Quote:

Eh?



Let me give you another example.

C. S. Lewis defined the German word Sehnsucht rather succintly as "an inconsolable longing for one knows not what."

Germans tend to be somewhat more expansive.

Consider the following. It is excerpted from the speech When Sehnsucht Leads You Up the Garden Path given by Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher at the Ninth International Woodcarvers Symposium in Brienz on the theme of Sehnsucht , 10 July 2006.

Quote:

Sehnsucht is one of those German words that it is almost impossible to translate adequately. Along with Weltschmerz (world weariness or taedium vitae), the stage director and author Georg Tabori called Sehnsucht one of those quasi-mystical terms in German for which there is no satisfactory corresponding term in another language. [...]
It is already a tough proposition for us German speakers to describe sehnsucht. Tender longing goes hand in hand with the painful knowledge that the thing longed for will never quite be attained. Indeed, you even get the feeling that the granting of an eagerly awaited wish could immediately bring about the destruction of the desired object.
The English writer Oscar Wilde described the dilemma aptly when he said: "In this world there are only two tragedies: one is not getting what you want, the other is getting it."
The word sehnsucht itself expresses this conflict.
Despite these rational objections, once people have been gripped by sehnsucht they are unable to shake off their longing. It is this close relationship (encapsulated in one word) between ardent longing or yearning (das Sehnen) and addiction (die Sucht) that lurks behind each longing waiting to turn the feeling into a destructive, self-defeating force.
If it is true that the word sehnsucht is untranslatable—and indeed most languages make do with the word Verlangen (désir, desire or longing) or Nostalgie (nostalgie, nostalgia)—this in no way means that the feeling of sehnsucht is a state of mind peculiar to German speakers.
The feeling of sehnsucht is universal. And it is in the non-verbal means of expression—in painting, music and the visual arts—that this universal nature can be seen to best advantage.




What word in the English language could possibly require such a metaphysical, circuitous, expository definition?

Last edited by Hydra; 12/11/06 01:16 PM.