More than words

When the wind was blowing
I whispered the name of my love

But the wind is a bad listener
It never holds on to names

There are more than 7000 recognised languages in our world.

Which means that there are also more than 7000 ways to say the phrase “I love you”.

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But I wonder - if we were to try and work out which of these languages is “correct” (i.e which of them actually gets closest to expressing how the real feeling of love actually feels). . . which one would you go for?

Does the word “Love” even capture a small percentage of how the actual emotion feels? (Both for its joys, and pains!)

Or are we any closer with something else instead?

Perhaps “Dashuri¹”. Or “Amore²”.

Or “ahava³” and “Urukundo⁴” and “Ánííníshní⁵”?

In some sense, all of these words (and the countless others in every other language) have an equal ability to capture a certain shade of what it means to love.

And obviously, when choosing our words, we will have our own preferences too - based on familiarity, or how the words sound to our ears and so on.

Yet still, it appears that none of these words ever get the sentiment quite right either; because, if they did, then surely we would all simply speak in the exact same language.

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After all, if we compare this to when we discover a mathematical truth instead . . . we did not come to realise that 2+2 = 4, and then still proceed to invent another seven thousand completely different ways of expressing the same thing!

Ideally, truth should be like a singularity. i.e something that is constant and applicable in every situation.

Thus, if a perfect word for love really did exist . . . then anything less than this would be totally inadequate.

We would have no more need for poetry, prose, songs or any other creative expression - because, again, all of these things would simply give us a rather useless extension on something that had already been said.

And similarly, any attempt at romantic artworks would be utterly ridiculous too - because what good is it to create anything else, if what we have is already perfect?

But of course, that is far from the case here.

All of our art forms are just as relevant as they have always been . . . and, in fact, they remain absolutely essential to our humanity; almost as if we would somehow be less ourselves if we suddenly stopped creating new ways to say these old truths.

So, perhaps this is a sign that humanity as a whole still has such a long way to go before we are able to fully express ourselves in “perfect” language.

But personally, I think the more likely lesson to learn here is something along the lines of that famous saying from the Tao Te Ching

“The way that can be spoken, is not the eternal way”

In other words - we must realise that the most profound experiences of this life - from love, to loss, to belief in higher power, and so on - are (by their very nature) beyond our ability to communicate properly.

Language itself is too limited. Too impermanent. And even the words we do speak - for all their eloquence - will always fade too quickly into the air again.

Yet, still - this is no reason for us to be silent.

Think of it like putting individual brushstrokes on a much larger canvas.

We know that the full picture is far beyond what a single brushstroke can portray. And we see that the shade of colour we can offer is so limited in comparison to the infinite variety that is necessary to make a masterpiece.

But if there were no individual brushstrokes at all . . . there would be no painting.

And similarly, if “the way” was not continually spoken, in all its infinite variety . . . maybe it would not be so eternal after all.

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Notes on Languages

1. Dahuri: Albanian

2. Amore: Italian

3. ahava: Hebrew

4. Urukundo : Kinyarwanda (i.e national language of Rwanda)

5. Ánííníshní : Navajo