Taken from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, somewhere in South America, Mamihlapinatapai is defined as "look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start."
Or maybe something like "eye contact implying ‘after you…’"
One thing I really like about Wikipedia is how one article leads to another. I started with 'Palliative Care' and this is how it went -
Palliative Care > Morphine > Addiction > Cold Turkey > Barbiturate > Nazi Germany > Johann Dick > Dick Tracy > Comic Strip > Comics > Asterix and Obelix > English translations of Asterix > Anthea Bell > Translation > Lexical gap > Untranslatability > Mamihlapinatapai.
Whew.
A better explanation of this, courtesy XKCD -
Well now back to the poem. This same term (mamihlapinatapai) can be used to describe the state of affairs for a number of different situations. Say a Cold War. Or a just before a melee begins and the opponents are cautiously moving around in a circle. But what sprang into my mind just as I read the article was Love. So I chose Love over Hate, like Rahman; Heck before I even know it, I'll have an Oscar or two in my kitty.
Finally after so many digressions, here it is -
In a flurry of movement, we caught each others eyes
And before we could turn our gazes,
We caught the shadows of smiles too.
Life never ceased to amaze us.
There it is, hope you like it. :D
PS - Readers have given a positive feedback to the template, giving no unfavourable votes. Thus it stays. It's not like I was going to change it anyway.
PPS - Someone had complained that the text for the posts is too small to read. Here's a neat little trick my brother told me about - open the webpage and press the [control] and [+/=] buttons together. (Pardon me all you High Priests of tech and internet if you don't find it neat. A revelation, surely, for me - first time I tried, I went like 'Wow! The internet does that!?')
14 comments:
Mamihlapinatapai. I love it
[cntrl] + [+] thing is gooood...seen it for da first time
Here's another trick: Press Ctrl and scroll up and down.
Neater.
Byrne -
It would be madness to think that you are who I hope you are.
who is it, by the way?
Anirudh -
I figured you already knew about that. How's the Mamihlapinatapai?
Espera -
But that needs two hands, one for the keyboard and one on the mouse.
Ergonomics, baby. Totally defies it.
I like the way the word sounds when you say it (though I hope I'm saying it the right way :P )
@espera and qs
its da same :|
@qs
da wiki connecting thing is pretty true...it leads from sumthing to sum-very opposite-thing
and really sry i 4got to mention....REALLY mast poem....short adn sweet :)
Ha Ha ..so Byrne didn't fool you! I'm sorry but it was too good to resist. but I do love it. It's rather neat.
Oh well. I still use the mouse to scroll, so it works for me.
Cuz then I don't have to bother with getting my hand down to the keyboard.
VibrantSoul -
You're right. it does have a flowing quality to it. Sorta rolls on the tongue :D
Anirudh -
Thanks. a very 'whole' and all-encompassing comment, after a little prodding =]
Asneel -
Not cool. Definitely not cool.
Espera -
Oh I dunno. The other way's more convenient for me.
hehehe
ppl often complain dat i 4get to comment on da value points..be it a pic or a post
:P
Aaargh. Why do I get a pageful of code when your blog loads?
I can't see the poll anymore either.
=|
@espera
same here
Espera and Ani -
I dunno. Maybe because the poll's closed now.
So how does that explain the code?
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