ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how people in the past talked about forms of involuntary dislocation and examines the origins and complexity of meanings of two key words: migration and nostos. Pioneering research shows that the word migration is closely connected with changing place, travelling, exchanging and remunerating, recompensing, and rewarding as well as mutuality and interaction, and nostos is intimately associated with the visceral and nourishing experiences of home and human interaction. Moreover, it was found that nostos is etymologically linked with noos (mind), suggesting that homecoming after a journey implies expansion and renewal of one’s being. Next, the Babylonian exile is examined from the perspective of Jewish attitudes to exile (galut), as an unbearable form of adversity as well as a means for renewal. Researching the choice of words in the Bible for the same exile, as well as their translation into other languages, reveals a remarkably sensitive array of shades of meaning, in comparison to the crude vocabulary used today. Implications for using interpreters in working with refugees and migrants are discussed. Finally, concern is expressed about the imprecision of the currently dominant language of this field, the ‘international English’.
