Anta(h)shira

This essay takes a Bengali term anta(h)shira, used to denote an intravenous vein, as its starting point, treating it as a metaphor for the subtle, capillary-like currents that run through bodies and social imaginaries. The text unpacks how such culturally embedded words defy neat translation, revealing fissures in our shared vocabularies. It argues for a practice of continual revision—an “unsettling” of language that embraces ambiguity as a creative resource.

Published in ‘Untranslatable Terms of Cultural Practices: A Shared Vocabulary’, Edited by Kimberly Bradley and Chloe Stead, 2021