The Vocabulary Problem

(reprise from livinglovingbeing.tumblr.com)

I've been thinking about the constant problem concerning languages. There are always words which exist in one language but not the other. That is a daily problem for me, being Swedish speaking English. What is more is that I am truly interesed in this problem, so I can't let go of the words I want to translate. They get stuck in my head and I start wondering ... it is because of the culture, isn't it? The words I have found have to do with our Swedish mentality, our culture and our history, mostly. Take these examples:

Fika: The word for having a coffee, tea or lemonade with something sweet to eat, such as a cake, cookies or, preferably: cinnamon buns! This can occur at any time of the day, mainly morning between breakfast and lunch, or in the afternoon. The idyllic scenario is a "fika" with the family in the shade under an apple tree in the garden in July. Long sentence there. What do you call that in English?

Mellanmål: "Middle-meal" - similar to "fika" but more the kind of food children eat when they come home from school, such as a sandwich, some cereal or just a fruit. Occurs on the same times of the day as "fika", and functions as a rescuer from severe hunger (with anger as a consequence) before dinner. What would you call this in English?

Lagom: The word for the typical Swedish mentality: not too much, not too little. It could be a synonym to "perfect", but it is not as positively charged as that. It is indifferent and indicates only that something is enough. But is there really a good word for this in English? I doubt it.

Saknad: The noun for missing someone or something. The well-known feeling which so often occurs in music and literature.

Beslutsångest: Another Swedish mentality, perhaps? The noun for not being able to decide between two or more things. Agony as a result of having too many choices.

I hope that some day, I will figure out a suitable word in English for these phenomenona. But most probably, I never will. Although, it is interesting to think about these translation issues. How to translators get passed these words? I think I'm going to check that!

With a smile,

Matilda