Untranslatable Words - Card Set
Untranslatable Words - Card Set
This set of cards define some of our favourite words from the world’s languages and married them up with complementary images to create cards that bring some of our most important feelings into focus. We’ve created them to prompt greater reflection about the nature of language and the emotions.
How to Use the Cards
You might…
Turn to these cards to find a word that speaks most powerfully to your mood.
Sort through and select a card to send to a friend as a memento of a particular feeling you associate with them.
Play a game with your partner by taking it in turns to remember a time you may have felt or known the untranslatable word to be most true.
Example Cards
DUENDE (Spanish): A heightened sense of emotion created by a moving piece of art.
FORELSKET (Norwegian): The euphoric feeling at the beginning of love. We can’t believe someone so perfect has wandered into our lives. They enhance and complete us. We might report: ‘I was overpowered by forelsket as our fingers interlaced…’
YŪGEN (Japanese): Gives a name to a mood in which one feels that the universe as a whole possesses a mysterious and elusive beauty. Moonlight, snow on distant mountains, birds flying very high in the evening sky, and watching the sun rise over the ocean all feed this sensibility.
20 cards in box
