Do car horns really go BEEP?

How about the sound from the engine of a Suzuki Max 100R? Does it go TRRRRRRRTRRRRRR or DRRRRRRRDRRRRR? What about those laced aural patterns of a metallic nature within this engine sound? How do you translate that? Have I already translated it by calling it "a laced aural pattern of a metallic nature within this engine sound"? What about SPLORT and BOINK?

I want to write about a carnatic music concert. How do I do that? Sure, I can describe the audience, the singers, the way the singer's spit travels and hits the mike, the way the music binds the listeners together in a collective trance. But what about the music itself? What is the literary equivalent of a good arohanam of Hamsadhwani?

Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Saaa!

There! Can you hear the Mayamaalavakowla? Can you sense the Suddha Rishabam and the Kakali Nishadham? Do the swaras wash over you like a slow stream getting benevolently faster? How about if I put a line on the top of certain vowels? Does that make it sufficiently sanskrit and sufficiently musical?

As my fingers TAP on the keyboard, I am beginning to grasp the inability of the written word. (chair scraping on cement floor with an eyeball stuck underneath) is the closest we have got to writing authentic sub-titles for crazy Japanese movies.

tap tap tap tap TAP! Wrrrrrr..... Kqueakikqueaki... TAP!