It
describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic or
profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that
one loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of
longing might never return. A stronger form of saudade might
be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost
lover, or a family member who has gone missing, moved
away, separated, or died.
Saudade was
once described as "the love that remains" 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) that should be there in a particular
moment is missing, and the individual feels this absence. It brings sad and
happy feelings all together, sadness for missing and happiness for having
experienced the feeling.
In
Portuguese, "Tenho saudades tuas" (European Portuguese) or
"Tenho saudades de você" (Brazilian Portuguese), translates as
"I havesaudade 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.
In
Brazil, the day of Saudade is officially celebrated on 30
January.
