In French, there is no difference between "conscience" and "consciousness." In Japanese, there is a word that specifically refers to the splittable wooden chopsticks you get at restaurants. The German word "fremdschämen" encapsulates the feeling you get when you're embarrassed on behalf of someone else. All of these require explanation in order to properly communicate their meaning, and are, to varying degrees, untranslatable. Choose a word, tell us what it means, and then explain why it cannot (or should not) be translated from its original language.
"conscience" and "consciousness"
Please any suggestion to the grammar or the content.
Gone are the dark winter days, and the brilliant spring light bathed the city. The evergreens and spruces odorized the air with their new growth; birds whistled and built everywhere. Children were out for wildflowers and raced around the park. My mother strolled me through the busy streets to get to the park. I was a few months old with soft layers of flesh covering my face and a small bundle of hair covering my head. A woman came up to the stroller, stared into my soul, and said, " Tu'burni. What a precious daughter you have."
My mother said in an astonished tone, " Thank you, his name is Hounein".
" The woman smiled and said, 'Mashallah" ( a phrase used to admire god's work).
Not the first time I heard Tu'burni as a newborn. My mother used to rock me back and forth in her arms saying, "Tu'burni you are going to your grandmother's house. I have to go to work, but I will be back. I would not imagine my life without you."
My American cousins were on spring break vacation, so they wanted to visit my mother. As they arrived at my family's house, my mom hugged each of them, and said " Tu' buruni"
They stood puzzled, thinking about what this word meant. One asked, " Doesn't this word mean ' bury me' ?"
My mother explained, "Tu'burni is a word of compassion that overarches the whole Arab world. It is simply a word to express that I love you beyond limits".
Tu'burni is not used only in Syria, but it is used all around the middle east. This word is not that clear to people who speak Arabic as a second language. It does not give its meaning away to Arabic learners.
When you translate this word in the dictionary, The dictionary gives you a gibberish translation in English or bury me depending on the dictionary you are using. Babylon dictionary translates تقبرني from Arabic to تقبرني in English. If I were to say this تقبرني in any other language (bury me), I would come off suicidal.
I find the Arabic language to be a very visual and figurative language. I am not surprised that the Arabic language incorporates much creativity in its words that some these words are difficult to translate. There are eleven words in the Arabic language that mean love, and there are hundreds of words demonstrating love in the Arabic dialect. تقبرني is one these words. تقبرني should not be translated as it can be misinterpreted. Perhaps,تقبرني is derived from another language, but it has been modified that it does not have a word equivalent in other languages.@Syrianboy
Interesting, for someone majoring in middle eastern studies. I would suggest using this idea of an overarching word to link it to a certain pattern of thinking of yours. I know it sound vague and I am doing that on purpose.
The Uchicago essays can be a pain in the..., but the secret here is to give the office a pattern of thinking. Uchicago is a place that values thinking very creatively because their classes are mostly built around discussions. The key would be: do something weird and link the meaning to specific situations in which you show that you can come up with creative mind jumps.
Tell them about how you think.
