In every language there are words that are simply untranslatable. Saudade is one such word, and perhaps one of the best examples of this phenomenon.
In any attempt to translate saudade into English, some or many of the following words will frequently appear: longing, hope, fatality, nostalgia, yearning, missing, fondness, endearment, loneliness, feeling, emotion
Here’s my best attempt to translate saudade: the feeling of missing something you love while knowing that its likelihood of return is unknowable and entirely left to fate.
Undoubtedly valuable in our effort to understand such a beautiful, sweeping and culturally significant word is its cultural, rather than etymological, origin. It is very telling that saudade came from such a maritime culture as the Golden Age Portuguese. Imagine the wives and children of the sailors who leave and are at sea for long, mysterious periods of time. Sailors’ families were perhaps the first to feel real saudade, not knowing if their loved one would ever return, but also being proud of their spirit and accomplishments.
In Brazil itself, imagine the immigrants coming to Brazil and leaving their native homelands behind, never to return, but also never relinquishing their love and devotion to their origins. In more modern times, think of the poor farmers who left the Sertão during the great droughts and moved to Brazil’s modern urban centers in searchof a new way of life; they feel real saudade, hoping, praying, and singing about one day returning with the rain to their native farmlands in the north of the country.
To understand another culture is to explore these words, these cultural truths for which there is no translation, though they remain knowable through imagination, emotion, experience, and love.
ps. Wikipedia agrees that saudade is ‘generally considered one of the hardest words to translate,’ though their definition of the term is certainly quite solid.
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But how do you use saudade?
saudade meens longing, that’s all
The verb “to use” in English is not equivalent to the verb “to mean.” Please note that I was asking for clarification on usage, not meaning, as the meaning was already given in the blog…
Eu sinto saudade? Eu tenho saudade? When do you use one and not the other?
Both “Eu tenho s” and “Eu sinto s” are right, with “Eu sinto s” being slightly more formal than “Eu tenho s”.
You can use both “sinto” and “tenho”, as well as “estou com saudade”. I don’t think it means simply “longing” or “yearning”, though these come very close to some uses of “saudade”.
Translation is something that can be made quite plain for practical purposes, but if you want to explore a language in depth, then you can’t be satisfied with a “tourist’s-guide-like” definition. Thus, for instance, i could venture to say “estou com/sinto/tenho saudade de você = i miss you”. It works, but some hues are lost, such as the fact that often by that you mean you really miss someone, in a way that’s even painful and doesn’t allow you to think about anything else or concentrate on your daily tasks. It’s something that impairs your experience of yourself and of the world, giving you an impression of emptiness.
What’s more, there’s the case, used mostly in litterature, in poetry, of “saudade” being a feeling without a specific cause or object involved, something very vague and fatal, a sort of radical assertion of an intrinsic part of human condition, whose nature i wouldn’t dare to state in a few words here.
This feeling without object requires only a situation, a landscape, any pretext, so that this grasp of reallity can be “dressed in words”.
Anyway, that’s of little interest for a language student. But it could lead one to try to find, and reflect about, difficult definitions in his own language. as Goethe said: “only when i studied foreign languages i could understand my own”.
PS.: Very good blog. Difficult to find foreigners with accurate views on Brazil, such as Rachel’s.
It’s a wonderful word. Whenever I am listening to Brazilian radio, I count how many songs have the word Saudade in – its usually around one in three. The other word I listen out for is Madrugada – can anyone submit a similarly enlightening post on this one? Is it dawn, or earlier in the night?
“Madrugada” really means dawn. But in current language we use it refering a period after midnight and before sunrise. Ex: “Cheguei em casa às três horas da madrugada.” “Hoje tive de acordar às quatro horas da madrugada.”
The use of “Manhã” (Morning) is commom meaning the time between sunrise and noon.
Anna, “madrugada” is very late at night. After midnight till 5 or 6 am is “madrugada”. But it can also mean a very very early moment of the day – like dawn. But if you were listen to a radio program, probably the first meaning is better.
claudia,the translation we read above is very much the meaning of saudade is linked with ,fathe
the feeling of missing ,absence and melancolic nostalgy it describes a unique way of feeling wheach is characteristic of portuguese people
its a deep feeling hiden in fado
So following this ,how would you translate
IM LONGING TO GET HOME?
this word has been banalized lately.The brazilians
use it with a less felling i guess cape verde people
are the ones who still used it in the most traditional way once they are the people more culturaly linked to portuese culture
what a beautiful word….one simple word has such deep meaning…i love it
read and compare
“Estou sentindo muita saudade de ti”
I’m missing you very much.
What “saudade” means… It’s not easy to say…
You must have a “portuguese mind” if you’d understand it!
hugs
Hi,
In some languages there are word with similar meaning. I am from Finland and I think our word “kaipaus” has the same meaning.
Great blog!
.saq
I don’t really get the difference between ‘saudade’ and ‘longing’…
…perhaps you have to experience saudade before you can really understand it…
Graças à deus que eu já nasci no Brasil. Portuguese is very difficult! Até eu que já sei acho isso… “I miss you” => “Eu sinto falta de você” “Eu sinto sua falta” “Eu sinto saudades de você” or “Eu tenho saudades de vocês”// “Saudade” is the feeling’s name of missing.
Fernado Pesoa la define como dolor de el bién perdido (saudade)
If I were to get a tattoo of just the word ‘saudade’, would it be okay by itself? Does it need words around it to make sense? I am unfamiliar with this language but somehow found this word on somebody’s blog. Could it be referring to the death of a loved one, since you miss them so much and you know it will be a long time before you see them again, or is it strictly for people that are still alive that you hope to see again?
Also, could somebody post the pronunciation of the word? Thank you!
@Brittany I would think you could get a tattoo of just ‘saudade’ for that purpose, that would be lovely.
For pronunciation, check out this video of the classic ‘Chega de Saudade’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guMek3_D6ls
This where being able to read a monolingual dictionary comes in handy.
Oh, I have a story to tell about SAUDADES and you’ll all get its meaning, I’m sure.
When my American sister, Kathy, was leaving Brazil, there were about 20 people — besides my mother and father , of course — at the airport to say goodbye to her. We all signed a card that said, in English : “You are a great person, and you are blah, blah , blah and very special, but now that you are leaving, we will feel a lot of…” (o.0) And THEN you opened the card to read, in Portuguese: “Saudades… Uma palavra intraduzível.”
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