In fact, "тоска" [toska] isn't the only word that can't be unequivocally translated into English. Here are a few more Russian words that have a specific emotional load that isn't found in their English counterparts:
- Надрыв [nadryv]. The closest English equivalents are "heartache", "raw emotion". The word can have a positive connotation - for example, if you say "she sings with nadryv'om" (which means, very passionately and emotionally); and negative - for example, in the context of "mental nadryv made me fall exhausted." This state means high emotional involvement in anything related to passion or suffering.
- Разлука [razluka]. The closest English equivalents are "separation", "parting". The English equivalents explain the physical condition more than the emotional one. Razluka is closely associated with the meaning of pain, loneliness and the "тоска" from the need to part with someone.
- Хандра [khandra]. The closest English equivalents are "spleen", "blues". But here the English words express a calmer emotion, albeit they mean sadness. Khandra is a condition closer to depression (but not equal to depression!), and combines sadness in part with a feeling of despair and/or suffering. There is a well-known quote from Alexander Pushkin's poem "Eugene Onegin" with a comparison of spleen and khandra, where the latter was nevertheless translated as " the blues":
"Недуг, которого причину // Давно бы отыскать пора, // Подобный английскому сплину, // Короче: русская хандра // Им овладела понемногу"
"The discontentment and disenchantment // Of which the cause it is time to seek // Most like what is spleen to Englishmen, // Or more simply 'the blues' in Russian, // Had gradually sunk and overwhelmed him"
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