Dan Waber (known in some circles as [brick]) is one of the more interesting poets I know of. His love of language shows in his constant experimentation — his most striking public experiment, at the moment, is his minimalist concrete poetry blog. Dan’s love of words and their weird qualities is everywhere in his work, and anyone with similar interests would do well to spend a little time exploring his site.

One of his most recent projects emphasises in a more bold way the uniqueness of words — or certain words — in multiple human languages: untranslatable is ‘a community project formed to examine issues of untranslatability in general, with a specific focus on single words that require phrases, paragraphs, or pages to translate’. Fun.

The project’s not yet two weeks old, but it’s got a strong start. Saudade, 建前, оскомина, เกรงใจ, Schadenfreude… It’s quite a list.

Take a visit. It’s a fascinating read. And if you can, lend a hand.

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