Brazil · The untranslatable word
Saudade
The Portuguese-language word saudade describes a deep, bittersweet longing.
It gets called 'nostalgia', but that's lazy — saudade is missing something that might never have existed.
It's a longing for a person, a place, a time, or a version of things you only imagined. Portugal claims it too, and fair enough — but Brazil sings it.
Half of bossa nova and most of fado runs on this one word. Once you have it, you'll feel the gap in English where it should be.
By The Cardinal Atlas deskEvergreen entry · reviewed for accuracy
The word
Saudade
/sow-DAH-jee (BR) / sow-DAHD (PT)/
- Literalno clean equivalent — a longing for an absent something you love
- The feelingBittersweet by design: the ache and the warmth at once. You can have saudade for someone still alive, or for a future that never arrived.
“saudade — the presence of an absence”