The untranslatable words are becoming furniture

For years I kept a list of words that wouldn't cross the border, and it used to feel like a ledger of losses. Now I catch myself reaching for them the way you reach for the mug you keep beside your reading chair — not because they fit, but because they've settled exactly where they're supposed to. Maybe that's all a footnote is, in the end: a place where a meaning that can't move anyway gets to sit down and rest.