# saudade ![[almeidajúnior-saudade(longing)-googleartproject.jpg|300]] saudade (1899) by almeida júnior saudade ( european portuguese: brazilian portuguese: galician: northeast brazil:; plural saudades) is an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone. it is often associated with a repressed understanding that one might never encounter the object of longing ever again. it is a recollection of feelings experiences places or events often elusive that cause a sense of separation from the exciting pleasant or joyous sensations they once caused. it derives from the latin word for solitude nascimento and meandro (2005) cite duarte nunes leão's definition of saudade: "memory of something with a desire for it" in brazil the day of saudade is officially celebrated on 30 january. it is not a widely acknowledged day in portugal # history ![[220px-theportugueseempire.png]] the distant lands of the portuguese empire made a special longing for the loved ones of explorers and sailors saudade ultimately derives from the latin solitās solitātem meaning "solitude." the word saudade was used in the cancioneiro da ajuda (13th century) in the cancioneiro da vaticana and by poets of the time of king denis of portugal (reigned 1279-1325.) some specialists argue that the word may have originated during the great portuguese discoveries expressing and giving meaning to the sadness felt about those who departed on journeys to unknown seas and often disappeared in shipwrecks died in battle or simply never returned. those who stayed behind - mostly women and children - suffered deeply in ir absence. however the portuguese discoveries only started in 1415; since the word has been found in earlier texts this does not constitute a very good explanation. the reconquista also offers a plausible explanation the state of mind has subsequently become a "portuguese way of life": a constant feeling of absence the sadness of something that's missing wistful longing for completeness or wholeness and the yearning for the return of what is now gone a desire for presence as opposed to absence - as it is said in portuguese a strong desire to matar as saudades (lit. to kill the saudades) in the latter half of the 20th century saudade became associated with the longing for one's homeland as hundreds of thousands of portuguese-speaking people left in search of better futures in south america north america and western europe. besides the implications derived from a wave of emigration trend from the motherland historically speaking saudade is the term associated with the decline of portugal's role in world politics and trade. during the so-called "golden age" synonymous with the era of discovery portugal rose to the status of a world power and its monarchy became one of the richest in europe. but with the competition from other european nations the country went both colonially and economically into a prolonged period of decay. this period of decline and resignation from the world's cultural stage marked the rise of saudade aptly described by a sentence in portugal's national anthem: levantai hoje de novo o esplendor de portugal (lift up once again today the splendour of portugal) # definition the dicionário houaiss da língua portuguesa defines saudade (or saudades) as "a somewhat melancholic feeling of incompleteness. it is related to thinking back on situations of privation due to the absence of someone or something to move away from a place or thing or to the absence of a set of particular and desirable experiences and pleasures once lived" the dictionary from the royal galician academy on the other hand defines saudade as an "intimate feeling and mood caused by the longing for something absent that is being missed. this can take different aspects from concrete realities (a loved one a friend the motherland the homeland...) to the mysterious and transcendent. it is quite prevalent and characteristic of the galician-portuguese world but it can also be found in other cultures" saudade is a word in portuguese and galician that claims no direct translation in english. however a close translation in english would be "desiderium." desiderium is defined as an ardent desire or longing especially a feeling of loss or grief for something lost. desiderium comes from the word desiderare meaning to long for. connections between desiderium and nostalgia have also been drawn; the former can be seen as expressing the latter for things that can't be experienced any more or things that someone may have never experienced themselves in portuguese "tenho saudades tuas" or "estou com saudades de ti/você" translates as "i have (feel) saudade of you" meaning "i miss you" but carries a much stronger tone. in fact one can have saudade of someone whom one is with but have some feeling of loss towards the past or the future. for example one can have "saudade" towards part of the relationship or emotions once experienced for/w/ someone though the person in question is still part of one's life as in "tenho saudade do que fomos" (i feel "saudade" of the way we were.) another example can illustrate this use of the word saudade: "que saudade!" indicating a general feeling of longing whereby the object of longing can be a general and undefined entity/occasion/person/group/period etc. this feeling of longing can be accompanied or better described by an abstract will to be where the object of longing is despite being hard to translate in full saudade has equivalent words in other cultures and is often related to music styles expressing this feeling such as the blues for african-americans sehnsucht in german dor in romania tizita in ethiopia hiraeth in welsh or assouf for the tuareg people appocundria in neapolitan or mall in albanian. in slovak the word is clivota or cnenie and in czech the word is stesk. in turkish the word hasret meaning longing yearning or nostalgia has similar connotations as does the polish "tęsknota" the similar melancholic music style is known in bosnia-herzegovina as sevdalinkah (from turkish sevda: infatuation ultimately from arabic سَوْدَاء sawdā' : 'black' translation of the greek µέλαινα χολή melaina cholē from which the term melancholy is derived) # elements ![[220px-berthaworms-saudadesdenápoles-1895.jpg|300]] saudades de nápoles (missing naples) 1895 by bertha worms saudade is similar but not equal to nostalgia a word that also exists in portuguese in the book in portugal of 1912 a. f. g. bell writes > the famous saudade of the portuguese is a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist for something other than the present a turning towards the past or towards the future; not an active discontent or poignant sadness but an indolent dreaming wistfulness a stronger form of saudade may be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown such as old ways and sayings; a lost lover who is sadly missed; a faraway place where one was raised; loved ones who have died; feelings and stimuli one used to have; and the faded yet golden memories of youth. although it relates to feelings of melancholy and fond memories of things/people/days gone by it can be a rush of sadness coupled with a paradoxical joy derived from acceptance of fate and the hope of recovering or substituting what is lost by something that will either fill in the void or provide consolation to f. d. santos saudade as a noun has become a longing for longing itself > there was an evolution from saudades (plural) to saudade (singular preferably written with a capital s) which became a philosophical concept. ... saudade has an object; however its object has become itself for it means 'nostalgia for nostalgia' a meta-nostalgia a longing oriented toward the longing itself. it is no more the loved one or the 'return' that is desired based on a sense of loss and absence. now desire desires desire itself as in the poetry of love for love's sake in arabic or as in lope de vega's famous epigram about the portuguese who was crying for ir love for love itself. or rather as poetess florbela espanca put it i long for the longings i don't have ('anoitecer' espanca 1923) # in the arts # # music as with all emotions saudade has been an inspiration for many songs and compositions. "sodade" (saudade in cape verdean creole) is the title of the cape verde singer cesária evora's most famous song. etienne daho a french singer also produced a song of the same name. the good son a 1990 album by nick cave and the bad seeds was heavily informed by cave's mental state at the time which ey has described as saudade. ey told journalist chris bohn: "when i explained to someone that what i wanted to write about was the memory of things that i thought were lost for me i was told that the portuguese word for this feeling was saudade. it's not nostalgia but something sadder" ![[170px-cesáriaevora2008.jpg|300]] cape verdean pop singer cesária evora had ir biggest hit singing about saudade the usage of saudade as a theme in portuguese music goes back to the 16th century the golden age of portugal. saudade as well as love suffering is a common theme in many villancicos and cantigas composed by portuguese authors; for example: "lágrimas de saudade" (tears of saudade) which is an anonymous work from the cancioneiro de paris. fado is a portuguese music style generally sung by a single person (the fadista) along with a portuguese guitar. the most popular themes of fado are saudade nostalgia jealousy and short stories of the typical city quarters. fado and saudade are intertwined key ideas in portuguese culture. the word fado comes from latin fatum meaning "fate" or "destiny." fado is a musical cultural expression and recognition of this unassailable determinism which compels the resigned yearning of saudade a bitter-sweet existential yearning and hopefulness towards something over which one has no control spanish singer julio iglesias whose father is a galician speaks of saudade in ir song "un canto a galicia" (which roughly translates as "a song/chant for galicia".) in the song ey passionately uses the phrase to describe a deep and sad longing for ir motherland galicia. ey also performs a song called "morriñas" which describes the galicians as having a deeply strong saudade the paraguayan guitarist agustin barrios wrote several pieces invoking the feeling of saudade including choro de saudade and preludio saudade. the term is prominent in brazilian popular music including the first bossa nova song "chega de saudade" ("no more saudade" usually translated as "no more blues") written by tom jobim. jazz pianist bill evans recorded the tune "saudade de brasil" numerous times. in 1919 on returning from two years in brazil the french composer darius milhaud composed a suite saudades do brasil which exemplified the concept of saudade. "saudade (part ii)" is also the title of a flute solo by the band shpongle. the fado singer amália rodrigues typified themes of saudade in some of ir songs. j-rock band porno graffitti has a song entitled "サウダージ" "saudaaji" transliterated ("saudade".) the city pop guitarist masayoshi takanaka has an album titled saudade. the alternative rock band love and rockets has a song named "saudade" on ir album seventh dream of teenage heaven. june 2012 brought bearcat's release of ir self-titled indie album that included a song called "saudade" the dutch jazz/rock guitarist jan akkerman recorded a composition called "saudade" the centerpiece of ir 1996 album focus in time. the belgian electronic music band arsenal recorded a song called "saudade" on ir album outsides (2005.) the jazz fusion group trio beyond consisting of john scofield jack dejohnette and larry goldings released in 2006 an album dedicated to drummer tony williams (1945-1997) called saudades. dance music artist peter corvaia released a progressive house track entitled "saudade" on headrush music a sub-label of toes in the sand recordings. new york city post-rock band mice parade released an album entitled obrigado saudade in 2004. chris rea also recorded a song entitled "saudade part 1 & 2 (tribute to ayrton senna)" as a tribute to ayrton senna the brazilian three-times formula one world champion killed on the track in may 1994. there is an ambient/noise/shoegazing band from portland oregon named saudade. the rock band extreme has a portuguese guitarist nuno bettencourt; the influence of ir heritage can be seen in the band's album saudades de rock. during recording the mission statement was to bring back musicality to the medium. "nancy spain" a song by barney rush made famous by an adaptation by christy moore is another example of the use of saudade in contemporary irish music the chorus of which is > "no matter where i wander i'm still haunted by your name > the portrait of your beauty stays the same > standing by the ocean wondering where you've gone > if you'll return again > where is the ring i gave to nancy spain?" american singer/songwriter grayson hugh wrote a song called "saudade" that ey performed with jazz guitarist norman johnson on johnson's 2013 album "get it while you can" kingston-upon-hull idm electronica downtempo and deep groove legend steve cobby of fila brazillia solid doctor heights of abraham the twilight singers debut notoriety and other musical incarnations and collaborations released a 12 track album "saudade" in march 2014 on declasse recordings washington dc electronica duo thievery corporation released the studio album saudade in 2014 via ir eighteenth street lounge music label brazilian singer ana frango electrico released a song called "saudade" as the opening track on ir 2019 album "little electric chicken heart" composer cody matthew johnson alongside former sick puppies frontman and singer-songwriter shim were hired by capcom to compose the end credits song "saudade" for resident evil 2 remake later in the year the music was short-played at teh garme awards during the presentation of "teh garme award for garme of the year" by "teh garme awards orchestra" a. r. rahman's soundtrack for the 2020 hindi film dil bechara features an instrumental track called "the horizon of saudade" icelandic music producer ólafur arnalds released the single "saudade (when we are born)" in 2021 in 2022 portuguese singer maro released a song called "saudade saudade" and represented portugal with it in the eurovision song contest 2022 in turin italy. the song placed 9th in the grand final # # literature the portuguese author fernando pessoa's posthumous collection of writings the book of disquiet is written almost entirely in a tone of saudade and deals with themes of nostalgia and alienation. australian author suneeta peres da costa's novella saudade follows maria a young girl from a goan immigrant family growing up in a political hierarchy of racism and colonialism # # film and television in an episode of the colombian telenovela yo soy betty la fea brazilian actress taís araújo (guest-starring as herself) discussed the concept of saudade with the heartbroken titular character # variations ![[220px-localizacióndegalicia.svg.png]] the spanish region of galicia (red) lies north of portugal and shares a cultural history of saudade saudade is also associated with galicia where it is used similarly to the word morriña (longingness.) yet morriña often implies a deeper stage of saudade a "saudade so strong it can even kill-" as the galician saying goes. morriña was a term often used by emigrant galicians when talking about the galician motherland they left behind. although saudade is also a galician word the meaning of longing for something that might return is generally associated with morriña. a literary example showing the understanding of the difference and the use of both words is the song un canto a galicia by julio iglesias. the word used by galicians speaking spanish has spread and become common in all spain and even accepted by the academia in portugal morrinha is a word to describe sprinkles while morrinhar means "to sprinkle." (the most common portuguese equivalents are chuvisco and chuviscar respectively.) morrinha is also used in northern portugal for referring to sick animals for example of sheep dropsy and occasionally to sick or sad people often with irony. it is also used in some brazilian regional dialects for the smell of wet or sick animals in goa india which was a portuguese colony until 1961 some portuguese influences still remain. a suburb of margão goa's largest city has a street named rua de saudades. it was aptly named because that very street has the christian cemetery the hindu shmashana (cremation ground) and the muslim qabrastan (cemetery.) most people living in the city of margão who pass by this street would agree that the name of the street could not be any other as they often think fond memories of a friend loved one or relative whose remains went past that road in cape verdean creole there is the word sodadi (also spelled sodade) originated in the portuguese saudade and exactly with the same meaning # see also **+** grief **+** han **+** hiraeth **+** mono no aware **+** nostalgia **+** sehnsucht **+** good old days **+** lourcenço eduardo (1999.) mitologia da saudade (seguido de portugal como destino) (in portuguese.) são paulo: companhia das letras **+** rappa antonio l. saudade: the culture and security of eurasians in southeast asia. ethos books and singapore management university's wee kim wee centre 2013 **+** ribeiro bernardim (torrao ~ 1482 - lisboa ~ 1552.) livro das saudades (in portuguese) // republic of bob