with life's trivial detail that they "crap raisins." (bureaucrat?) Interestingly in Dutch, a raisin pooper is someone who's cheap.


• egyszer wolt budan kutyavasar (Hungarian) "There was a dog market in Buda only once" that is an opportunity you must take or you will regret it.
• Nie dla wszystkich ckrzypce graja (Polish) the violin doesn't play for everybody. If you've ever heard someone try to learn violin, you should understand the essence of the idiom.
• hankikanto (Finnish) in the book they say it resists translation into many languages because it is "a frozen crust on the surface of snow that is strong enough to walk on." I recognized it instantly, though I imagine some people who didn't grow up far enough north wouldn't.
• denize girse kurutur (Turkish) "he gets dry if he enters the sea" someone who can't do anything right.
• aware (Japanese) awareness and appreciation of the ephemeral beauty of the world. Part of the idiom mono-no-aware "enjoying the sadness of life." Moore writes "it's that bittersweet, vaguely poetic feeling you get ...looking out at the driving rain." Isn't it interesting that I felt this on Sunday but didn't have a word for it until Monday?

It's interesting to learn the sorts of philospohies that don't exist in other languages like compromise--or the nuances of relationships that do exist in other cultures. Just like me to read a dictionary. Wordork.


Non-ficion: 5.5