How does one translate, "Her heart is in the right place" into the
languages that you know?
I realized in conversation over dinner that I wasn't sure how best to
say this in French or German--the two additional languages I speak.
Then I thought it might be fun to see how this particular expression
changed from culture to culture. If, indeed, it does.
I further wondered how many cultures share the notion that the heart
is the seat of emotion and that someone's heart can travel like the
fellow who refuses to look at a map or ask for directions, forging
ahead until it is thoroughly lost in black woods?
And--following the model of the wandering womb-- what diseases, if
any, were attributed to the tourist heart? I know that nostalgia was
a nineteenth century diagnosis, treated quite violently during
Napoleon's invasion of Russia. What else?
David Ritchie Portland, Oregon ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
