The human condition, it appears, is not amenable to translation. A study published in Science last week found that words referring to emotions — love, anger, hate, surprise, fear — are understood in vastly different ways across language groups. “Love”, for example, is closer to liking and fondness in Indo-European languages and akin to pity in Austronesian languages. Imagine, if you will, whispering sweet nothings to a paramour, and your words instead of being taken as an expression of joy are confused as being patronising.
But more than the immediate interpersonal concerns, the study challenges the notion that there can be universal values; that true communication is possible between people who come from vastly different contexts. So, while yelling “surprise!” at a party is meant to invoke a startled sense of joy, for many it only means anxiety, which in turn could be associated with either fear or regret, depending on the language group. If we can’t understand what people feel, how they react to love, death, melancholy and danger, how can we have themes that resonate across the world? And have the millions who read Crime and Punishment in translation — and felt the despair of Raskolnikov — felt something somehow less real than the creators intended?
