There'll probably come a time when we no longer need words to communicate with one another, and for all the awe that thought inspires, I sincerely hope I'm not around to see it. I adore words. Languages, and the different ways we transmit the same things.
Tu me manques.
And it could mean both you miss me, and it's funny and bittersweet because I'm supposed to be saying I miss you, not the other way around. Yet here I am, impudent. Telling you how you feel. How very French, no? Of course, it can also translate to
You lack from me.
Which is what's typically meant, and infinitely more beautiful, I think. To me, the English "I miss you", while surrounded by beautiful literary and cinematic connotations, has always meant so little. I resonate with the French because in this, they suffer like a Romanian.
Îmi lipsești.
You are missing from me. In the same way you could say you're missing an arm, or enough flour to bake a cake. I don't have enough of this. Of you. It might seem to you a very subtle, unimportant difference, but not to me. There's an air of possession, of choice almost to missing you. I miss you. But I also eat and I think and I smile at other people. Whereas. You are absent from me. You lack from me. Which suggests I am miserable and incomplete.
But then, of course the French are better at telling you. And Romanians. All that hot blood. All the heads on spikes. It's all or nothing with us, in our blood, if not in our day-to-day. If I think about it, I know enough Romanians who simply miss, but who never really lack or lacked someone. To that, also, there is a bravery. Letting someone get under your skin. Imagine. To go your whole life without someone's absence feeling painful to you, without feeling like life's not really all that because of this absence. I wish I understood what it is to live within the boundaries of safety. I wish I knew to be safe, but I'm beginning to think I'm growing too old to learn now. I should've learned it when I was still a little girl.
Mi manchi.
You are missing to me. You are absent from me. I look for you around me, but you're not there. Mancante. Ma dove sei? E perché non sei qui? See what I mean when I say I love them? I can't not. I fall in love with them, these sounds we make to tell one another that we are, despite our differences, the slanted eyes, the crook of nose, all really just the same. And what a brilliant mess it is.
To me, my native Romanian has always been a language to write aching. It's a language in which you can really spell the longing of someone. Maybe it's because it's a sorrowful language, a Romance language. Maybe it's the bias of my growing up, but it's always been a language that has war and loss inscribed in every syllable, that carries the longing and the grief in every song. The same is true for French. There's a inane conflict in French, a struggle not so much with the other speaker, but with the self. There's an affirmation of identity, a choice to be. In Italian, there's warmth, but even there, a weighted love. A love that knows the great cost of loving, of loss. It's a choice to love you even though you're going to go away.
Мне тебя не хватает.
There's other ways. You can do a literal translation of I miss you, but this seems to me the only way to say it in Russian. There isn't enough of you to me. For me. It's all the same, and I love all these versions, because they're all questions. All ways of asking where are you that you're not where I am? And to a lesser extent, why?
I could do this all night. But I don't know enough of them. The languages. C'etait drôle, mais c'est fini. Et alors,
How do you say "I miss you" in your language? And how do you say I miss you?
I have always been struck by how some phrases in other languages seem to express some feelings better, I only speak Spanish and sometimes I feel that words limit us too much and I need more.
Here we say: "me haces falta", to say "I miss you".
Is simple from my point of view limiting when it comes to such a deep feeling.
That's lovely! I don't know too much Spanish, but I think that would be a similar translation in English, isn't it? I have need of you?
A little bit, but the "me haces falta" is more like, you feel the one who is not there, you feel that his space is empty, you notice his absence not only physically.
Isn't that gorgeous? Thank you for making that distinction. It brightened my day <3
Aku Rindu Kamu. But, it's very hard to say for me who can't express my feelings.
It's hard but it's worth saying as often as you can! If they're worth missing, maybe it's worth telling them if they are still here. <3 and even if they're not, you can tell somebody else. I miss them. <3
I only have English, and it serves me to repeat the same phrase, like a mantra: I miss you, I miss you, I miss you.
Alone, 'miss' means little. Those three words together are more poignant.
I yearn, I ache, I long.
I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.
Perhaps it's why we have imagery.
I miss you like the empty sky longs for clouds.
I wish I could speak more than English.
You do. There's so much conveyed in that comment that transcends language. It's certainly not nothing to continue to take yourself to these raw places, to miss and love and look at it the way you do. A big hug, my dear <3
In my language, English, "I miss you" feel’s practical—concise, reserved. It’s a sentiment, yes, but lacks the aching physicality of something like tu me manques or îmi lipsești. Those phrases seem to acknowledge the hole left by someone’s absence, the way their presence fills the exact shape of the void.
And yet, I love the beauty in how Romance languages reflect longing as a kind of subtraction from the self. It’s not just that we miss someone—it’s that their absence rewrites us, leaves us incomplete, searching. That loss carries a poetic weight English doesn’t.
In my language, too, "I miss you" often masks more complex unanswered questions: Where are you? Why aren't you here? It's less about the words and more about the void. That’s the paradox of language, isn’t it? Beauty and limits.
So, to answer your question:
In my language, “I miss you” is straightforward, but it often feels a heavier weight than the words can hold.
How do you say I miss you? I think we all say it in sighs, in silence, in waiting. Some things transcend language.
This was beautifully written @honeydue. Some of your best work I’ve had the pleasure of reading.
Ah, curse you, English writer :P Agreeing with me yet turning it on its head as you do. What a beautiful way to express absence and longing.
Text and subtext. :)
In waiting. Very precious. Thanks. It tells me it's a good write-up because it drew such a beautiful response and for that I'm really grateful. :)