What’s In A Name?
To be or not to be what you’ve been named
“To name a being is to define it, to indicate a direction to it. We are the name we have, and we must not live where that name is nothing, where its vibration is muffled.”
Léonora Miano in “Contours du jour qui vient”.
I came across this beautiful sentence that I loosely translated from French here above — I’m no professional translator — while reading the poignant fiction novel “Contours du jour qui vient” (“Contours of the day that comes”) by Cameroonian author Léonora Miano. This book tells the dramatic story of a young girl trying to survive in an African world that has given up on its children. Despite her unforgiving environment, she remains invincible, driven by her inalienable right to live.
It is a beautiful sentence, which sounds deeply true. But is it? Does a name define a being, or is it the other way around? Does a being give sense to its name?
One of the most joyful reading experiences is to come upon a sentence like this one, which makes you pause and reflect on it. Paradoxically, before I could even make sense of it, this sentence felt both right and wrong. As often in such situations, I try to understand my emotions before getting to the underlying logic that might have led to them. I felt shaken, like losing balance. I acknowledged the impact of the…
