I wouldn’t call myself bi-lingual, because of the horrid accent that I’ve got when attempting to speak English; but I do write in two languages. I usually write in English when I’m novelling, because English is just so much more precise in its expressions. There are so many words that say so perfectly what you’re meaning to say, while Dutch uses more words to try and say the same. And often it doesn’t really do justice to what you’re trying to say. This is why English is such a perfect language for poetry and song lyrics, I think.

It happens, every once so often, that I struggle when writing in English… because there’s this perfect expression in Dutch, and I can’t use it. Imagine two survivors (in this case their names are Jamie and Kalinka) of a bombed city sitting in a car, looking over the ravaged city.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the city so dark,” Kalinka said. “Granted, I haven’t been here for five years, but the way I remember the city is always full of light and life. To see it like this is just so strange and terrifying.”

“This is your first time back in five years?” That took him aback. “What a bad moment to return.”

Kalinka leaned back in her chair and rubbed her hands together for warmth. “No kidding.”

And you know, if I would have written this in dutch, I would have let Kalinka say: “Breek me de bek niet open.” because that conveys her emotions that she’s going through so much more precisely. And the stupid thing is that there isn’t really a great translation for it in English. Not the one that I was looking for.

It doesn’t happen that often, but sometimes Dutch *can* be more eloquent.
I just wanted to chronicle the moment, because it’s so rare.

Filed under: Journal, Writing