“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.”
—
Vladimir Nabokov
I was reading this list of 20 Untranslatable Words From Around the World and while we may not have figured out a way to say all of these words in English our pharmaceutical companies have certainly developed “cures” for a couple.
(thefeeling via meganlubaszka)
