Untranslatable

This list of untranslatable words collected by Fuchsia Macaree — tweeted by Polly — lead me to see whether I could fit them all into a single narrative. I wonder how much sense it makes before you read the definitions. (And, yes, I know I missed one.)

For a little while she let the craic of the foka enfolder her. The renao company of friends, the swapping of istories me arkoudes. And Steven. The mamihlapinatapai across the table, the yuanfen almost tangible.

But the conversation turned to politics, as was its inevitable want. A magazine was passed around, its cover extolling the man's imagined virtues. He was a snorker, she thought. She could tell from his eyes. He had a backpfeifengesich and a bad case of age-tori. She knew his type. Incapable of xinku, a stranger to gigil, it was the poshlost of men like him which had bred the qualunquismo so prevalent in her generation back home. Which had ultimately caused her to flee the janteloven of that same homeland. To abandon it, and with it the dozywocie.

All at once she no longer felt herself among friends. The desire for uitwaaien forced her to her feet. She left the cafe and wandered into the nearby park. Under the komorebi she closed her eyes and let the waldeinsamkeit wash over her, a feeling as refreshing as oppholdsvœr, as pleasurable as hanyauku.

At the edge of the park was a neidbau, bedecked in neon, casting a chill finger of shadow across the neighbouring buildings. She climbed to its roof and stood looking out across the tops of the trees. It had been a mistake to come to this city. She would never learn its ways, no matter how long she stayed. She wondered what changes she needed to make to herself, what alterations she would have to adopt, to fit in. She imagined that somewhere there was an alternative her, a her who had once, long ago, chosen to walk a slightly different path, who would be at home amongst this strangeness. L'appel du vide took hold of her, pulling her inexorably towards the edge of the roof, feet shuffling slowly closer to the drop.

A noise from behind broke the spell. She turned and tartled, then bit down hard against the zhargzharg as from out of the shadows stepped her eidolon.