Hello Gloam I am still thinking about Death of Translation after having a little cry about the concept of lost language (and saving it and sharing it) so I have come, in exchange, to entrust some nearly-lost Irish linguistic knowledge to you because I dwell on it a great deal and think you would also find it interesting.

In Irish, the phrase you'd use in place of "I'm sorry" is "Tá brón orm" which literally translated would be "I have sorrow/grief/regret on me", in the sense of wearing something (you could equally say "tá hata orm" if you had a hat on and that would be the normal phrase). This is true as well for happiness/joy (athás). One might say a person was wearing their sorrow poetically in English but in Irish that's just literally how you say it.

(Wearing an abstract concept metaphorically comes up a lot actually but it's extremely direct and literal in the feelings department)

Cecil! 💛 I am greedily wrapping this knowledge up in my arms and scampering away to my unsecret hoard of all the language treasures I’ve found and stolen. Thank you for entrusting me with it!

The transliteration of “I’m sorry” is obviously ridiculously poetic but also it’s so interesting especially in a cultural sense – to English ears the permanence of emotions definitely feels altered if “to wear/have on” is the default verb rather than “to be” or even “to have” as an unadulterated possessive.

(I’ve got so many follow-up questions! Do you wear sickness and health? Do you wear your age? What linguistic differences distinguish wearing abstract concepts literally v metaphorically? Is there a different verb altogether for having something that’s not on you, or is it only modified? If remorse is a noun how is it commonly amplified? Can you have lots of sorries on you, so to speak, or do you have one very big or earnest sorry on you? am HOOKED now look what you’ve done)