# Toska and Other Hard-to-Translate Russian Words - Original post: https://www.twitter.com/i/status/2117810393309454543 - Source account: [@Son_Of_Rurick](https://x.com/Son_Of_Rurick) - Source language: Russian - Target language: English - Duration: 2:36 - Published: 2026-11-05 - Machine translated. Check the original before quoting. - Canonical URL: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words - Original-language version: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/ru/%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D0%B8-%D0%B4%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%B8%D0%B5-%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%BC%D1%8B%D0%B5-%D1%80%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B5-%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0.md ## Transcript [0:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words) Did you know there’s a Russian word that can’t be translated into any language in the world? [0:04](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=4) When Nabokov was translating Eugene Onegin, he came across this word and simply left it in its original form. [0:10](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=10) The word is “toska.” And now I’ll tell you why it can’t be translated. [0:15](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=15) Nabokov worked on his translation of Onegin for almost twenty years. [0:18](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=18) The result was a two- volume set, over a thousand pages long, published in 1964. [0:24](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=24) And he wrote an entire paragraph about the word toska. [0:26](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=26) Here are his words: “No single English word conveys all the shades of toska. [0:31](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=31) In its deepest and most painful sense, it is a feeling of intense spiritual anguish. [0:36](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=36) At less severe levels, it is a dull ache in the soul, a painful yearning, vague unease, mental torment. [0:42](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=42) In some cases, it is a longing for someone or something specific, nostalgia, lovesickness.” [0:47](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=47) At the lowest level, there is gloom and boredom. [0:50](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=50) One Russian word, seven layers of meaning. [0:52](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=52) But тоска is not just a concept, it is a physical force. [0:55](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=55) In December 1917, Sergei Rachmaninoff left Russia forever. [1:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=60) He wrote, “Having left Russia, I lost the desire to compose. [1:03](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=63) Having lost my homeland, I lost myself.” [1:05](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=65) For ten years, the genius of one of the world’s greatest composers was silent. [1:09](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=69) Only after some time did toska turn into music. [1:12](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=72) Rachmaninoff’s final work, “Symphonic Dances” is a heartrending conversation with his homeland, one that has continued for more than eight decades. [1:21](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=81) By the way, тоска isn’t the only word like that. [1:23](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=83) Nabokov explained пошлость to his students with an image: a family gazes in delight at their new sofa and feels like a family of heroes. [1:30](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=90) That’s пошлость. Nadryv. Dostoevsky’s key word. [1:34](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=94) Intense emotional breakdown. Not quite. Bespredel. Literally, “without limits.” [1:39](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=99) But the essence is extreme impunity, when rules cease to exist. [1:44](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=104) No language has captured this in a single word. [1:46](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=106) Volya isn’t just freedom. Freedom plus space. [1:50](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=110) An endless field with no walls. The words exist, but there are no translations. [1:54](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=114) Swiss psychologists from the Center for Affective Sciences studied the phenomenon of the word toska in 2014 and concluded: it has no equivalent in any other language among those they studied. [2:05](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=125) Toska isn’t a pure emotion, but a mixture of emotions, hermetically sealed in one word. [2:09](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=129) Tyutchev wrote in 1866: “Russia cannot be understood by reason.” [2:14](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=134) Maybe it’s because Russians have words that other people don’t. [2:17](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=137) And one last thing. There’s a theory that untranslatable words are the very soul of a language. [2:22](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=142) What you can't explain to a foreigner is exactly what sets us apart from them. [2:27](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=147) We have тоска, vast open spaces, daring, and a faith that things will work out. [2:30](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/gt5Bwkq1lWxW/en/toska-and-other-hard-to-translate-russian-words?t=150) So what does that tell us about ourselves, about Russians?