Some language myths are so stubbornly embedded that one becomes resigned to leaving them undisturbed. Linguistic Jingoists are too easily offended. Every newly-founded nation needs the proverbial army and navy to promote her dominant dialect as the official State Language ... a Flag, Anthem and Airline also help.
Then come the Toska (or Tingo or Home) bonuses: words claiming to be ‘awesomely untranslatable,’ and, hence, glorious National Treasures confirming the unique genius of Russian (or Rapa Nui or English).
Nabokov actually reveals the truth behind the myth by defining Toska using a sequence of English words. No Anglophone can be in any doubt about the ‘meanings’ of Toska. It’s a wide contextually-mediated semantic spread not YET expressible by any single word in the OED. Of course, what we mean by ‘a single word’ is extremely problematic. In Cherokee or Inuit, the whole of Nabokov’s Toska definition could be expressed in One (admittedly artificial) Word. A famous example among many is the dish described by Aristophanes in one word of 173 letters.
The Finnish solution is to beg/borrow/steal, leading to their dictionary entry Tyska, followed by sample usages and all the more familiar Finnish near-synonyms. Toska did not enter Russian fully clothed in its current diverse spread ... That takes time and the not-fully-understood (one hyphenated word!) evolution of living languages. (See Pinker’s Language Instinct.)
Many Russians will need to look-up Toska, and digest the range of meaning described by word-master Nabokov,
At
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=635189
We meet translators seeking the best Russian for
I can’t live with such ANGUISH.
There’s a word with both Englsh and Russian near-synonyms, needing more context to disambiguate:
Take your pick:
Я не могу жить с этой болью/мукой/тоской/ с этим мучением
OK, comrade: WE FEEL YOU PAIN!
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 25/04/2012 22:31, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
Although I'm able to find excellent Brazilian translations of Dostoievsky, Tolstoy, Tchekov and a host of other Russian authors and poets, I've not been able to read any Russian novel by Nabokov, or his short-stories, except when intermediated by English. I wonder if this is also a problem with the French and the Spanish translations.
I looked for a few titles in the internet, for example: "Risa en la Oscuridad" (Laughter in the Dark), but could gain no access to further informations, except that the editions are unavailable.
My navigational resources aren't enough... Can anyone be of help?
In the meantime, I came to an interesting site which begins citing Vladimir Nabokov's words about "Toska".
Cf.20 awesomely untranslatable words from around the world ... <http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-awesomely-untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world/>
matadornetwork.com/.../20-awesomely-untransla.. by Jason Wire (Oct.9,2010)
"There are at least 250,000 words in the English language. However, to think that English – or any language – could hold enough expression to convey the entirety of the human experience is as arrogant of an assumption as it is naive. HERE ARE A FEW examples of instances where other languages have found the right word and English simply falls speechless.
1. Toska
Russian – Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
.......
......
20. Saudade*
Portuguese – One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade. (Altalang.com)
For more language fun, check out 20 More Awesomely Untranslatable Words <http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-more-awesomely-untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world/> and 20 Obsolete English Words that Should Make a Comeback. <http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-obsolete-english-words-that-should-make-a-comeback/>
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* - In his Quixote lectures Nabokov mentions "saudade":
On VN´s Don Quixote (69) we read: “The wretched sense of poverty mingles with his general dejection and he finally goes to bed, moody and heavy-hearted. Is it only Sancho´s absence and the burst threads of his stockings that induce this sadness, this Spanish soledad, this Portuguese saudades, this French angoisse, this German Sensucht, this Russian toska? We wonder – we wonder if it does not go deeper”. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (1968) under “Camões” offers a description of the meaning of this special Portuguese word,“saudade”, experienced by Camões: “So profound was the anguish he experienced because of his exile from home and the trials he underwent, that it became an integral part of his being, enabling him to give to saudade-soledad (“yearning fraught with loneliness”) a new and convincing undertone unique in Portuguese literature” .