Foreign Word of the Day: Saudade

There are words we need to borrow from other languages.  From Portuguese, that word of the day is “saudaude”.  “Saudade” is a word associated with the region of Portugal my family once ruled, the northern kingdom of Galicia.  “Saudade” is more than just melancholy, or mere nostalgia.  It is a specific concept that has no equivalent in the English language. 

Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa defined “saudade” to be “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 of Real Academia Galega, on the other hand, defined “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 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” was used in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda, during the 13^th century), in the Cancioneiro da Vaticana, and by poets of the time of King Denis of Portugal.  This was the period of the Reconquista, and had a deeper meaning of deprivation that the Muslims of Portugal felt, being forced to abandon Islam for Christianity.  The word then took on another shade of meaning, during the Great Portuguese Discoveries of the 14^th century onwards.  It was meant to encapsulate the sadness, the longing, and the ache of yearning of the Portuguese who departed, often never to return.  Their families left behind felt that loss, and lack of closure keenly, by accepted this as part of the greater glory of the empire. 

This sense of constant yearning, and stoicism in the face of loss, has become the Portuguese way of life, across the diaspora, all over the world.  It is often understood to be a wistful longing for something that is missing, or denied, a missing piece that prevents to completeness of the soul, a yearning for that place we can lay our head down and finally rest.  It is an understanding that this can never be had, and what was loss can never be found or replaced.  It is an absence felt so strongly, it has gained a presence all of its own.  It then took on another shade as the Golden Age of Portugal ended, the empire declined, and generations of Portuguese had to leave their home for something better, never forgetting that we were once part of an empire that ruled much of the world.  This is our matar as saudades.