My mother tells me that when I was little I would lie in bed, exploring my phonemes.

I have been reading Lorca lately. I hardly speak a word of Spanish, but my chest swells with each syllable I whisper. 

“La Lola/ canta saetas”  saeta, sa-ee-ta, sa-eta...

Saeta (pronounced sah-ATE-ah) is a dart, an arrow, or a piercing song from the Andalusian region of Spain. In poetry, saetacan exist simultaneously as a dart and a song. Both...

Vemod is the feeling you get the day after Christmas. It's the emotion you experience on the last day of summer vacation. We have all felt vemod before. And if you'd never experienced it before, then you definitely have this year. 

Vemod is sadness for things that have passed. It could be described as melancholic nostalgia, but it doesn't have to be tinged with joy the way that nostalgia is. In fact, it usually isn't. It isn't showy or loud....

Wabi-Sabi(Japanese):
This is the feeling of finding beauty in imperfections. Our flaws, and other flaws, are what make us beautiful. You may not be able to see it but it is truly amazing that someone may be able to see a piece of ourselves that we think as a flaw. I often talk to someone who sees so many things wrong with themselves and often beat themselves up over it. I cannot tell you how many times I tell them...

"Ta'arof nakon!" my father said to his friend. "Don't ta'arof!"

My confused mother asked my father what "ta'arof" meant, only to find out it was one of those words that the English language does not provide a translation for. 

When I looked up what this phenomenon meant, I found that sometimes even the internet doesn't have the answer. Google translate wasn't able to tell me, and the only website that came close was Wikipedia. According to them, Ta'arof is...

Though I prefer English and many other languages to the German one, there are words I lack in English. "Doch" is the one I most frequently miss.

When I ask Google Translate "Doch" in the context I want it means "Yes". It does not. Leo says "Ja, doch" is translatable to "Yes, of course!". That is not the correct translation.
I dare say, I speak English rather fluently, yet in an argument I often want to start my objection with...

Well today I am going to tell you about the word that we use daily in India. In hindi we use a word- ADDA, which simply means a secret spot where friends hangout everyday.
That place really means a lot to friends , especially to teenage. Me being a teenage, I too used to have My Adda that secret spot where my I used to have fun with my friends. That secret adda was really important because there was no...

Dranathao. How do I explain this word? People on Earth would say it means 'soul' but it means so much more. 'Soul' is a meager way of putting Dranathao. A simple, small box for a word bigger than the confinements of English.
One could put Dranathao as all living beings. People who breathe, think, and have affection. Or one could say Dranathao means "whisps of nephesh (the Hebrew word that translates into soul, though that is not strictly correct.)". But...

    My mother says the word three times before she gets it right-- it may be the last connection she has to her great grandparents, but it is still foreign on her lips.
    We are driving to school in the pouring desert rain, winter creeping through the windows, but only if you dare to touch them. Big soft blankets over seat belts, she plans a Christmas party.
    "Let's have a fire."
    We have two fireplaces in our...

Hyggelig, adjective: a feeling or spirit associated with comfort, warmth, and intimacy (Danish)

    Comfort-
"Am I hurting you?"
"No, it's just that your elbow is jutting into my ribcage. Other than that, everything is perfect."
There was a loud huff in the darkness, and the sound of a person trying to roll over, then-
"That would be my hair- ow, okay, okay, that's fine-"
The other person laughed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
There was silence for a...

am i scared of myself?
how does it feel to be whitewashed and have a vitamin D deficiency because your body was built for hotter weather? my body was built for working in the fields, cutting grass for the cow. it was built for playing hide and seek behind the village huts. i used to have muscles but they’ve escaped me; i used to be contoured but now i’m just bones. bones that are looking for a home and a...

रुनझुन  (RuNjhUN): A word encapsulating the secret melody music carries

रुनझुन  is a word that has no parallel in English, one could say it is almost an onomatopoeia in a sense; holding within it the true capacity and value of music to an Indian. Ruhnjun is a word that speaks to the foundation of movement for my people, our connection to the natural world, and our connection to each other. It is a word that holds within it the kick...

The rays
are the voice
the melody
echoing
but burning
bringing pain
to the most painless
and brightest
locations
where one might assume
that no one can see
no one can understand
the inconstinsence
of the singing sun

रुनझुन  (RuNjhUN): A word encapsulating the secret melody music carries

रुनझुन  is a word that has no parallel in English, one could say it is almost an onomatopoeia in a sense; holding within it the true capacity and value of music to an Indian. Ruhnjun is a word that speaks to the foundation of movement for my people, our connection to the natural world, and our connection to each other. It is a word that holds within it the kick...

                                      There is a feeling 
                                       that lies here 
                             between us; in the gap between us
                           ...

 

retrouvailles;
french.
the indescribable reunion of two friends, or the love between them that can never quite be framed. the way your heart sings when you see someone again, who you love dearly but have long missed. although the song of one's heart is cliché, retrouvailles cannot be described otherwise - the singing of a single note, beating in your blood, the feeling that was there all along. the longing, missing, breaking for someone that is at last healed.

retrouvailles. ...

there are so many ways for my mother to tell me she loves me, and the one she chooses to say is: "mẹ thương con". mom loves you, her daughter.

see, the direct translation for "love" into vietnamese splits between two words. thương and yêu. if you asked me to tell you, well, which is the most proper one to use?, i'd stop for a bit.

yêu is "love". pure love, actually. the dopamine-rush kind. the one...

a series of poems about tagalog words that relate to falling in love.
(title derived from ben&ben's araw-araw. roughly translates to "my love, i would choose you every single day.")

i. tadhana
uncontrollable, just as magic-
when your deep brown eyes first met mine
and i plummeted into the mysterious paradise
hidden behind curtains of hazel and amber,
like alice falling down the rabbit hole.

ii. kilig
there’s a fluttering that blossoms in my chest
as i feel your...

    I don't know what it means. It's probably Spanish? It came from my dad's side, but I don't really recognize it as a Spanish word, so it must be our family only. It's commonly given to the youngest child of the family. My little brother Cal was called "Booboo" for the longest time, until my little cousin Sofia was born. Now my oldest cousin's baby will probably be called it. I can't wait until I have a child...

I’m scared.

I don’t know what to do. It feels like the walls are collapsing over me but I have nowhere to go, no one to trust, nothing to find comfort in. I feel tortured and useless at the same time, but most of all, I feel hopeless.

Hopeless. A year ago, I wouldn’t have dared to say that word out loud. I was always the over-achiever, always the person that made their voice heard amidst a heavy blanket of...

Imagine a day when the raindrops are falling and somehow glorifying everything. There is a light haze caused by the mist and the drops of rain cling on to the leaves before falling to the ground below. It's beauty is so wonderous that you want to run outside and dance in the rain. It creates a feeling of utter joy that threatens to burst out of you. You let go of all your worries and just want to live.
...

    What do you want to be when you grow up?
I'm not sure.
    Why not?
Because I can't decide.
    How come?
How can I possibly choose one path to follow through my life?
Why do you expect me to even have a vague idea of what my future will hold?
There are so many goals I want to achieve,
So many places I hope to see
People to visit
Cultures to learn about
New experiences to be had.
But I...

Tesoro: both a spanish and italian word. In both languages, it is a term of endearment. In spanish, my second language, it’s only meaning is treasure. In italian, in her family’s native tongue, it means my darling. 

She calls me My darling darlingafter a spanish lesson gone wrong. It was so simple and silly. Almost laughably childish and yet, my heart never fails to beat faster. She’ll toss it over her shoulder and a laugh never ceases to...

"Saudade", is Portuguese, and refers to a feeling of longing or wistfulness for something or someone that is absent, and that you may never see again. It can be described as a nostalgic longing for a happiness that you once had.

It feels like a ripped page in a book. 
Like a fallen branch from a tree. 
It looks like a hole worn into your favorite shirt. 
And it's cold. 
It feels like sleeves that aren't long enough to cover...