A Cabinet of Untranslatables

“A selection of philosophical untranslatables and what they reveal: *Saudade* (Portuguese/Galician): a deep, bittersweet longing for something loved and lost, with a melancholic pleasure in the longing itself. Not mere nostalgia. *Amae* (Japanese): comfortable, trusting dependence on another's goodwill; sweet vulnerability accepted in a loving relationship. Not mere reliance. *Stimmung* (German, Heidegger): the affective attunement in which one encounters the world; prior to both mood and world-properties. Not mere mood. *Tarab* (Arabic): a state of musical ecstasy or enchantment induced by Arabic classical music, involving collective performer-audience response. Not mere enjoyment. *Talkoot* (Finnish): communal work done together without pay as a community act, with a specific cultural spirit. Not mere volunteering. *Sobornost* (Russian): organic communal unity with specific Orthodox theological connotations and critique of individualism. Not mere community. *Hiraeth* (Welsh): a longing for home, lost places, or the past tinged with grief and spiritual yearning. Not mere homesickness. — Cassin, Dictionary of Untranslatables (2004); Wierzbicka, Semantics, Culture, and Cognition (1992); various cross-linguistic philosophy sources”