re:
ilunga (Tshiluba) [ee-Iun-ga] (noun)
This word from the Tshiluba language of the Republic of Congo has topped a list drawn up with the help of one thousand translators as the most untranslatable word in the world. It describes a person who is ready to forgive any transgression a first time and then to tolerate it for a second time, but never for a third time.
a concept that, perhaps, was brought to the america's.even if a specific word for it wasn't.
i think of the classic 'joke' about the back woods man who takes on a 'townie' as bride.
as they head back into the woods, the mule carring the bride and her trouseau stumbles. and the man looks the mule in the eye and says: That's once!
the going gets steeper and harder as they head further into the back country, and the mule stumbles again, the man, even more severly now, tells the mule: That's twice!
coming over the last ridge, late in a tiring day, the mule stumbles again. the man take his bride off the mule, pulls out his gun, and shoot the mule right between the eyes!
the woman is insensed! she goes hysterical, and lashes into the man, berating him for his stupidity in killing the mule.. she wasn't harmed by the stumbles, and now, how will they get all the stuff to the cabin, and besides its getting dark and she's tired..
she finally pauses to take a breath and the man, her new husband, looks her square in the eye and says: That's once!
