Boing Boing Staging

Beautiful collages depict untranslatable words

Lithuanian artist Jolita Vaitkutė created this charming series of images depicting untranslatable words, based on the word’s meaning.

Litost – Czech — Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, remarked that, “As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it.” The closest definition is a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.

Fun fact: one of the words in English that is often considered untranslatable is the derogatory term “cheesy,” which this work is not.

Untranslatable Words (via Bored Panda)

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