A Sad Word For A Gray Day

Ah, but what a powerful and beautiful word saudade is.

Being a pack rat has its little rewards. As I was slogging my way through my much ballyhooed cleaning spree last weekend, I came across a xeroxed sheet of paper somebody (I've forgotten who) gave me years ago. It's the title page of a novel by Katherine Vaz, titled Saudade. On the opposite page is this inscription: "Saudade (sow-dahd'): a Portuguese word considered untranslatable. One definition: Yearning so intense for those who are missing, or for vanished times or places, that their absence is the most profound presence in one's life. A state of being, rather than merely a sentiment." Amazing.

Who doesn't have some saudade in his or her life, either from anger, indifference, ignorance, death, time, or space? Maybe, cross your fingers, not to the extreme of it being a state of being, but intense nonetheless. It's comforting, isn't it, to find words that articulate so keenly? Here's to all the saudade-inducing people, places, times in your life.

Read more about saudade here.

Roger McGuinn-Without Your Love

Translator-Everywhere That I'm Not