The Many Shades of Longing: Examining 'Saudade' and Cultural Variations on a Universal Emotion

Exploring commonalities and nuance in how we articulate an innate sense of longing and grief for the nostalgic, unattainable, and irrevocably lost

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[NOTE: Inspired by our recent exploration of grief, as well as a number of posts over the years regarding words which seem not to have any specific conceptual English equivalent, I decided to do an exploration of the Portuguese word saudade and other similar words cross-culturally. Please keep in mind that I am not multilingual - I merely found this particular topic to be fascinating because of the conceptual resonance with recent explorations and decided I wanted to do some linguistic spelunking that you will, hopefully, find beautiful, cathartic, and healing given the subject matter.

Native speakers: If I’ve made any errors, please feel free to comment below to make corrections, or if you know of additional words that bear the same resonance, I would love it if you’d add those as well. Also, if you have any stories regarding these words or songs that bring these words or concepts to mind, please add links to the conversation below as you feel guided or inclined.]

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Saudade is a beautiful word that captures the essence of human experience in terms of yearning, nostalgia, and grief for those who are no more. No other language has an expression quite like saudade. The Portuguese word refers to a peculiar feeling of being haunted by someone or something that never was, or at least we can never come back to it again. For us, saudade means absence, loss, separation, and solitude.

It is remarkable that although there may be no equivalent term as such in other languages, many cultures have their own words which reflect parts of this unique feeling through their own linguistic and philosophical concepts. At times it seems like almost all people across the world would describe the same existential yearning for something lost, or rather for what had never been at all, using different languages.

Each word bears its own shade of meaning, shaped by its cultural and historical context. This collection of words affirms that the suffering of the absence of a loved one and the passage of time connected to that feeling is something universal. This painful longing seems built into the very fabric of humanity.

Saudade shows us that even though our minds know how to let go, our hearts will continue hoping. By embracing the transience of life we are able to hold each moment close while preparing ourselves for the heartbreal of the passage of time.

Though nothing may last forever, the love we shared remains through echoes of melancholic remembrance. It’s the bittersweet gift of grief that allows us to express this shared experience of nostalgic longing. Presence through absence rekindles memories in us just like poetry does, making us think about the endless cycle of humanity’s joy and sadness.

We will now delve into saudade itself alongside similar words present in other languages used to describe these striking emotions. We will examine what these words mean and where they came from, and highlight both their commonalities and nuances. Also we will learn how several societies have developed unique but intertwined ways of speaking about the human longing for faraway countries and times, listening to a few songs and playlists inspired by these words along the way.

The Meaning of Saudade

Saudade is a Portuguese and Galician word that has baffled scholars as well as philosophers for a long time. It describes a deep thoughtful yearning or nostalgia that we feel toward someone or something. Saudade combines the joy of what was with the sadness for what is no more.

This term comes from the Latin solitatem which means loneliness or isolation. From Latin it became the old Portuguese soidade, and then finally saudade. At first, it referred only to loneliness; however, its meaning later changed into mourning over something lost.

It chiefly connotes yearning for something that can never come back again. It keeps within itself an unconscious knowledge of nonexistence in relation to one’s cravings. Such a reality is passively recognized while all losses are silently accepted. Yet there remains just this tiny glimmering belief that what has gone away may be restored some day.

This complex blend of grief, nostalgia, solitude, and hope is what makes saudade so hard to translate. It carries a repressed knowledge that the object of yearning either never was or is gone forever. Saudade beautifully captures the human experience of coping with loss, separation, and longing across time and space.

Saudade in Portuguese Culture

The Portuguese culture is richly infused with the concept of saudade. In traditional fado music, this is evident. These soulful tunes reflect on the sadness of life. They also evoke saudade through their lyrics and melodies which are sometimes sad and other times happy.

Literature abounds with saudade in poems, books, and plays. This is shown by such poets as Florbela Espanca and Fernando Pessoa. Works such as Luis de Camões’s Os Lusíadas are characterized by themes of longing, nostalgia, and grief.

Philosophers and writers alike have attempted to articulate saudade. “The desire for presence in absence” is how Teixeira de Pascoaes described it. According to Fernando Pessoa, it was “the affective memory of an absent loved one.” These reflections disclose some of the intricacies of saudade.

Saudade has probably become so central to the Portuguese identity due to the history of Portugal. Age-old longings for homeland remain ingrained from eras of colonialism, empire, and diaspora. Saudade seems embedded in the Portuguese psyche, as an old soul that perpetually yearns for what is lost.

Anay (Basque)

Anay means 'longing' in the Basque language. It describes a longing for home while away, particularly over long periods. Anay conveys a specific feeling of missing one's native roots and familiar surroundings. This homesickness-tinged word relates to saudade's evocation of cultural severance. Both solidify the ache we feel when separated from our place of belonging.

Anemoia (English)

In this case, there was something of an English equivalent, although not exact. Anemoia describes nostalgia for a time you never experienced. It evokes an imagined wistfulness for eras gone by. While not from another language, anemoia relates to saudade in conjuring longing for the irrecoverable. It idealizes past times beyond our reach, suggesting imagination fills the gaps left by loss and absence.

Anhaga (Swedish)

Anhaga is a Swedish word that refers to a wistful longing or nostalgia for times past. Another meaning that comes with anhaga is bittersweet grief which bemoans the loss of something or someone irrecoverable. The Old Swedish word was once called anhenk, initially connoting solitude or anxiety before it came to signify longing. It implies a passive realization that may be lost forever, never again to come back. The concept is usually related to childhoods longed for, ancestral lands, and simpler halcyon days in Swedish culture capturing that poignant feeling of being separated from a happiness that can never return.

Davka (Hebrew)

Davka is a Hebrew word meaning intentionally or deliberately contrary. It refers to deriving a perverse pleasure or satisfaction from going against expectations. This relates to saudade through the bittersweetness of loss - finding sentimental value in things specifically because their permanence cannot be relied upon. Both concepts suggest an inversion of what should logically give satisfaction. So while davka is not a direct linguistic parallel, it connects with saudade's strange but poignant blend of grief, nostalgia, and romanticism of the longed-for.

Desiderio (Italian)

The Italian word desiderio conveys an ardent longing or desire for something deeply yearned for but not obtained. It suggests longing that is intense almost to the point of anguish. This impassioned sense of longing unites desiderio with saudade, though desiderio focuses more on burning desire than nostalgia. Both beautifully capture an ache for the absent - whether in the pains of parting or pangs of desire.

Dor (Romanian)

Romanian might be the only Latin language equivalent for saudade but not quite; they use dor instead. However, this term also expresses some sort of yearning, albeit imperfectly due to certain differences between languages. Dor originates from the Latin dolus, meaning pain and suffering. At one point in time this was used together with physical or emotional pain. Over time, however, it had come to mean longing. So dor came into use to mean that particular type of longing that is yearning for someone or something.

Today, dor is used similarly to saudade in Portuguese. Romanians say mi-e dor de tine to express missing someone. A lot of love songs as well as poems lament the pains of losing their loved ones in dor. Yet dor is not as abstract and philosophical as saudade; it simply conveys a situation where somebody desires an absent person or an object.

Dor does not have the intricate fabric of isolation, grief, hope, and resignation that saudade does. It only means missing someone without any complications attached to it. It can thus be considered closer to desiderium which means a lighter version of the concept of longing, or to wish, in Latin. Though the two words share a root meaning, saudade has developed a deeper emotional resonance.

Doroga (Russian)

The Russian word doroga literally means “the road.” This signifies life’s journey rather than destination. Within this, there exists a feeling similar to saudade which longs for everything left behind while traveling down the road. Doroga suggests a reflective nostalgia for each period of our lives that we leave behind never to come back again, reminding us that we gain our voyage through life from sad recollections. Though nothing lasts, it can be honored through memories tinged with doroga.

Faim de la lune (French)

Translated literally into English as "hunger for the moon," faim de la lune speaks about the desire for what cannot be achieved. It implies an existential wish for an ideal that can never happen in reality. Poetically speaking, this phrase resembles saudade by connoting a hopeless yet human desire for the impossible and the unknown. This yearning transcends human reach during this life.

Fernweh (German)

Fernweh is a German word meaning a longing for far-off places. It expresses a wistful desire to travel and experience distant lands you have never seen. Unlike ‘wanderlust’, which connotes an urge to wander, fernweh is more passive. It is the bittersweet longing for places you may never reach, rather than the drive to actually venture forth. Fernweh evokes the German cultural preoccupation with lands afar. It captures a melancholic desire to escape and discover new horizons beyond one's reach. There is a saudade-like sadness underlying this longing for distant geographies.

Goya (Urdu)

The Urdu word goya means a longing or pining for something lost. It connotes intense yearning and solitude, paired with passive acceptance of separation. This word is common in ghazals - rhyming couplets that explore interpersonal relationships. The poets bemoan the goya caused by a lover’s absence or indifference. While not a precise match, goya mirrors how saudade poetically conveys the pain of unrequited love. Both beautifully articulate an unfulfilled longing between two souls.

Gurragu (Warrungu language, Australia)

Gurragu means a 'deep spiritual longing' in the Australian Warrungu indigenous language. It signifies an intense inner yearning for purpose and connection to homeland. Gurragu expresses the indigenous Australian notion of longing to realize one's ontological roots. It relates to saudade's conveyance of longing for a profound reconnection with lost origins that anchor identity.

Han (Korean)

The word han in Korean denotes a type of collective feeling of oppression and isolation. It stands for persistent anger and lamentation of years of suffering. The accumulation of han occurs through dislocations, oppressions, and tragic incidents over generations. Han is the collective cultural scar and permanent sadness of Korea as a nation. As han concentrates on sorrow experienced by an entire nation, it differs from saudade in which deep grief gradually seeps into human mind and soul leaving no space for any other thing.  In fact, often pain will remain even after its cause disappears.

Hiraeth (Welsh)

Of all foreign words, hiraeth is the closest to capturing saudade's essence. This Welsh term means longing or nostalgia, conveying a bittersweet grief for something lost. Hiraeth has its roots in the old Welsh words hir (long) and hiraethu (to long for). It originally referred to homesickness and the longing for home. Over time, its meaning expanded to convey yearning for a person, time or idealized place.

Hiraeth is similar to saudade with its reflective nostalgia and incurable loss. Both words suggest that what one longs for may not be possible to get again in reality. There is an acceptance that absence cannot be undone either way. Hiraeth is a Welsh word used when people are talking about childhood summers or missing someone who died or being nostalgic about eras they never lived in during their lifetimes at all; it describes a sort of painful meaninglessness that lies behind this strange ache one feels because they miss something forever irrecoverable, like what constitutes saudade.

The Irish Gaelic word cian means the same thing as hiraezh in Breton does. This can also be seen in other Celtic languages where equivalent terms exist due to their culture’s obsession with longingness and nostalgia.

Hřích (Czech)

Hřích is defined as bittersweet yearning in the Czech language. It expresses a sorrowful condition in which one misses something/someone but knows that they can never come back anymore ever again. Only melancholic memories tied to things lost forever could remind us something about the sorrowful condition comparable to saudade. For instance, both represent human experience by referencing an irrevocably gone past, a last look before finally giving up on everything.

Hüzün (Turkish)

Hüzün refers to melancholy yearning combined with resignation toward loss. It is a poetic sorrow for the transience of beauty and the inevitability of death. Hüzün implies a contemplative longing back to the days that are gone and a tranquil acceptance of that loss. It conveys saudade’s gentle sadness over things beautiful which must vanish even as we behold them.

Hygge (Danish)

While hygge does not directly translate into saudade, it encapsulates this same general feeling of longing and nostalgia. Hygge means comfort, coziness, happiness, and contentment derived from simple pleasures. However, hygge also carries with it nostalgia for these times. It recognizes that such cosiness is often temporary and fleeting in nature. The ambiance denotes warmth but there is an underlying sadness about to happen as the time slips away. Like saudade, hygge’s sweetness suggests an appreciation of goodness tinged with the knowledge that it cannot last, wanting moments to remain that vanish while you live them.

Jiovani (Maltese)

Jiovani means ‘youthful longing’ or ‘reminiscence of youth’ in Maltese. It romanticizes the carefree days of youth through the lens of nostalgia. One feels jiovani while reflecting wistfully on the fading past, including bittersweet memories of childhood, innocence lost, and the inevitable passage of time. This longing for halcyon bygone days mirrors saudade's infused hints of irrecoverable loss. Though tinged with grief, the recollection still retains warmth.

Karot (Armenian)

The Armenian word karot means “longing,” “yearning,” or “pining” in English. It entails feelings of melancholy associated with past events or absent people whose memories are cherished. Karot comes from old Armenian karōt, meaning desire, wish, or need; it has affinities with Sanskrit kāma which signifies wants and desires.

In English, longing indicates an unsatisfied want or intense craving. However karot may be more passive – a sort of wistful nostalgic feel towards what could never be achieved again once lost forever, one time long ago, by any means. Longing will always remain unfulfilled due to distance and separation according to some definitions. Karot can also mean loss when far away from home, of loved ones passed on, or of unreclaimable moments. Karot translates emotionally what Saudade expresses about sentient absence. Both words poetically anchor a universal feeling that is impossible to translate but is profoundly felt across cultures.

Kęsknota (Polish)

In the Polish language, this denotes heartrending and pining. There is a deep sense of loss and separation from a beloved person who has died. Saudade has similar connotations of eternal longing which is expressed by it. Both elegantly display the sufferings we have for those we still love but cannot see.

Ljungrun (Swedish)

Ljungrun is a Swedish word for a feeling of anticipation tinged with longing. It conveys eager expectation paired with wistful desire. There is a sense of being on the cusp of fulfillment while still caught in waiting and uncertainty. Ljungrun perfectly conveys this in-between longing - stretched between the present and the future horizon of our hopes. While not identical to saudade, ljungrun relates in its conveyance of layered emotional terrain through lyricism. It stands as yet another testament to the Swedish language’s articulation of poetic emotional philosophy.

Mal du pays (French)

Mal du pays is a French phrase meaning ‘homesickness’ or ‘melancholy over one's homeland.’ It denotes a deep longing for the country of one's origin when absent or separated from it. This feeling of nostalgia for the distant homeland was common during the vast displacements caused by the French Revolution. It carries connotations of yearning for a place of belonging, now far removed. While not an exact match, mal du pays shares saudade’s evocation of separation from one’s roots and the familiar. Both suggest an ache for the comfort of a native land in alien surrounds.

Meraki (Greek)

This word represents doing something with soul, creativity, and love. It means putting your soul into what you do to make it artistic and passionate. The concept of meraki implies a hankering for human expression, an aspiration to create, connect, and share with others. It pays respect to our need to live purposeful lives. Similar to saudade, it shows that our spirits give birth to transient and temporary creations whose beauty lies in their fleetingness.

Mono no aware (Japanese)

Mono no aware is a Japanese term that loosely means ‘the pathos of things.’ It refers to a melancholy awareness of the transience of beauty and a gentle sadness at their passing. Mono no aware suggests a wistful longing for the impermanence of life. There is a quiet resignation and appreciation that nothing beautiful lasts. It is an understanding of mortality that concurrently treasures ephemerality. This sensibility features heavily in Japanese literature, cinema, art, and culture. It teaches one to observe beauty in the moment, while accepting its inevitable demise. There are strong echoes of saudade in this mindfulness of loss through the passage of time.

Morriña (Galician)

From morrinha (Galician-Portuguese), originally meaning anxiety or fear over time evolved into nostalgia or homesickness, this word has common etymological origins with saudade both geographically and emotionally. It evokes such shared melancholy in Galician-Portuguese culture – a yearning for bonds and familiarity, as well as comfort in the absent.

Ñáñigo (Mapuche indigenous people)

Ñáñigo is a Mapuche word for the intense nostalgia for one’s home. It signifies a deep emotional bond with the land of one’s ancestors. Ñáñigo beautifully crystallizes the connection to homeland, now yearned for over distances of separation. Like saudade, it constitutes an integral aspect of cultural identity – the bittersweet grief for the missing roots that anchor us.

Nostalgija (Lithuanian)

Nostalgija means nostalgia in Lithuanian. While the English word focuses more on sentimentality, nostalgija conveys a darker and more profound longing for the past. This Lithuanian term captures the irrepressible, brooding, and melancholic aspects of nostalgia - similar to saudade’s reflections on the irreversibility of time. Both beautifully articulate the emotional essence of yearning for the irretrievable.

Sehnsucht (German)

Sehnsucht, which means “longing” or “yearning” in the German language, portrays a desire that seems unattainable but remains persistent. Sehnsucht itself suggests life can never entirely satisfy its highest intentions. This is a utopian nostalgia for a perfect world beyond the real. It encompasses both saudade’s irrevocable loss and the romance of unsure possibilities.

Sezen (Turkish)

The Turkish word Sezen refers to a romantic longing or yearning for someone who left because they do not love the person anymore. The word indicates sadness brought about by being lovesick among other things. Turkish folk songs frequently use sezen as a central theme while portraying sorrow related to lost love. It may simply mean missing one's lover at its core. Sezen signifies that particular grief of love lost and a resultant inability to satisfy it.

Sitzfleisch (German)

Sitzfleisch literally means ‘sitting flesh’ in German. It refers to one’s ability to endure or persist at a task without restless longing for change. This contrasts saudade, which suggests a melancholy preoccupation with what is absent or unattainable. Sitzfleisch conveys the opposite feeling - a patience with the present rather than pining for alternate realities. However, both words poetically capture the spectrum of human longing. Saudade is the longing for escape, while sitzfleisch is the capacity to accept and persist. Together, they are two sides of the human condition.

Tesknota (Macedonian)

Macedonian word Tesknota represents melancholic longing together with anxiety. It speaks to a kind of sorrowful boredom which only becomes apparent when life stagnates. This feeling is a combination of saudade’s pining nostalgia and an expectation that things will change soon. Tesknota implies almost existential ennui — a sadness over stasis coupled with the desire for greener pastures.

Toska (Russian)

In the Russian language, this term refers to deep sorrow or longing. It has a similar taste to saudade but adds its own cultural flavor. The etymology of Toska is traced back to the old Slavic root tǫska meaning ‘to bind’ or ‘tie.’ It initially referred to physical discomfort before evolving into mental suffering. Nowadays, Toska conveys a melancholic longing or boredom, the spiritual turmoil connected to being human. It has connotations of existential despair for the meaninglessness of existence.

Though simply missing somebody, at heart, it reflects more profound philosophical ennui or languor concerning the human condition. During this yearning there are hints of hopelessness and futility. Studies in Russian literature abound in the use of the concept by such iconic writers as Gogol, Pushkin, and Chekhov who evoked it as a symbol for modern life’s melancholia and deep spiritual yearning for meaning. So while saudade demonstrates a longing across time and space, toska portrays a more obviously existential despair. For native speakers, Toska reveals the angst inherent in the Russian soul.

Vadāk (Bengali)

This is a longing for something lost or unattainable in Bengali. It suggests a sense of wistfulness and melancholy about what cannot be reached. Vadāk conjures up the emotional core of saudade poetically. Both capture beautifully the bittersweetness of unrequited longing, as well as knowing that some deepest aspirations might never come to fruition.

Viraha (Sanskrit)

The Sanskrit word viraha signifies separation from a loved one. Particularly it refers to the longing and anguish of romantic distance and loss. Viraha reverberates through many South Asian literary traditions exploring love, loss, and the agonies of parting from one's soulmate. It shares saudade's crystallization of deep emotional and existential longing in the face of absence. Both these terms convey how grief allows loved ones to remain with us - as eternal but disembodied bonds that death cannot sever. Their longing keeps burned onto our psyche that which fate has removed from reach.