There is this word we have in portuguese that scholars claim cannot be translated into any other language, and peculiarly, it is being away from Brazil (and from portuguese) that I seem to be coming to understand it and all it's meaning - and learning the importance of rightful words altogether. As many words in portuguese, it is not a precise or practical concept, but subjective and emotional - I think that says enough about the brazillian culture on it's own-, and we call it saudade.
We can use it in a number of constructions, we can say that we are feeling saudades, or we can say we are with saudades. Overall, it refers to the feeling of longing when apart from something or someone, the longing to be reunited. Personally, I love particularly when the construction used is "estou com saudades" (I am with saudades), simply because it makes it sound like Saudades is someone, and sometimes it does feel like that. When you really, really miss someone or something, it's like you have this gloomy shadow hanging above you, weighing your heart down and darkening your thoughts to an extent you many times doubt is healthy. It is like someone that follows you around constantly reminding you that you are away from the one you have saudades of.
Many people claim that it is like saying you miss something/someone, but I don't think it's exactly the same, and I'll tell you why. Suppose you had a piece of furniture in your room all your life and someday, for whatever reason, had to get rid of it. There are a few ways you will feel about this, one of them is you miss it in the sense you have the feeling something is missing just because it used to be there every day, or you can have saudades and long to have that piece of furniture back. You see how it's different?
But there is one thing about brazillians, and that is that we tend to throw big words and big gestures around carelessly. For example, when you meet someone - even if for the first time - before you know it, they are hugging and kissing you, and with what we call 'silly hands' all over you like you have known each other for AGES. It's rather crazy, because kissing and hugging are a big deal to other cultures - and, well, to me too - and yet they are equally distributed to random strangers and to long missed friends with no distinction whatsoever. Though many people like this 'friendliness', to me it sounds as absurd as wearing a ball gown every single day: yes, ball gowns are nice, and they are meant to be enjoyed, but when you wear something every day it gets old, crumpled, stained, and you no longer have something as special as you would want when, say, going to a ball.
Sometimes people will even use saudades unrequitedly; many times they will say they feel saudades when, in fact, all they do feel is that they miss you, or feel the distance, or feel like it would be nice to just know where you are in life - though not with the rational decision that that might be a good idea ever DREAMING of reaching their subjective emotions.
However much I would love to be able to say that is restricted solely to one culture, it is with great unease I admit that though we, as brazillians, are very good at it, we are not alone in this painful incorrect use of language. Many words have become tattered, used and very much worthless along the years from far too much use.
The word once used to describe something awe-inspiring like God in the bible - Awesome - is currently used to describe a sandwich or a T-shirt. Love, so abundant in meaning, in fullness, in importance is ridiculously spat out to say that you love a pair of shoes or a new pop song (a tune that I will be very much impressed if it lasts on people's minds for more than 2 weeks).
We have become illiterate fools in our speech, for where once could describe with intensity and accuracy, we now fail to save words and guard them to only use them when it is requited and wise, for that matter. I am unsure if this occurs because we have incresed the value attributed to things like a sandwhich or a pair of shoes, or if we have brought down our feelings to the level of things and therefore brought down the weight of these words. Maybe we just forgot the definitions, or just have reduced our vocabulary. Whatever the reason is, it makes me think of how many misunderstandings in feeling and in communication occur from such careless errors.
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