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Juliette Zahn

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Build peace: be on time

My Mom and Dad had written a few words on a paper and hung it on the wall in our kitchen. We grew up watching our parents invite all kinds of people into our home for dinners. Strangers. This included any person who was lost in the airport or someone they found lost on the street....A warm meal, pajamas, a clean bed in the guest room, a bathroom, and the next day after breakfast, often supplied with a gift (usually a sweater or socks), and a map they provided a ride to the train or bus station. Most of those people spoke a foreign tongue that none of us understood. But at the end of Mom and Dad's "hospitality adventure" my parents had added a line to their list on the wall and that person had walked away with theirs. To this day my family receives letters and visits from those travelers and their children and even grand children. Every time we gather together there is “letter” readings and....tears of joy.


The paper on the wall read:

Italian: Ti Amo
German: Ich Liebe Dich
Japanese: Ai Shite Imasu
Chinese: Wo Ai Ni
Swedish: Jag Alskar Dig
Greek: S'Agapo
Hawaiian: Aloha Wau La Oe
Irish: Thaim In Grabh Leat
Hebrew: Ani Ohev Otakh
Persian: Du Stet Daaram
Russian: Ya Lyublyu Tyebya
Albanian: Une Te Dua
Finnish: Mina Rakkastan Sinua
Turkish: Seni Seviyorum
Hungarian: Se Ret Lay
Maltese: Jien Inhobbok
Catalan: Testimo Molt
French: Je t'aime
Spanish: Te Amo
Eskimo: Nagligivaget
English: I love you

Now I wish my parents had learned to say " We love you" instead.
Will you help me rewrite this list and include your language too ??

~~ With Happy New Year Wishes~~

Related Talks:
Topics: Mutual Gains Pre-emptive Peace Shared Humanity
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    William Sager

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    Jan 9 2013: Hawaiian is a very complex language with many words and phrases having multiple meanings. There are often many ways to say something with slightly different meanings. For instance Aloha is often used to say hello and goodbye. How ever it is also an expression of love shared and at a deeper level it is the sharing of the breath of life, or the sharing of ones spirit. I like the expression Hōkeo which means to be in a bond of love. Māhele means to share, As in Māhele hōkeo. I notice you have a Hawaiian translation and I certainly would not argue with that.

    Iʻm not a Hawaiian speaker, but I have a good Hawaiian Dictionary
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      Juliette Zahn 50+

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      Jan 9 2013: Greetings Bill, Or I could say Aloha! ( since that is the one word I know ;-) So wonderful to see you here!

      I can never be sure but I thought that 'Aloha Wau La Oe' was a singular format, in other words a 1 to 1 saying. And we are looking for a 2 to 2 , or a 10 to 10 format that would be applicable from one group to another group.

      I feel that getting to really understand any language which is not our own birth tongue, requires a rather deep knowledge of the culture behind the language, hard to accumulate in one life time!! And of course Hawaiian, appears far from anything I am familiar with. But the complexity is intriguing. and makes learning a worthwhile adventure, for me anyway:-)

      Would ' Māhele Hōkeo ' apply to the plural?!
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      Juliette Zahn 50+

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      Jan 21 2013: Dear Bill,

      I hope you will have a chance to read through all the entries to our thread and find them helpful in your general approach. Also see CREDITS. Soon this session will be closed. Thank you again for your collaboration. Be well :)

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