Matters of the Liver

There is one thing that has bothered me for some time. I'm assuming that I am not the first to notice or remark on this, but at the same time I don't think there has been enough discussion - let alone reflection - on the matter.

Has it ever occurred to you why the Malays, when they love, do so with their liver, and not with their heart like many other people around the world?

For many Malay speakers who have been exposed to English from a relatively early age (and that would be most of us, especially if you count those cartoon shows we used to be crazy about as kids) the English notion of the heart (i.e. the organ that pumps blood) being the organ most associated with emotions is something that we take for granted. We have been indoctrinated from young that the stylised symbol for heart ♥ represents love. It seldom - if ever - strikes us that this is in direct contradiction to our own cultural realities and experience.

In Malay, almost all expressions that contain the word "heart" in English, are translated with the word hati i.e. "liver". The end of a love affair may leave you heartbroken in English, but in Malay it would not break your heart but your liver (patah hati - "broken liver") Similarly, English speakers - as well as French, Italian, Spanish and German speakers - may tell you that they love you with all their heart; A Malay speaker on the other hand would tell you that he loves you with all his liver (sepenuh hati). "Liver" is present in many other Malay expressions related to feelings and emotions: jauh hati (feel slighted), rendah hati (humble), sakit hati (upset), bengkak hati (bruised ego, feelings), sejuk hati (mollified, gratified), kecil hati (feel slighted, to take offence) and besar hati (welcoming, a feeling that motivates one to go out of one's way to make another feel welcome, at ease, honoured). And this is far from being an exhaustive list.

Perhaps like many people, I grew up treating the Malay hati as interchangeable with the English "heart" until I saw the following scene between Tarzan and his gorilla mother Kala, in the animated movie Tarzan.

Kala: Close your eyes. Now forget what you see.
Kala: [puts Tarzan's hand to his chest] What do you feel?
Young Tarzan: My heart.
Kala: [puts Tarzan's head by her chest] Come here.
Young Tarzan: Your heart.
Kala: See? We're exactly the same.
...
Tarzan: No matter where I go, you will always be my mother.
Kala: And you will always be in my heart.

I actually never heard this dialogue in the way it is reported here because I watched the Bahasa Malaysia version. But the missing wordplay in the BM version was not lost on me: in the first two occurences, the word "heart" was translated as jantung since Kala was referring to the organ that beats and pumps blood. "Heart" in the last line however was translated as hati i.e. liver, since Kala was referring to the organ that is associated with her feelings.

Some preliminary enquiries suggest that the Malays are not unique in this. The view of the liver as an organ associated with feelings and love is also present in a few other Southeast Asian languages, including Cambodian and Burmese. In 16th century England, there was a belief that the liver was the place where love is "lodged", as suggested by quotes from Shakespeare's As You Like It, for instance. I have also stumbled upon commentaries that suggest that classical Greek images, for instance that of Prometheus being punished by having his liver pecked at by an eagle, allude to the belief that the liver is the seat of passion.

So back to the question: why do the Malays - at least lingustically - love with their liver? To be honest: I don't know. I doubt if I ever will. I am a native speaker of Malay. Personally, however I do not find the idea of liver as a medium of passion and feelings as a very intuitive one. When I am sad, I usually feel a hollowness in my heart, or at least the part of the body where I think my heart is. I don't know if it is natural to "feel" love or sadness in my heart, but the reality is: I do. I don't feel it in my liver.

All expressions alluding to "liver" in the Malay language however did not come out of thin air. They are there for a reason. They reflect the worldview of our ancestors. The way our forefathers saw the world and understood it. It was a way of perceiving the world where for reasons unknown to us, the liver was seen to be linked to emotions. It was a worldview through which the question would not be "Why do the Malays love with their liver?", but would instead be "Why do the Europeans love with their heart?" As our society changed, this worldview has been altered through the centuries. Had it not been for the scores of surviving expressions with the word hati in them, would we have even suspected that such a worldview existed?

Language is indeed, the repository of the collective experience of its speakers through the ages. A people with no language has no memory, no identity, no past.

And without a past, do we dare hope to face the future?

Dal cuore infranto

Avoir le cœur brisé

Con el corazón roto, tener el corazón partido

Mónica-Marta Moyano, Ets el meu fetge i el meu cor

إنفطر قلبه

Comments

[rara avis]

excellent piece. i have often wondered this too.

[Nina]

I love your writing.

Actually, I have never thought of loving with my liver too I often feel (all feelings) culminating from the area slap bang in the middle of my chest, in between my breasts.

Is that a place between the liver and the heart?

Is this a linguistic matter or is it just the different ways people (eastern and western) try(ied) to explain the origin of passion, happiness, hatred and pain?

Points to ponder huh?;-)

You write well!

[fazu]

Rara:
I knew that I was not the only one who's been wondering about this. I wonder if someone has seriously looked into this - could be a topic for a PhD thesis, maybe? Btw. what are you doing checking out blogs? Aren't you supposed to be busy in view of events over the weekend? All the best for that one!

Nina:

Firstly, thanks for the kind words.

As I hinted at in the post, the answer to these questions are likely to be much more complicated than it may seem. Experience teaches me that many facets of our daily lives that we may take for granted are actually nothing more than the tip of the iceberg. It's amazing where some digging and exploration of seemingly mundane things can take you. (Ever tried investigating the origins of "sambal belacan"? haha, that could be the subject of another post.)

I've been told that your liver is in the lower part of your abdoment, on the right side. So the "place between the liver and the heart" should be somewhere around your stomach (don't I wish I had paid more attention during those Biology classes...).

Personally, I'm inclined to think that it is not just a linguistic matter. I think the expressions stemmed from actual beliefs and views in how the world - and by extension human emotions - works. Thinking about things like this make me feel "connected" to the people of yore - even if I don't know how they actually thought and felt and viewed the world.

[Nads]

The only emotion I associate with my liver is my cynicism, since I'm assuming that's where my surfeit of bile comes from.

Speaking of bile, has anyone from my workplace contacted you yet? Apparently you got the scholarship and I was told it was a full one, not the pathetic amount you were initially offered.

P/s:- Yay, you're updating again!

[fazu]

Nads: hahaha, given the amount of cynicism that you emit, it must be a large surfeit of bile then!

People from your workplace contacted me but they are quite vague about the terms and conditions of the offer. Sigh. I don't think I'm going to take it up though. Need to decide soon. (What would you advise?)

[Nads]

My advice is get terms in writing first- surely there's a contract somewhere? What were they vague about? The amount or the bond arrangements?

When they spoke to me (in attempting to get your contact details) they said they'd give you the full amount with expenses (they made it sound quite lavish!) in exchange for a semi-flexible bond period, i.e., you wouldn't have to come back immediately, but would have the option of completing your bond any time within 4-5 years post-graduation.

Anyway, with regards to the hati-liver/heart-jantung question, Hamza Yusuf (amongst others) has spoken about the existence of a 'metaphysical' heart and a 'physical' one- the former, I suppose being the 'engine' of your soul which houses your emotions. Perhaps this is what Malays mean when they refer to 'hati' in relation to 'matters of the heart', rather than the liver?

[fazu]

Nads: is that what they told you? hmmm... that's not what they told me! Nevermind. I have not responded to them for quite some time now. Strange that they too have been quiet. Maybe they are not that serious about giving it to me?

Thanks for the tip on Hamza Yusuf. But I think the point is, in many other cultures, the metaphysical heart and the physical heart refer to the same organ i.e. heart. Whereas the Malays separate the two into two different organs i.e. heart and liver. First question is: why? Second question: why liver? Why not lungs or kidney or the stomach or gall bladder?

[lita]

saya selalu makan hati. in both sense.

(oh, blog balik senyap2 ya?!)

(btw what do you mean, origins of sambal belacan? it's a sambal containing belacan, no?)

[fazu]

Lita: hahaha memang blog senyap-senyap. takkanlah nak palu kompang pulak?

Sambal has chilli. Have you ever wondered why we don't have a Malay word for "chilli" when it's such an important ingredient in our cooking? (Lada is not really chilli). Did you know that chilli came from the Americas? And the question is: did Hang Tuah ever have sambal belacan? He lived before the "discovery" of America.

[lita]

isn't cili "malay" for chili? (and why is lada "not really" chilli? what is lada then?).

yes i knew chilis came from the americas. the americas were discovered late 15th century. there is therefore all possibility that alphonso and co could've brought some over with 'em and tuah could have had his sambal belacan.

so there.