A balance of simplicity and complexity that ensure that one does not tire of an object, but constantly finds new meanings and enriched beauty

SHIBUI

(Japanese)

English translation: James A. Michener’s references ‘shibui’, an adjective, as follows in his book Iberia:

“The Japanese have a word which summarizes all the best in Japanese life, yet it has no explanation and cannot be translated. It is the word shibui, and the best approximation to its meaning is ‘acerbic good taste.’”: “The Japanese have a word which summarizes all the best in Japanese life, yet it has no explanation and cannot be translated. It is the word shibui, and the best approximation to its meaning is ‘acerbic good taste.’”

Thanks to Joseph Gummer

The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said

L’ESPRIT DE ESCALIER

(French)

English translation: the spirit of the staircase.

The anxiety one feels to be fully prepared before an opportunity window closes

TORSCHLUßPANIK

(German)

English translation: Door-closing panic.

The word can also mean the urge to have children before one is too old.

Thanks to Star Simpson and her mom.

“To find a shaft of sunlight pouring through a window on a cold winter day, curl up in the puddle of warmth it creates on the rug, and doze with doglike dereliction”

SPANIEL

(English)

From Diane Ackerman who gives the word a new meaning in An Alchemy of Mind, elaborating:
“I think I’ll just spaniel for an hour or so before I begin work,” she said.”

Original meaning:
1: a member of any of several breeds of small or medium-sized mostly short-legged dogs usually having long wavy hair, feathered legs and tail, and large drooping ears
2: a fawning servile person

The curly tail which specifically belongs to a pig

KNORR

(Swedish)

Alternative use: Put a “knorr” on your existence, meaning add a silver lining, something special to your life.
English translation: curly tail

Downward hanging bunch

KLASE

(Swedish)

A bunch of something – grapes, wisteria, bananas – that is hanging down from its peduncle.
Maybe silly, but frustrating not to be able to get a little more descriptive with the word “bunch”. Or am I wrong? Is there a word for this in English?

Crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living

KOYAANISQATSI
[KOY-ah-nis-KAHT-see]

(Hopi, native Indian language)

Also name of the 1982 movie directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke.

The perfected distance of the gangster

LONTANANZA

(Italian)

Distance, remoteness or, as Don DeLillo expands it in Underworld: “Distance or remoteness, sure. But as I use the word, as I interpret it, hard-edged and fine-grained, it’s the perfected distance of the gangster, the syndicate mobster – the made man. Once you’re a made man, you don’t need the constant living influence of sources outside yourself. You’re all there. You’re made. You’re handmade. You’re a sturdy Roman wall.”

What you feel when you experience a work of art

RASA

(Sanskrit)

A rasa (Sanskrit रस् lit. ‘juice’ or ‘essence’) denotes an essential mental state and is the dominant emotional theme of a work of art or the primary feeling that is evoked in the person that views, reads or hears such a work.

Thanks to Rama.

On the difficulties to speak of a star

By Primo Levi in The New Yorker

“Once upon a time, somewhere in the universe very far from here, lived a peaceful star, which moved peacefully in the immensity of the sky, surrounded by a crowd of peaceful planets about which we have not a thing to report. This star was very big and very hot, and its weight was enormous: and here a reporter’s difficulties begin. We have written “very far,” “big,” “hot,” “enormous”: Australia is very far, an elephant is big and a house is bigger, this morning I had a hot bath, Everest is enormous. It’s clear that something in our lexicon isn’t working.

If this story must be written, we must have the courage to eliminate all adjectives that tend to excite wonder: they would achieve the opposite effect, of impoverishing the narrative. For a discussion of stars our language is inadequate and seems laughable, as if someone were trying to plow with a feather.”

Thanks to Neri Oxman