An extra comment on the English language
Let me revise some claims made in yesterday's post.
There, I wrote: “Take love, for instance. In that domain, and not surprisingly, English is way more limited than Spanish.”
That is not an absolute truth. There are scenarios where English is more accurate. The best example is: falling in love.
In Spanish, we say “Enamorarse”. The form of this verb implies that the subject is in control. It has the implicit assumption that you decide to be in love. That's completely misleading. That does not describe reality (as I know it).
You don't decide anything, you fall in love. Quite literally. Nobody says: “okay, I'm going to fall now”. No. You are happily walking outside in a sunny day and then Baaang!, the next thing you know is that you're in the floor, confused. It something that happens to you, something that it is out of your control. It is illogic, irrational, incomprehensible, impractical, inconvenient and, sometimes, I believe, unavoidable.
Some Romance-language writers have pointed it out. Julio Cortázar insist on this point vehemently:
Lo que mucha gente llama amar consiste en elegir a una mujer y casarse con ella. La eligen, te lo juro, los he visto. Como si se pudiese elegir en el amor, como si no fuera un rayo que te parte los huesos y te deja estaqueado en la mitad del patio. Vos dirás que la eligen porque-la-aman, yo creo que es al verse. A Beatriz no se la elige, a Julieta no se la elige. Vos no elegís la lluvia que te va a calar hasta los huesos cuando salís de un concierto. Julio Cortázar
(I posted the English translation before)
And I'm quoting him in Spanish because a lot is lost in translation. He makes fun of people who still believe they choose to whom fall in love with. Love is a common topic in Cortázar writings. He emphasizes, time and again, the illogic, crazy, and, most importantly, unpredictable nature of love. Trying to understand it logically is absurd, futile and even dangerous.
Cortázar is playfully clever when he writes: “Vos dirás que la eligen porque-la-aman, yo creo que es al verse”. If you look up the word vesre in a Spanish dictionary, you won't find it.
Is that a typo?
Many people would simply assume it is, and continue reading. The word sounds kinda correct, but not quite so. If you read this passage several times (ehem, as I did), then, it became obvious: vesre –> reves –> revés. That word you can find in the dictionary. (You can apply a similar transformation in the English version as well).
I agree with Slavoj Zizek when he argues that falling in love is a tragedy. It might be a pleasurable or a painful tragedy, but a tragedy nonetheless.
It disrupts your life and its rhythms. You're just fine, pleasantly relaxed, and then, baaang!, you've got an insolvable problem thrust into your face.