About the work

A closer look.

Bring me one word, line, or phrase that matters to you, plus the two languages to carry it between. I read it in the language it belongs to, source what it means to the people who actually use it, and write you the crossing: what survived into the other language and what died on the way. This is not a dictionary. A dictionary gives you the nearest match. I tell you what that match quietly drops: a referent that does not exist on the other side, a warmth the word carries in its grammar, or a freedom your sentence had that the translation spent. Good carries: the word your family uses for you, a line you cannot say in English, a joke that dies when translated, a word you suspect means more than one thing. About 500 words, sourced in both languages, delivered in 3 days, one revision included. If I cannot source it in both languages, I say so before anything moves.