Tuesday 4 October 2011

saudade

i discovered this new word this week, it's portugese and it is defined by wiki :
"a somewhat melancholic feeling of incompleteness. It is related to think back 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".
 
or defined by kylie:
"missing something or someone. a lot."
i like this word, it sounds so much better than "homesick" or " i miss you/him/her" or even "nostalgia"
 
and it's multi-purpose to encompass lost love, missing family, missing home or friends or circumstance.
when have you felt the effect of saudades?

15 comments:

  1. Oh, I know that feeling well, I constantly have a somewhat melancholic feeling of incompleteness. Not in the romantic sense as I have Jenny, but in the existential sense that I feel there are parts of me that aren't being expressed or there's some dimension of life I'm missing out on. Does anyone ever feel totally complete, I wonder?

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  2. Saudade sounds like Sad... forlorn. I believe I will save and use it as well. Thanks!

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  3. Far too often. Thank you. It is a wonderful word which I intend to borrow (if I remember).

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  4. I think I'll steal that one. I've felt like that since April 28 even though I see him on Webcam every day. Ah the tyranny of distance and the separation of years. Saudade indeed.

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  5. Daudade is felt when having entered Dmitri's "Art of Cakes" there are no Portugese tarts for sale and thus one feels "diminished."

    Saudate is probably felt when you think about the fate of Timorese people, East and West and of course it has a Portugese occupied past

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  6. Typo above.

    Daudade should be saudade

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  7. Whenever I hear the hit song "Smooth operator"..Oh no sorry that's Sade...

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  8. Just had it this past weekend when I was in Vegas with my Mom's brother and sister. Really, really missed her a lot.

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  9. nick,
    i think in my best moments i feel complete but it's so mood dependent!


    mr charleston,
    i'm almost tempted to go on a binge looking for wonderful foreign words :)


    EC,
    yes, i know the feeling! you find out some excellent thing but cant retrieve it when it's needed!


    baino,
    time & tide wait for no (wo)man!
    just grab a good thing while you can


    john,
    i'm pretty sure that missing out on good cake is good a reason as any to get a bit melancholy :)


    fee,
    you might be all smart alecky now but see how you feel when i steal your friday take away :)


    mr shife,
    timing is everything and it kinda didnt work for you, i'm sorry. just keep making her proud!

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  10. It must be the rare person who does NOT feel this way. Personally I think only those who are apathetic about life in general would not fit this word. For those of us who look for new experiences of one sort or another - it's always present to an extent.

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  11. mykuljay,
    you successfully avoided the question :)

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  12. I love picture you've paired with this.

    Someone told me once that no one could truly know me if they didn't understand my sadness. I can see how that was perfectly true at the time.

    I think I feel this mostly when I drive by the house I lived in when I was in high school. High school is a very intense and dramatic time, and while there is no chance in hell I would ever go back there, there is that intensity of feelings that I miss sometimes.

    Of course it has been replaced by better things. And it isn't as though I don't feel things intensely anymore...

    But you know, things were just more desperate then. And desperation is encompassing.

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  14. jo,
    i'm no expert in portugese but i think it's so-dard


    fifth elephant,
    the pic went with the wiki entry and tho there were plenty of other pics available i thought this was the best.
    i think i feel the same way about my teen years and my folks still live in the same house but when i try to imagine not having access to that house anymore it's quite disconcerting

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