SOMETIMES I FEEL
happy, sometime I feel sad. I never knew I felt firgun. Firgun is the Hebrew word for “the genuine, unselfish delight or pride in the accomplishment of another”.
It describes an emotion for which there is no word in English. It is often described as the opposite feeling to schadenfreude.
I came across firgun from the most unlikely of sources: English
Rugby Captain
Dylan Hartley. Hartley toasted his team mates’ success in making the British and Irish Lions Squad in a tweet which referenced firgun and my morning was lifted.
In an age which seems defined by bitterness and schadenfreude, where
people are built up only to be torn down and where no one is good enough, beautiful enough,
popular enough, it seems wonderful that an emotion exists, in each of us, that rows against that inky tide.
Belinda took (firgun)
pleasure in Mell's achievement, she
felt glad upon learning that Mell had saved herself and the east coast health members of Richards
bay.