A language for all ears
By Merrina O’Malley
As words tumbled out of Sonia's mouth in a language foreign to me, a familiar, salty burn edged my eyes. I didn't understand a single word, and yet I could feel the weight of her emotions, heavy and agonizing. This weight on my chest was a result of human connection, a type of connection that transcends linguistic barriers.
In that moment, I realized that the ability to empathize – and in Sonia’s case, to share someone's pain – goes beyond the limitations of linguistic understanding. It is universal and omnipresent.
Just before, the interview had taken an unexpected turn. My partner and I had concluded our narrative of a resilient woman, a truck driver with dreams of exploring the world. We planned to wrap it up with a bow of an ending, just like a fairy tale. Little did we know that Sonia's true personal narrative was about to unfold and that the language barrier that separated us was about to become insignificant in the face of emotion.
As we began to pack our things, Sonia posed a question, her words foreign but her intentions clear: "Would you like to hear my sad stories?" After hearing our India partner, Rafi’s, translation, I paused what I was doing. It was a call to listen, even when I knew that the words themselves wouldn’t mean anything to me.
As she spoke, Sonia remained mostly composed — her face concealing the sorrow she conveyed with her words — tears began to brim my eyes. After listening for a few minutes, Rafi translated a picture of defeat and despair. Sonia had lost her brother to the grip of gang violence. She continued after he had finished translating, her eyes becoming red with the start of tears. She spoke of the disrespect she experienced from her husband, in-laws, and her own children. The loss of her parents. In those moments, I could sense the gravity of her experience, empathizing with the raw, unfiltered emotions that transcended language.
The intricacies of the relationships she had with her family, the helplessness she felt witnessing her brother fall into a life of violence and misguided decisions– these were narratives woven with threads of sorrow that went beyond any sort of linguistic constraint. I could feel her anguish, her fear and her desperate plea for a life free from the clutches of such pain. It was an impactful story she had just told, communicated not through words I comprehended, but through the shared human experience of sorrow.
As complex and diverse as it may be, language often falls short when attempting to encapsulate the depth of human emotions. In the case of Sonia's story, the inadequacy of words was even more evident as she spoke in a language I’d never known before. The beginnings of my tears were not a result of understanding her words; they were an emotional response to the feeling of her grief that hung in the air. In that moment, the language barrier dissolved and we formed a connection forged in the crucible of pain— a universal language not confined by words or linguistic nuances.
This encounter served as a reminder that, at our core, we are bound by shared emotions that transcend language. In the tapestry that is human experience, grief, joy and compassion are threads that weave us together, creating a fabric that defies the limitations of language.