>That would be "difficult to translate", then, not "untranslatable", no? Where would you draw the line? No culture has a concept which is literally unexplainab

>That would be "difficult to translate", then, not "untranslatable", no? Where would you draw the line? No culture has a concept which is literally unexplainable to any other. Translators could potentially give meaning-for-meaning accurate translations if it were desirable, or possible, to give each word a paragraph of qualifiers and contexts. But translators are restricted to at least trying to preserve the structure of the translated work, and for words that means trying to pick a one- or two-word substitute. Some words just don't have an accurate substitute. You can easily pick translations which are "not wrong", but none would be correct. What would you call those words, if not "untranslatable"?