LANGUAGE

The Hardest Phrase in the World to Translate: ‘A Nice Cup of Tea’

There is far more cultural content in that ceramic vessel than just a hot beverage

What expression lies behind the fog? (Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash)

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote that “if a lion could speak our language, we could not understand it.” In other words, because we do not have a shared experience and worldview, its words would lack any context allowing us to interpret them¹.

We need an insight into the cultural milieu of the speaker so as to properly catch the meaning.

To which a translator might uncharitably reply “Dude, it took you thirty years at Cambridge Uni to realise that? Slow learner, huh?”

I prefer to illustrate the leonine interaction in this form:

If a lion offered you a nice cup of tea, what would you expect?

As Wittgenstein would rightly insist, we need some background to work out where our shared points of reference lie. Let’s imagine this lion is from the British Isles. Geographically and zoologically implausible, I know. But it’s a talking lion, after all — we can stretch our boundaries a little to indulge the fantasy, right?

So when our British or Irish lion offers a ‘nice cup of tea’, I know exactly what it…