#but sometimes someone doesn't whisper something they susurrar

[invinciblerodent]

one of my very stupid and very specific little issues (that I don't know if other multilingual people experience) is that sometimes, I can only think of a word that feels perfect for what I want to say, in a language that isn't the one in which i'm currently writing. and it's almost never a word for which I just don't have a translation, or it's not like one of those "untranslatable" expressions/cultural phenomena/whatever, they're just... words. that have a vibe their equivalent in another language doesn't have the same exact way I want it.

like right now, I'm trying to write something in English. I'm trying to describe a character saying something quietly, and tenderly, but my brain is being very helpful by supplying me with only the Spanish phrase "al oído". Which has the perfect feel to it: it's soft, it's round, it essentially means "to the ear" or "by the hearing", and to say something al oído is... kind of to whisper in confidence so softly, that it can barely be heard. The words are more breath than sound, and you're saying it in private, for that specific person's hearing only. But that's just so many words, compared to saying that he whispered his agreement al oído.

or I want to say that someone is "szabadkozik", which is Hungarian for... kind of to make flustered excuses? Not really in a way that's reluctant necessarily, but it is to... kind of faff, and play at reluctance in a manner that may be slightly embarrassed, or just politely playing at embarrassment, being coy? And I could circumscribe it like that, I could say that he's excusing himself coyly or something, but my brain just keeps going "no, that's wrong, he's szabadkozik, you should say that". It's frustrating.

I kind of want to write a piece where I just... let myself code switch as many times as I want to. Just to see what it feels like to let my brain do its thing without trying to contain it. It would be fucking incomprehensible.