Friday links...
No56: the wonder of language and magical words
This week, some wonderful words from different languages…many of which have no direct translation into English. Starting with five German concepts.
1. Vorfreude. “An untranslatable word defined as the intense euphoric sensation you experience from thinking about future plans and daydreams. This beautiful feeling is a natural reaction the human mind manifests from expectations of future pleasures and joyful anticipations.” Link to great article in last month’s Guardian: The vorfreude secret: 30 zero-effort ways to fill your life with joy.
2. Buchverrückt. Adjective meaning "book craze, an extreme enthusiasm for books that is often perceived as excessive or strong". It’s great to now be able to name my ‘hobby’. Below, a photo of the home library of Johns Hopkins professor Dr. Richard Macksey in Baltimore…at his time of death, his son estimated he had 51,000 books. Full article here via The New York Times.
3. Sehnsucht. Longing, desire, yearning, wistfulness. C.S. Lewis called sehnsucht “that unnameable something, desire for which pierces us like a rapier at the smell of bonfire, the sound of wild ducks flying overhead, the title of The Well at the World’s End, the opening lines of “Kubla Khan”, the morning cobwebs in late summer or the noise of falling waves.”
Below, Sehnsucht by Oscar Zwintscher, 1900.
4. Bildung. From Friday links…No50: Bildung “Bildung is a dynamic concept, one that can evolve. Bildung is knowing one’s roots and being able to imagine and co-create the future. Bildung offers wholesomeness. It is a means in itself; it is not instrumental. It allows us to be fully humane and treat the planet and other species with their inherent dignity, thus enabling us to live within planetary boundaries. Bildung is a force of peaceful societal transformation.” via the Global Bildung Manifesto.
5. Waldeinsamkeit. “The feeling of solitude and connectedness to nature when being alone in the woods.” As captured by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1858:
6. Mysogi (see Friday links…No29). First came across this concept in The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter: “an unconventional clarion call to swim upstream against the currents of comfort and ease that we seek and have grown unquestioningly used to.” Especially like the section on the Japanese purifying ritual, Misogi: to do something challenging in nature once a year that has an impact on the remaining part of your year. There are just two rules: Rule No1: Make it really hard; Rule No2: Don’t die. Image below from the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage…
7. Komorebi. Another beautiful Japanese word that refers to the sunlight that filters through the leaves of trees. The word consists of three kanji and the hiragana particle れ (re). The first kanji means "tree" or "trees," the second kanji refers to "escape," and the third kanji means "light" or "sun."
8. Hiraeth. From Friday links…27: a Welsh word: “a kind of longing for a person, a place or a time that you can’t get back to, a kind of unattainable longing.” Link to article here.
Below, Ionian Sea sunset, 2023.
9. Duende. Spanish for a “work of art’s mysterious power to deeply move a person.” Duende is often connected to flamenco, but it generally describes one of the beauties of artistic performances of all kinds. According to Christopher Maurer, editor and translator of García Lorca's In Search of Duende, at least four elements can be isolated in Lorca's vision of duende: irrationality, earthiness, a heightened awareness of death, and a dash of the diabolical. Lorca writes: "The duende, then, is a power, not a work. It is a struggle, not a thought. I have heard an old maestro of the guitar say, 'The duende is not in the throat; the duende climbs up inside you, from the soles of the feet.”
10. Merak. A Serbian word…a feeling of bliss and sense of oneness with the universe that comes from simple pleasures. “When some small thing brings you back to your natural state of being, and suddenly you feel intimately, acutely connected to the world around you and aware of your place in it. It sounds existential, but merak is a pleasant feeling: a small reminder of the natural order of things, something that puts things back into perspective. A moment you can enjoy for the sake of it, a moment where you can just be.” Below, sunset over Loch Maree, 6.20pm 24th March 2024.
Quote of the week: “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wishing you a great weekend of vorfreude, sehnsucht, waldeinsamkeit, duende and merak, Matt