What Gets Lost in Translation?

I’ve been translating informally for years — across languages, cultures, moods, and expectations. Not always with perfect accuracy, mind you, but with increasing awareness that translation is never just about words. It’s about meaning. And meaning… is slippery.

Living between the UK and the Balkans, I’ve learned that some things just don’t carry over. You can’t always swap one word for another and expect the same emotional weight or cultural clarity. Sometimes, you need a sentence — or a story — just to explain one word.

"Polako" Doesn’t Mean "Slow"

Take polako. Technically, it means slowly. But that’s just the surface.

When my neighbour tells me “polako,” she’s not timing how fast I’m walking. She’s telling me to calm down, to stop stressing, to live life at the pace of woodsmoke and birdsong. It’s a command, a comfort, and sometimes even a quiet warning.

You could translate it, sure. But you’d miss what it really feels like.

The Untranslatable

There are plenty of Balkan words that refuse to be boxed neatly into English:

• Inat – Not just stubbornness, but a proud, defiant refusal to back down. It’s the fire in the belly that says, I won’t do it, just because you told me to.

• Merak – A word for a moment of deep, soulful pleasure. Sitting in the shade with a coffee, your work done, your soul still. That’s merak.

• Snalazljiv – The person who can fix a car with twine, a spoon, and two potatoes. It’s resourcefulness, but with flair.

• Each of these words contains a way of seeing the world — and no direct English equivalent can carry that entire worldview with it.

  The Funny Side

  And then there are the little mistakes. I once heard someone say, “We will see us tomorrow,” and I loved it so much I didn’t correct them. Or when a friend translated a local idiom literally as “He is scratching where it doesn’t itch,” and I thought: that’s exactly the phrase we need in English.

  There’s poetry in these mistranslations. They’re not wrong — they’re just original.

  What Translation Can Do

  Of course, a good translator knows how to bridge the gap. Sometimes that means explaining a concept in a footnote. Other times, it’s about capturing the tone and intent, not just the vocabulary.

  I’ve learned that a literal translation might give you the words, but a thoughtful one gives you the meaning — and the meaning is where the real work (and beauty) lies.

  In the End…

  What gets lost in translation? Sometimes, quite a bit.

  But in the process, something else is found: a deeper understanding of just how complex, funny, and rich human communication really is. And every now and then, a new word slips in and stays with you — not just as language, but as a way of thinking.

  So here’s to the things we can’t quite explain — and to the translators who try anyway.