Caught up in the fear of trying something unknown! Yes, the word "Unknown" or "foreign" seems scary sometimes. The fear of starting over anything is the biggest block in achieving success in any task. Most of us are in a state of dilemma many times before getting into something new, be it a job, course, relationship, entrepreneurship, etc.
Recently, I read another book
entitled “In Other Words” by Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri. In other
words, it is her first non-fiction book in which she tells about the experience she had while learning a new language that was foreign and previously unknown to her. I
had chosen this book to read as I felt attracted to it by looking at its
cover. The cover of a book is the ‘first interpretation’ of the text. This book
was originally written in Italian and later translated into English
by Ann Goldstein.
This book depicts something unique. It can be called a love story in the sense that it shows the author’s deep affection for learning a new language, “Italian,” but at the same time, it can be regarded as the process of articulating her thoughts in a new foreign language as an adult. This love first captivated her during a trip to Florence, Italy. Then, she decided to learn, speak, and write in
Italian.
This book
shows the process of learning to express oneself in another language. She had also
written about the struggle she had to face while learning, how she had to break all contact with her principal language, English. At some point in time, she feels totally foreign, having no connection with any of the three languages she knows (Italian, English, and Bengali). She also articulated how she
felt about her relationship with the three languages in the form of a triangle, where English
connects both. Sometimes, she feels torn out and depressed, but then she struggles
and makes it to write a novel in Italian. When she was asked why she had not
translated the book herself in English, in which she was master, she replied, “Had I translated this book, the temptation
would have been to improve it, to make it stronger by means of my stronger
language. But, I wanted the translation of In
alter Parole (the Italian original) to render my
Italian honestly, without smoothing out its rough edges, without neutralizing its
oddness, without manipulating its character.”
I mentioned
the book as most of us can relate to the similar situations the author has gone through while trying something new, something unknown. Like her, we also feel depressed, weak, and torn out at some point of time in life. But, to succeed
in any task, we need to overcome the internal barriers that block our path toward realizing our dreams. To start with something unknown, we must forget
to think about its consequences. The book acts as an inspiration that shows anything
can be done or learnt at any stage of life.
To get positive results in any task, one must feel connected. There must be an intense
relationship between you and the thing in which you are trying to succeed. The principle
behind this is that when we make an intense relationship with anything, we try to protect it by every means; we care about it, nurture it, and ultimately, it
reciprocates the same. So, have the courage to face something unknown, make a relationship with it, and feel connected to it to overcome your fears.
