We're now on the 14th Untranslatable Word of the series and the 2nd one of 2021 :) Today we're moving Asia again, especifically to the Philippines! A kind of remote but interesting place to me.
This week's word is the Filipino: pikit mata.
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pikit mata
This adverb reflects on how hard making a decision could be, and since not everything goes as planned, lately I've been having to pikit mata make decisions, ones that are kind of risky but I know must be done.
pikit mata literally translates with eyes closed, eyes shut or doing something with eyes shut, and refers to doing something unhesitatingly or full courage. * *
I think this is the word for that aware and serious determination of doing something that even though you didn't want it from the start, you just now understood it must be done, like an unavoidable truth or end, so there's no other way than just closing your eyes, accepting it must be done and do it with no hesitation, even as quick as possible.
However, this quickness is not because we are doing it with rejection but because of our promptness for it to be done, and done right; or at least I like to think of it that way, that's my own perception of it, a "nothing scares me anymore" point of view I guess. But there's the other way to see it too.
Now, there's this other perception that I got from reading Shweta Bachchan writing on pikit mata, where she talks about her fear of needles and how closing your eyes is "quite a neat trick and one that became a part of my repertoire when something essential but undesirable had to be endured." At first, when discovering this word, I didn't think of the "eyes closing" as a manner to deal with undesirable and unavoidable things, but the analogy is there indeed.
As last year was a crazy year that for many of us represented hard times to endure, and even those hard times might remain today, I think both points of view for this word are valid and good to deal with all the bad situations; there's an inherent strength in both.
Blue Monday is coming next week and I like to think –even though this is kind of a nonsense with no real base date– how many of us, and especially people struggling with post-quarantine consequences, will be dropping our new year purposes and even starting to pikit mata do other stuff. Well, I just like to wonder.
Whatever the case may be, I think there's no doubt that when facing hard situations, when things don't go as planned and when we have to make decisions, closing our eyes and accepting things in order to be better, improve and change our current state is something we should never be sad about, and beyond all, we should remain calmed and positive that things will be good in the end.
What do you think? Do you pikit mata do things with fear or with pure calmness? What is your pikit mata way? Please tell me what you think!
Thank you very much for passing by! If you have an Untranslatable Word you'd like to suggest, please don't hesitate to do so! :)
Previous Untranslatable Words:
#1: Torschlusspanik
#2: Mono no aware
#3: Rasāsvāda
#4: Cavoli riscaldati
#5: Nefelibata
#6: Sturmfrei
#7: Jootha
#8: bilita mpash
#9: resfeber
#10: Vāde mēcum
#11: sankofa
#12: annus mirabilis
#13: voorpret
