Saudade

Saudade (English: /saʊˈdɑːdə/,[1] European Portuguese:  [sɐwˈðaðɨ],

Brazilian Portuguese:  [sawˈdadʒi], Galician:  [sawˈðaðɪ]; plural
saudades)[2] 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 recipient of longing ever again. It is a
recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events — often
illusive — that cause a sense of separation from the exciting,
pleasant, or joyous sensations they once caused. It derives from the
Latin word for solitude.[3]

Nascimento and Meandro (2005)[4] 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.[5][6] It is not a widely acknowledged day in Portugal.

History
Saudade ultimately derives
from the Latin solitās,
solitātem, meaning
"solitude". The word
saudade was used in the Saudade (1899), by Almeida Júnior
Cancioneiro da Ajuda (13th
The distant lands of the Portuguese century), in the Cancioneiro
Empire made a special longing for da Vaticana and by poets of the time of King Denis of Portugal[7]
the loved ones of explorers and (reigned 1279–1325). Some specialists argue that the word may
sailors 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 their absence. However, the Portuguese discoveries only started in 1415, and
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."[8]

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."

Related words

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.[9]

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/with 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. 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 ‫ َس ْوَداء‬sawdā'  : 'black [bile]', translation of the Greek µέλαινα χολή,
mélaina cholē from which the term melancholy is derived).

Elements
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.[10]

A stronger form of saudade may be felt towards people and things

whose whereabouts are unknown, such as old ways and sayings; a Saudades de Nápoles (Missing
lost lover who is sadly missed; a faraway place where one was Naples), 1895 by Bertha Worms.
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 his love for Love itself. Or, rather, as poetess Florbela Espanca put it, I long for
the longings I don't have ('Anoitecer', Espanca 1923).[11]

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 Évora's most famous song.
Étienne 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 he has
described as saudade. He 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."

Cape Verdean pop singer
Cesária Évora had her
biggest hit singing about
saudade
a deeply strong 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 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 describes the Galicians as having

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
her 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 their album Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven.
June 2012 brought Bearcat's release of their 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
his 1996 album Focus in Time. The Belgian electronic music band Arsenal recorded a song called
"Saudade" on their 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 his 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 he 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" [12] in March 2014 on DÉCLASSÉ
Recordings.

Washington DC electronica duo Thievery Corporation released the studio album Saudade in 2014 via their
Eighteenth Street Lounge Music label.

Brazilian singer Ana Frango Electrico released a song called "Saudade" as the opening track on their 2019
album "Little Electric Chicken Heart"

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.[13] The song placed 9th in the grand final.[14]

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[15]

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 Iglesias. The word used by The Spanish region of Galicia (red)
Galicians speaking Spanish has spread and become common in all lies north of Portugal and shares a
cultural history of saudade.
Spain and even accepted by the Academia.[16]

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,[16] 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
Portugal portal

Grief
Han
Hiraeth
Mono no aware
Nostalgia
Sehnsucht
Good old days

References
1. "Saudade" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200509085758/https://www.lexico.com/definition/
saudade). Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original
(http://www.lexico.com/definition/Saudade) on 9 May 2020.
2. Priberam Informática, S.A. "Significado / definição de saudade no Dicionário Priberam da
Língua Portuguesa" (http://www.priberam.pt/DLPO/default.aspx?pal=saudade). Archived (htt
ps://web.archive.org/web/20091108122851/http://www.priberam.pt/DLPO/default.aspx?pal=
saudade) from the original on 8 November 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
3. Pap, Leo (1 April 1992). "On the etymology of Portuguese SAUDADE: an instance of
multiple causation?" (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00437956.1992.1209828
2). WORD. 43 (1): 97–102. doi:10.1080/00437956.1992.12098282 (https://doi.org/10.1080%
2F00437956.1992.12098282). ISSN 0043-7956 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0043-7956).
4. "MEMORANDUM 08 - NASCIMENTO A.R.A e MENANDRO P.R.M." (http://www.fafich.ufmg.
br/~memorandum/artigos08/nascimenan01.htm) www.fafich.ufmg.br. Archived (https://web.ar
chive.org/web/20180422075116/http://www.fafich.ufmg.br/~memorandum/artigos08/nascime
nan01.htm) from the original on 22 April 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
5. "Portoweb - Datas Comemorativas" (http://www2.portoalegre.rs.gov.br/pwdtcomemorativas/d
efault.php?reg=11&p_secao=57). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110724225338/h
ttp://www2.portoalegre.rs.gov.br/pwdtcomemorativas/default.php?reg=11&p_secao=57) from
the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
6. "Dia da Saudade. Origem e curiosidades sobre o Dia da Saudade - Brasil Escola" (http://ww
w.brasilescola.com/datacomemorativas/dia-da-saudade.htm). Brasil Escola. Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20100213205126/http://www.brasilescola.com/datacomemorativas/
dia-da-saudade.htm) from the original on 13 February 2010. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
 7. Basto, Cláudio. "Saudade em português e galego". Revista Lusitana, Vol XVII, Livraria
Clássica Editora, Lisboa 1914.
8. Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguese (Brazilian Portuguese Dictionary).
9. "Desiderium, and More Obscure Feeling Words" (https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-a
t-play/heres-that-thing-youre-feeling). www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 11 January
2020.
10. Bell, A. F. (1912) In Portugal. London and New York: The Bodley Head. Quoted in Emmons,
Shirlee and Wilbur Watkins Lewis (2006) Researching the Song: A Lexicon. Oxford and New
York: Oxford University Press, p. 402.
11. Santos, Filipe D. (2017). Education and the Boarding School Novel, The Work of José
Régio (https://books.google.com/books?id=KqENDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA102). Rotterdam:
Sense Publishers. p. 102. ISBN 978-94-6300-739-9. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0170904194239/https://books.google.pt/books?id=KqENDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA102) from the
original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
12. "Saudade, by Steve Cobby" (http://stevecobby.co.uk/album/saudade). Déclassé Recordings.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170415201128/http://stevecobby.co.uk/album/saud
ade) from the original on 15 April 2017. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
13. Land, Teddy (13 March 2022). "MARO will represent Portugal at Eurovision 2022 with
'saudade, saudade' " (https://www.aussievision.net/post/maro-will-represent-portugal-at-euro
vision-2022-with-saudade-saudade). aussievision.net.
14. "MARO - Portugal - Turin 2022" (https://eurovision.tv/participant/maro-22). Eurovision.tv.
Retrieved 15 May 2022.
15. Saudade, Peres Da Costa, Giramondo Publishing, March 2018
https://giramondopublishing.com/product/saudade/ Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20
180318183650/https://giramondopublishing.com/product/saudade/) 18 March 2018 at the
Wayback Machine
16. morriña (http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEM
A=morri%C3%B1a) Archived (https://archive.today/20130213054546/http://buscon.rae.es/dr
aeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=morri%C3%B1a) 13
February 2013 at archive.today in the Spanish-language Diccionario de la Real Academia.

Further reading
Lourcenço, Eduardo (1999). Mitologia da saudade (Seguido de Portugal como destino) (in
Portuguese). São Paulo: Companhia das Letras. ISBN 85-7164-922-7.
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).

External links
Emotion as Collective Identity: the case of Portuguese Saudade, Marcia Esteves Agostinho,
Academia Letters, February 2021 (https://www.academia.edu/45169211/Emotion_as_Collec
tive_Identity_the_case_of_Portuguese_Saudade)
Aesthetics of Saudade – Essay comprising the major theories and explaining the doubts
surrounding the translation of saudade (https://www.proz.com/translation-articles/articles/430
0/)
"BBC Brasil": Saudade is the 7th most difficult word to translate (http://www1.folha.uol.com.b
r/folha/bbc/ult272u32676.shtml) (in Portuguese), London: BBC, 23 June 2004.
 saudade, dictionary.com (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/saudade)

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