Saudade
Encyclopedia
Saudade) is a unique Galician-Portuguese word that has no immediate translation in English. Saudade describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. It often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return. It's related to the feelings of longing, yearning.
Saudade has been described as a "...vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist ... a turning towards the past or towards the future." A stronger form of saudade may be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost lover, or a family member who has gone missing. It may also be translated as a deep longing or yearning for something that does not exist or is unattainable.
Saudade was once described as "the love that remains" or "the love that stays" after someone is gone. Saudade is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, well-being, which now triggers the senses and makes one live again. It can be described as an emptiness, like someone (e.g., one's children, parents, sibling, grandparents, friends, pets) or something (e.g., places, things one used to do in childhood, or other activities performed in the past) should be there in a particular moment is missing, and the individual feels this absence.
In Portuguese, 'tenho saudades tuas', translates as 'I have saudades of you' meaning 'I miss you', but carries a much stronger tone. In fact, one can have 'saudades' of someone whom one is with, but have some feeling of loss towards the past or the future.
In Brazil
, the day of saudade is officially celebrated on January 30.
and by poets of the time of by King Denis of Portugal
.
Some specialists say the word may have originated during the Great Portuguese Discoveries, giving meaning to the sadness felt about those who departed on journeys to unknown seas and disappeared in shipwreck
s, died in battle, or simply never returned. Those who stayed behind—mostly women and children—suffered deeply in their absence; However, the Portuguese discoveries only started in 1415 and since the word has been found earlier this does not constitute a very good explanation. The Reconquista
is also 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, wishful longing for completeness or wholeness and the yearning for the return of that 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 feeling of 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 an emigratory 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 discoveries, Portugal undeniably rose to the status of a world power, and its monarchy was one of the richest in Europe at the time. But with the rise of 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 of its national anthem—'Levantai hoje de novo o esplendor de Portugal' (Let us once again lift up the splendour of Portugal).
, a word that also exists in Portuguese.
In the book In Portugal of 1912, A. F. G. Bell writes:
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
.
Although the word is Portuguese in origin, saudade is a universal feeling related to love. It occurs when two people are in love or like each other, but apart from each other. Saudade occurs when we think of a person who we love and we are happy about having that feeling while we are thinking of that person, but he/she is out of reach, making us sad and crushing our hearts. The pain and these mixed feelings are saudade. It also refers to the feeling of being far from people one does love, e.g., one's sister, father, grandparents, friends; it can be applied to places or pets one misses, things one used to do in childhood, or other activities performed in the past. What sets saudade apart is that it can be directed to anything that is personal and moving. It can also be felt for unrequited love
in that the person misses something he or she never really had, but for which might hope, regardless of the possible futility of said hope.
singer Cesária Évora
's most famous song; French
singer Étienne Daho
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 he has described as saudade. He told journalist Chris Bohn that, "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."
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 villancico
s and cantiga
s 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 two key and intertwined 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 bittersweet, 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 his song Un Canto a Galicia (which roughly translates as a song/chant for Galicia). In the song, he passionately uses the phrase to describe a deep and sad longing for his motherland, Galicia. He also performs a song called Morriñas, which the 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, sometimes translated as "No More Blues"), written by Tom Jobim. Due to the difficulties of translating the word saudade, the song is often translated to English as No more Blues. In 1919, on returning from two years in Brazil, the French composer Darius Milhaud
composed a suite, Saudades do Brazil, which exemplified the concept of saudade. "Saudade (Part II)" is also the title of a flute solo by the band Shpongle
. The singer Amália Rodrigues
typified themes of saudade in some of her songs. J-Rock band Porno Graffitti
has a song titled "サウダージ”, "Saudaaji" transliterated ("Saudade"). The alternative rock band Love And Rockets
has a song named "Saudade" on their album Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven
.
A jazz fusion trio consisting of John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette, and Larry Goldings released an album dedicated to drummer Tony Williams, 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" as a tribute to Ayrton Senna
the Brazilian three-times Formula One world champion killed on the track. There is an ambient/noise/shoegazing band from Portland, OR named Saudade. The rock band Extreme
has a Portuguese guitarist Nuno Bettencourt
; the influence of his heritage can be seen in the band's album titled 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:
There was also a multi-artist compilation of music in the late 1990s, released in the US as an introduction to Brazilian music, entitled Saudade.
There is a Spanish pop-rock group called Saudade.
. The word used by Galicians speaking Spanish has spread and become common in all Spain and even accepted by the Academia
.
In northern Portugal, morrinha is a regional word to describe sprinkles, while morrinhar means "to sprinkle." (The most common Portuguese equivalents are chuvisco and chuviscar, respectively.) Morrinha is also used in this region 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 are still retained. 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 smarshant (cremation ground) and the Muslim quabrastan (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. The word 'saudade' takes on a slightly different form in Portuguese-speaking Goan families for whom it implies the once-cherished but never-to-return days of glory of Goa as a prized possession of Portugal, a notion since then made redundant by the irrevocable cultural changes that occurred with the end of the Portuguese regime in these parts. In Cape Verdean Creole there is the word sodadi (also spelled sodade), originated in the Portuguese "saudade" and exactly with the same meaning.
There is also a tune Saudade de Brasil recorded numerous times by Bill Evans and his trio. It is far better known than any of the previous mentions.
), in which one feels an interior satisfaction because it is impossible to find something, but one never stops thinking that one is searching for it. It is an incompleteness that one unconsciously wants to never completely resolve. Saudade relates to the French
regret, in which one feels a hard sentiment, but in a nostalgic sense. Saudade relates to the Spanish
extrañar, in which one feels a missing part of oneself, which can never be completely filled by the thing you cannot have or get back. The word can also translate into the Spanish expression echar de menos, or extrañar—roughly equivalent to the Portuguese ter saudades: missing something or someone.
The Greek word closest to saudade is νοσταλγία (nostalgia). Nostalgia also appears in the Portuguese language as in the many other languages with a Indo-European origin, bearing the same meaning of the Greek word "νοσταλγία". There is yet another word that, like 'saudade', has no immediate translation in English: λαχτάρα (lakhtara). This word encompasses sadness, longing and hope, as does the term saudade.
In Albanian
, a direct translation of saudade is the word mall, which encompasses feelings of passionate longing, sadness, and at the same time an undefined laughter from the same source. Other variations which give different nuances to this word are: pëmallim, përmallje, etc.
In the Torlak dialect of Bulgarian, spoken today in the easternmost part of Serbia and the remote southern mountains of Kosovo, there is an expression which corresponds more closely to the Japanese and Greek examples below, but can be compared to saudade in the broader sense of longing for the past. It is жал за младос(т) / žal za mlados(t) i.e., "yearning for one's youth." (Since the dialect has not been standardised as a written language it has various forms.) The term and the concept have been popularised in standard Serbian through short prose and plays by Vranje
born fin-de-siècle writer
Borisav Stanković
.
Bosnian language
has a term for the same type of feeling, sevdah, which comes from the Turkish
term sevda, which in Turkish means "black bile." In Bosnian language, the term sevdah represents pain and longing for a loved one. Sevdah is also a genre of traditional music originating from Bosnia and Herzegovina
. Sevdah songs are very elaborate, emotionally charged and are traditionally sung with passion and fervor. The combination of Sephardic, European and Turkish
elements make this type of music different from all other types of traditional folk music from the Balkans
.
One translation of "saudade" into German is Wehmut (in Dutch weemoed); a fuzzy form of nostalgia. Or Weltschmerz, which is the general pain caused by an imperfect state of being or state of the world. In the Romanian
language, the word dor bears a close meaning to "saudade". It can also stand for love or "desire" having a derivation in the noun dorinţă and the verb dori, both of them being translated usually by wish and to wish. However, although the word dor has a complex meaning, it still does not encompass the full meaning of saudade. Dor is derived from the Latin dolus ("pain"), the same root as the Portuguese word dor, also meaning pain. Saudade is said to be the only exact equivalent of the Welsh hiraeth
and the Cornish hireth.It connotes homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. Esperanto
borrows the word directly, changing the spelling to accommodate Esperanto grammar, as saŭdado.
In English, the verb "to pine": To pine for somebody, something or some place that you miss deeply, to wish you could be there or have it again. A nostalgic yearning for something that may no longer exist, melancholic, fatalist overtone that the object of longing may never return.
The Slovenian language
has a large number of words expressing the feeling of 'longing' hrepeneti, koprneti, pogrešati (literally to miss someone), nostalgija, melanholija. The verb koprneti and thereof derived noun koprnenje are the closest translations to embrace the fatalistic undertones of saudade.
The Finnish language
has a word whose meaning corresponds very closely with saudade: kaiho. Kaiho means a state of involuntary solitude in which the subject feels incompleteness and yearns for something unattainable or extremely difficult and tedious to attain. Ironically, the sentiment of kaiho is central to the Finnish tango
, in stark contrast to the Argentine tango
, which is predominantly sensuous. Kaiho has religious connotations in Finland as well, since the large Lutheran sect called the Awakening
(Finnish herännäiset, or körttiläiset more familiarly) consider central to their faith a certain kaiho towards Zion
, as expressed in their central book Siionin Virret
(Hymns of Zion). However, saudade does not involve tediousness. Rather, the feeling of saudade accentuates itself: the more one thinks about the loved person or object, the more one feels saudade. The feeling can even be creative, as one strives to fill in what is missing with something else or to recover it altogether.
In Korean, keurium (그리움) is probably closest to saudade. It reflects a yearning for anything that has left a deep impression in the heart—a memory, a place, a person, etc. In Japan, saudade expresses a concept similar to the Japanese word natsukashii. Although commonly translated as "dear, beloved, or sweet," in modern conversational Japanese natsukashii can be used to express a longing for the past. It connotes both happiness for the fondness of that memory and goodness of that time, as well as sadness that it is no longer. It is an adjective for which there is no quite fitting English translation. It can also mean "sentimental," and is a wistful emotion. The character used to write natsukashii can also be read as futokoro 懐 [ふところ] and means "bosom," referring to the depth and intensity of this emotion that can even be experienced as a physical feeling or pang in one's chest—a broken heart, or a heart feeling moved.
In Armenian, "Saudade" is represented by "կարոտ" (karot) that describes the deep feeling of missing of something or somebody.
In Arabic, the word وجد (Wajd) means a state of transparent sadness caused by the memory of a loved one who is not near, it's widely used in ancient Arabic poetry to describe the state of the lover's heart as he or she remembers the long gone love. It's a mixed emotion of sadness for the loss, and happiness for having loved that person. In Turkish, the feeling of saudade is somewhat similar to hüzün. Its position in Turkey is similar to saudade in Portugal in that it's a melancholic feeling popular in art and culture following the fall of a great empire. However hüzün is closer to melancholy and depression in that it's associated with a sense of failure in life and lack of initiative.
Saudade has been described as a "...vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist ... a turning towards the past or towards the future." A stronger form of saudade may be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost lover, or a family member who has gone missing. It may also be translated as a deep longing or yearning for something that does not exist or is unattainable.
Saudade was once described as "the love that remains" or "the love that stays" after someone is gone. Saudade is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, well-being, which now triggers the senses and makes one live again. It can be described as an emptiness, like someone (e.g., one's children, parents, sibling, grandparents, friends, pets) or something (e.g., places, things one used to do in childhood, or other activities performed in the past) should be there in a particular moment is missing, and the individual feels this absence.
In Portuguese, 'tenho saudades tuas', translates as 'I have saudades of you' meaning 'I miss you', but carries a much stronger tone. In fact, one can have 'saudades' of someone whom one is with, but have some feeling of loss towards the past or the future.
In Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, the day of saudade is officially celebrated on January 30.
Origins
The word saudade was used in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda (13th-century), Cancioneiro da VaticanaCancioneiro da Vaticana
The Cancioneiro da Vaticana is a compilation of troubadour lyrics in Galician-Portuguese. It was discovered c. 1840 in the holdings of the Vatican Library and was first transcribed by Ernesto Monaci in 1875....
and by poets of the time of by King Denis of Portugal
Denis of Portugal
Dinis , called the Farmer King , was the sixth King of Portugal and the Algarve. The eldest son of Afonso III of Portugal by his second wife, Beatrice of Castile and grandson of king Alfonso X of Castile , Dinis succeeded his father in 1279.-Biography:As heir to the throne, Infante Dinis was...
.
Some specialists say the word may have originated during the Great Portuguese Discoveries, giving meaning to the sadness felt about those who departed on journeys to unknown seas and disappeared in shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
s, died in battle, or simply never returned. Those who stayed behind—mostly women and children—suffered deeply in their absence; However, the Portuguese discoveries only started in 1415 and since the word has been found earlier this does not constitute a very good explanation. The Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
is also 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, wishful longing for completeness or wholeness and the yearning for the return of that 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 feeling of longing for one's homeland, as hundreds of thousands of Portuguese-speaking people left in search of better futures in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
. Besides the implications derived from an emigratory 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 discoveries, Portugal undeniably rose to the status of a world power, and its monarchy was one of the richest in Europe at the time. But with the rise of 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 of its national anthem—'Levantai hoje de novo o esplendor de Portugal' (Let us once again lift up the splendour of Portugal).
Definition
The "Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguese" 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."Elements
Saudade is similar to nostalgiaNostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
, a word that also exists in Portuguese.
In the book In Portugal of 1912, A. F. G. Bell writes:
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
Consolation
Consolation is the name of a former Dutch death metal/grindcore band from the Zaanstreek that formed in 1989. They released three full-length albums through Displeased Records and were called the Dutch "Gods of Grind"; at their peak, in the late 1990s, they were one of the highest rated metal...
.
Although the word is Portuguese in origin, saudade is a universal feeling related to love. It occurs when two people are in love or like each other, but apart from each other. Saudade occurs when we think of a person who we love and we are happy about having that feeling while we are thinking of that person, but he/she is out of reach, making us sad and crushing our hearts. The pain and these mixed feelings are saudade. It also refers to the feeling of being far from people one does love, e.g., one's sister, father, grandparents, friends; it can be applied to places or pets one misses, things one used to do in childhood, or other activities performed in the past. What sets saudade apart is that it can be directed to anything that is personal and moving. It can also be felt for unrequited love
Unrequited love
Unrequited love is love that is not openly reciprocated or understood as such, even though reciprocation is usually deeply desired. The beloved may or may not be aware of the admirer's deep affections...
in that the person misses something he or she never really had, but for which might hope, regardless of the possible futility of said hope.
In 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 VerdeCape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
singer Cesária Évora
Cesária Évora
Cesária Évora is a Cape Verdean popular singer. Nicknamed the "barefoot diva" for performing without shoes, Évora is perhaps the best internationally known practitioner of "morna."-Early life:...
's most famous song; French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
singer Étienne Daho
Étienne Daho
Étienne Daho is a French singer, songwriter and record producer who has released a number of synth-driven and rock-surf influenced pop hit singles since 1981.- Career :...
also produced a song of the same name. The Good Son
The Good Son (album)
The Good Son is the sixth album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in 1990 . It was preceded by the release of "The Ship Song/The Train Song" single. "The Weeping Song/Cock's 'n' Asses" was later also released as a single. After an album as dark and intense as Tender Prey, some fans were...
, a 1990 album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne in 1983. The band is fronted by Nick Cave and has featured international personnel throughout their career.-Formation and early releases :...
, was heavily informed by Cave's mental state at the time, which he has described as saudade. He told journalist Chris Bohn that, "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."
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 villancico
Villancico
The villancico was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. With the decline in popularity of the villancicos in the 20th century, the term became reduced to mean merely "Christmas carol"...
s and cantiga
Cantiga
A cantiga is a medieval monophonic song, characteristic of the Galician-Portuguese lyric. Over 400 extant cantigas come from the Cantigas de Santa Maria, narrative songs about miracles or hymns in praise of the Holy Virgin...
s composed by Portuguese authors; for example: "Lágrimas de Saudade" (tears of saudade), which is an anonymous work from the Cancioneiro de Paris
Cancioneiro de Paris
The Cancioneiro de Paris is one of the four Renaissance songbooks of Portuguese music from the 16th century. It is one important source of secular music of the Iberian Renaissance and the largest one of Portuguese secular Renaissance music.It contains 130 profane villancicos and cantigas...
. Fado
Fado
Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar, Rui Vieira Nery, states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best...
is a Portuguese music style, generally sung by a single person (the fadista) along with a Portuguese guitar
Portuguese guitar
The Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six courses comprising two strings each. It is one of the few musical instruments to use Preston tuners. It is most notably associated with fado.-History:The origin of the Portuguese...
. The most popular themes of fado are saudade, nostalgia, jealousy, and short stories of the typical city quarters. Fado
Fado
Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar, Rui Vieira Nery, states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best...
, and Saudade are two key and intertwined ideas in Portuguese culture. The word fado comes from Latin fatum meaning fate or destiny
Destiny
Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
. Fado is a musical cultural expression and recognition of this unassailable determinism which compels the resigned yearning of saudade, a bittersweet, existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
yearning and hopefulness towards something over which one has no control.
Spanish singer Julio Iglesias
Julio Iglesias
Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva , better known simply as Julio Iglesias, is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best selling music artists in history,...
, whose father is a Galician
Galician people
The Galicians are an ethnic group, a nationality whose historical homeland is Galicia in north-western Spain. Most Galicians are bilingual, speaking both their historic language, Galician, and Castilian Spanish.-Political and administrative divisions:...
, speaks of saudade in his song Un Canto a Galicia (which roughly translates as a song/chant for Galicia). In the song, he passionately uses the phrase to describe a deep and sad longing for his motherland, Galicia. He also performs a song called Morriñas, which the describes the Galicians as having a deeply strong saudade.
The Paraguayan guitarist Agustin Barrios
Agustín Barrios
Agustín Pío Barrios , an eminent Paraguayan guitarist and composer, was born in the department of Misiones, Paraguay and died in San Salvador, El Salvador...
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
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
song, "Chega de Saudade" (No more saudade, sometimes translated as "No More Blues"), written by Tom Jobim. Due to the difficulties of translating the word saudade, the song is often translated to English as No more Blues. In 1919, on returning from two years in Brazil, the French composer Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
composed a suite, Saudades do Brazil, which exemplified the concept of saudade. "Saudade (Part II)" is also the title of a flute solo by the band Shpongle
Shpongle
Shpongle is an English psychedelic downtempo/psybient music project formed in 1996. The group includes Simon Posford and Raja Ram . Their musical style combines eastern ethnic instruments and vocals with contemporary western synthesizer-based psychedelic music...
. The singer Amália Rodrigues
Amália Rodrigues
Amália da Piedade Rodrigues, GCSE, GCIH, , also known as Amália Rodrigues was a Portuguese singer and actress.She was known as the "Rainha do Fado" and was most influential in popularizing the fado worldwide. She was one of the most important figures in the genre's development, and enjoyed a...
typified themes of saudade in some of her songs. J-Rock band Porno Graffitti
Porno Graffitti
, also known as is a Japanese male rock band from Innoshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The band got their name from the album Pornograffitti by the band Extreme...
has a song titled "サウダージ”, "Saudaaji" transliterated ("Saudade"). The alternative rock band Love And Rockets
Love and Rockets (band)
Love and Rockets were an English alternative rock band formed in 1985 by former Bauhaus members Daniel Ash , David J , and Kevin Haskins . Former Bauhaus vocalist Peter Murphy had embarked on a solo career after Bauhaus split in 1983...
has a song named "Saudade" on their album Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven
Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven
Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven is the debut studio album by English alternative rock band Love and Rockets, released in 1985 on Beggar's Banquet.- Background :...
.
A jazz fusion trio consisting of John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette, and Larry Goldings released an album dedicated to drummer Tony Williams, 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
Toes in the Sand Recordings
Toes in the Sand Recordings is a US-based record label founded by David Christopher and Amy Dana in 2004. Specializing in progressive house and progressive breaks, their releases place an emphasis on musicality, arrangement, and composition. Their first release, "Bound for Ascension" by Michael...
. New York City post-rock band Mice Parade
Mice Parade
Mice Parade is an indie/shoegaze band from New York City led by percussionist Adam Pierce. Mice Parade's albums were all initially released on Pierce's record label, Bubble Core Records and Fat Cat Records...
released an album entitled Obrigado Saudade
Obrigado Saudade
Obrigado Saudade is an album by Mice Parade, released in 2004. Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, a former member of the Icelandic band Múm, makes a notable appearance in "Two, Three, Fall" and "Spain"...
in 2004. Chris Rea
Chris Rea
Chris Rea is an English singer-songwriter, recognisable for his distinctive, husky voice and slide guitar playing. The British Hit Singles & Albums stated that Rea was "one of the most popular UK singer-songwriters of the late 1980s. He was already a major European star by the time he finally...
also recorded a song entitled "Saudade" as a tribute to Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver. A three-time Formula One world champion, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time...
the Brazilian three-times Formula One world champion killed on the track. There is an ambient/noise/shoegazing band from Portland, OR named Saudade. The rock band Extreme
Extreme (band)
Extreme is an American rock band, headed by frontmen Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt, that reached the height of their popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Among some of Extreme's musical influences are Queen and Van Halen...
has a Portuguese guitarist Nuno Bettencourt
Nuno Bettencourt
Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt is a Portuguese guitarist and singer-songwriter best known for his role as the lead guitarist of the Boston rock band Extreme whose hits include the acoustic ballads "More Than Words" and "Hole Hearted"...
; the influence of his heritage can be seen in the band's album titled Saudades de Rock
Saudades de Rock
* Track 14 appears only on the European version released by Frontiers Records.* Japanese edition includes bonus track "Mr. Bates " instead of "Americocaine ".- Chart information :-Credits:*Gary Cherone - lead vocals...
. 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
Christy Moore
Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore is a popular Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts...
, 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?"
There was also a multi-artist compilation of music in the late 1990s, released in the US as an introduction to Brazilian music, entitled Saudade.
There is a Spanish pop-rock group called Saudade.
Variations
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 IglesiasJulio Iglesias
Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva , better known simply as Julio Iglesias, is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best selling music artists in history,...
. The word used by Galicians speaking Spanish has spread and become common in all Spain and even accepted by the Academia
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
.
In northern Portugal, morrinha is a regional word to describe sprinkles, while morrinhar means "to sprinkle." (The most common Portuguese equivalents are chuvisco and chuviscar, respectively.) Morrinha is also used in this region 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
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, which was a Portuguese colony until 1961, some Portuguese influences are still retained. A suburb of Margão
Margao
Margao and commercial capital of the Indian state of Goa. It is the administrative headquarters of South Goa district and of the Salcete taluka.- Etymology :...
, 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 smarshant (cremation ground) and the Muslim quabrastan (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. The word 'saudade' takes on a slightly different form in Portuguese-speaking Goan families for whom it implies the once-cherished but never-to-return days of glory of Goa as a prized possession of Portugal, a notion since then made redundant by the irrevocable cultural changes that occurred with the end of the Portuguese regime in these parts. In Cape Verdean Creole there is the word sodadi (also spelled sodade), originated in the Portuguese "saudade" and exactly with the same meaning.
There is also a tune Saudade de Brasil recorded numerous times by Bill Evans and his trio. It is far better known than any of the previous mentions.
Similar words in other languages
There are other words in other languages with similar meaning. Depending on the context, saudade can relate to the feeling of nostalgia or melancholy (melancolia in PortuguesePortuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
), in which one feels an interior satisfaction because it is impossible to find something, but one never stops thinking that one is searching for it. It is an incompleteness that one unconsciously wants to never completely resolve. Saudade relates to the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
regret, in which one feels a hard sentiment, but in a nostalgic sense. Saudade relates to the Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
extrañar, in which one feels a missing part of oneself, which can never be completely filled by the thing you cannot have or get back. The word can also translate into the Spanish expression echar de menos, or extrañar—roughly equivalent to the Portuguese ter saudades: missing something or someone.
The Greek word closest to saudade is νοσταλγία (nostalgia). Nostalgia also appears in the Portuguese language as in the many other languages with a Indo-European origin, bearing the same meaning of the Greek word "νοσταλγία". There is yet another word that, like 'saudade', has no immediate translation in English: λαχτάρα (lakhtara). This word encompasses sadness, longing and hope, as does the term saudade.
In Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
, a direct translation of saudade is the word mall, which encompasses feelings of passionate longing, sadness, and at the same time an undefined laughter from the same source. Other variations which give different nuances to this word are: pëmallim, përmallje, etc.
In the Torlak dialect of Bulgarian, spoken today in the easternmost part of Serbia and the remote southern mountains of Kosovo, there is an expression which corresponds more closely to the Japanese and Greek examples below, but can be compared to saudade in the broader sense of longing for the past. It is жал за младос(т) / žal za mlados(t) i.e., "yearning for one's youth." (Since the dialect has not been standardised as a written language it has various forms.) The term and the concept have been popularised in standard Serbian through short prose and plays by Vranje
Vranje
Vranje is a city and municipality located in southern Serbia. In 2011 the city has total population of 82,782, while the urban area has 54,456...
born fin-de-siècle writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
Borisav Stanković
Borisav Stankovic
Borisav "Bora" Stanković was a Serbian writer belonging to the school of realism. His novels and short stories depict the life of people from South Serbia...
.
Bosnian language
Bosnian language
Bosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
has a term for the same type of feeling, sevdah, which comes from the Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
term sevda, which in Turkish means "black bile." In Bosnian language, the term sevdah represents pain and longing for a loved one. Sevdah is also a genre of traditional music originating from Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
. Sevdah songs are very elaborate, emotionally charged and are traditionally sung with passion and fervor. The combination of Sephardic, European and Turkish
Music of Turkey
The music of Turkey includes diverse elements ranging from Central Asian folk music and has many copies and references of Byzantine music, Greek music, Ottoman music, Persian music, Balkan music, as well as more modern European and American popular music influences...
elements make this type of music different from all other types of traditional folk music from the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
.
One translation of "saudade" into German is Wehmut (in Dutch weemoed); a fuzzy form of nostalgia. Or Weltschmerz, which is the general pain caused by an imperfect state of being or state of the world. In the Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
language, the word dor bears a close meaning to "saudade". It can also stand for love or "desire" having a derivation in the noun dorinţă and the verb dori, both of them being translated usually by wish and to wish. However, although the word dor has a complex meaning, it still does not encompass the full meaning of saudade. Dor is derived from the Latin dolus ("pain"), the same root as the Portuguese word dor, also meaning pain. Saudade is said to be the only exact equivalent of the Welsh hiraeth
Hiraeth
Hiraeth /hɪəraɪ̯θ/ is a Welsh word that has no direct English translation. However, the University of Wales, Lampeter attempts to define it as homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed...
and the Cornish hireth.It connotes homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
borrows the word directly, changing the spelling to accommodate Esperanto grammar, as saŭdado.
In English, the verb "to pine": To pine for somebody, something or some place that you miss deeply, to wish you could be there or have it again. A nostalgic yearning for something that may no longer exist, melancholic, fatalist overtone that the object of longing may never return.
The Slovenian language
Slovenian language
Slovene or Slovenian is a South Slavic language spoken by approximately 2.5 million speakers worldwide, the majority of whom live in Slovenia. It is the first language of about 1.85 million people and is one of the 23 official and working languages of the European Union...
has a large number of words expressing the feeling of 'longing' hrepeneti, koprneti, pogrešati (literally to miss someone), nostalgija, melanholija. The verb koprneti and thereof derived noun koprnenje are the closest translations to embrace the fatalistic undertones of saudade.
The Finnish language
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
has a word whose meaning corresponds very closely with saudade: kaiho. Kaiho means a state of involuntary solitude in which the subject feels incompleteness and yearns for something unattainable or extremely difficult and tedious to attain. Ironically, the sentiment of kaiho is central to the Finnish tango
Finnish tango
Finnish tango is an established variation of the Argentine tango and one of the most enduring and popular music forms in Finland. Brought to Europe in the 1910s by travelling musicians, Finns began to take up the form and write their own tangos in the 1930s...
, in stark contrast to the Argentine tango
Argentine Tango
Argentine tango is a musical genre of simple quadruple metre and binary musical form, and the social dance that accompanies it. Its lyrics and music are marked by nostalgia, expressed through melodic instruments including the bandoneon. Originated at the ending of the 19th century in the suburbs of...
, which is predominantly sensuous. Kaiho has religious connotations in Finland as well, since the large Lutheran sect called the Awakening
Awakening (religious movement)
The Awakening is a Lutheran religious movement in Finland which has found followers in the provinces of Savo and Ostrobothnia. The origins of the movement are in the 18th century. It has functioned inside the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland throughout its existence...
(Finnish herännäiset, or körttiläiset more familiarly) consider central to their faith a certain kaiho towards Zion
Zion
Zion is a place name often used as a synonym for Jerusalem. The word is first found in Samuel II, 5:7 dating to c.630-540 BCE...
, as expressed in their central book Siionin Virret
Siionin Virret
Siionin virret is a hymnbook of the Finnish Awakening religious revival movement . The hymnal is used in the traditional conventicle 'seurat' which is an informal religious gathering taking often place in homes. Hymns of Zion are also sung in the religious summer festival 'Herättäjäjuhlat' of the...
(Hymns of Zion). However, saudade does not involve tediousness. Rather, the feeling of saudade accentuates itself: the more one thinks about the loved person or object, the more one feels saudade. The feeling can even be creative, as one strives to fill in what is missing with something else or to recover it altogether.
In Korean, keurium (그리움) is probably closest to saudade. It reflects a yearning for anything that has left a deep impression in the heart—a memory, a place, a person, etc. In Japan, saudade expresses a concept similar to the Japanese word natsukashii. Although commonly translated as "dear, beloved, or sweet," in modern conversational Japanese natsukashii can be used to express a longing for the past. It connotes both happiness for the fondness of that memory and goodness of that time, as well as sadness that it is no longer. It is an adjective for which there is no quite fitting English translation. It can also mean "sentimental," and is a wistful emotion. The character used to write natsukashii can also be read as futokoro 懐 [ふところ] and means "bosom," referring to the depth and intensity of this emotion that can even be experienced as a physical feeling or pang in one's chest—a broken heart, or a heart feeling moved.
In Armenian, "Saudade" is represented by "կարոտ" (karot) that describes the deep feeling of missing of something or somebody.
In Arabic, the word وجد (Wajd) means a state of transparent sadness caused by the memory of a loved one who is not near, it's widely used in ancient Arabic poetry to describe the state of the lover's heart as he or she remembers the long gone love. It's a mixed emotion of sadness for the loss, and happiness for having loved that person. In Turkish, the feeling of saudade is somewhat similar to hüzün. Its position in Turkey is similar to saudade in Portugal in that it's a melancholic feeling popular in art and culture following the fall of a great empire. However hüzün is closer to melancholy and depression in that it's associated with a sense of failure in life and lack of initiative.
See also
- GriefGriefGrief is a multi-faceted response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or something to which a bond was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, it also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, and philosophical dimensions...
- List of autostereotypes by nation
- Mono no awareMono no aware, literally "the pathos of things", also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", is a Japanese term used to describe the awareness of , or the transience of things, and a gentle sadness at their passing.-Origins:...
- NostalgiaNostalgiaThe term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
- Sehnsucht