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Jess's avatar

The quiet grief of language loss is something I’ve carried for most of my life, though I haven’t always known how to name it. I’ve often felt the weight of what goes untranslated, not just in words, but in relationships, rituals, and memory.

I don’t have a close relationship with my grandmother, and that absence isn’t because of conflict or distance, but because we simply don’t share a language. There’s a particular ache in sitting beside someone you love, knowing they hold lifetimes of wisdom you may never fully access.

Your words reminded me that language is not just about words, it’s a vessel for memory, spirit, and belonging. It’s also a quiet revolution to reclaim it.

Thank you for this beautiful reminder.

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Coco Steemer's avatar

Thank you so much for this comment. This piece is incredibly personal to me and close to my heart. It feels suffocating to share a language with the people you love yet things still get lost in translation. This comment made me feel as if my writing translated to someone special and that is part of closing the gap of things being lost in translation all over the world.

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