The Untranslatable Sign

I used to believe that everything is translatable. Some words require multiple words to translate, and others require multiple paragraphs of explanation. But in principle, any word or phrase in any language means something, and any other language might mean the same thing.

I no longer believe that.

When I go out to protests with my magic sign, people look up and smile. They stare and take pictures. Sometimes they take my picture with the sign, and other times they ask to have their picture take with the sign.

People read the words of the sign, and quickly fumble with their phones, trying to take a picture before I leave with it. Others rush up and stop me before I go, and tell me 'yes, it's just like that!', or 'that's it!', before they take a picture of the sign.

I just carry the sign. Someone else made it. So I ask people what it means in English. They screw up their faces, then say some garbled nonsense with the word 'mother-fucker'. But 'mother-fucker' on a sign would not give that kind of reaction.

The sign is not a pun. It's not a reference. It's not a known sentence. It's a new sentence, with new meaning in Serbian, and zero meaning in English.