La vie, comme c'est belle...

I was having a discussion the other afternoon with someone (over tea, of course) about translation and the subtleties between languages. It got me thinking about my other language, that is, French. Whatever you can say about French falling short of the English language's wordcount by a couple thousand dictionary entries, and however cliché it seems, French is a gorgeous, elegant and provocative language. Here are some of my favourite, hard-to-translate French words:

actualité: not anything close to actuality, actualité is something like "current events," "news," and "the real world, out there, you know," rolled into one little word.
jouissance: I would guess this world comes from joie, or joy; it means something like "bliss" but has a temporal dimension as well, so it's kind of like "moment of uncontrollable great joy." It can be spiritual, aesthetic, psychological, or, you know...ahem...
jolie laide: literally, "pretty-ugly." This describes a woman who, while not model-beautiful, manages to be attractive and sexy and desirable, through her sense of style, personality, and her--
charme: I think we call this "je-ne-sais-quoi" in English. It's an ephemeral quality that someone has that makes them interesting and unforgettable.
la loi de enmerdement maximale : the French equivalent of Murphy's Law. "The Law of Maximum Shittiness." Touché.

And if you're not all Frenched out, here's a link to the English and French full text of Saint-Exupery's deeply philosophical, wonderfully surreal Little Prince. (With illustrations!)