Saudade

4 responses to “Saudade”

1. 

   Brian

   December 5, 2008

   Saudades is more than that. Saudades allows us to carry the past into the present and thus makes a place in out future. Sluzki is Argentinian and you can’t really understand saudades unless you’re a brasileiro, but he makes a good attempt when he says, ‘it gives us the authorization to re-engage in our joy and creativity.’ But it also gives us permission to bring our past, with all its unfulfilled hopes and dreams into our present and so into our futures. When we say, Ai! Que Saudades!’ we don’t just long for the past; we bring the past into the present and make it real.The year before he died, my father made one last trip back to Brasil, the land of his birth. Meeting up with one of his nephews in Rio, he went to Colombo, a coffee house in Rio where his mother used to take him as a child in the 20’s and 30’s. It was as resplendant in its Belle Epoque glamour as it was when he was a boy. He got on his cell phone and rang his sisters in Oklahoma City and said, ‘Guess where I am?’That’s saudades.

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2. 

   Geoff

   December 6, 2008

   Thanks, Coboró, for the elucidation and the vignette. As Sluzki says, the word is perhaps untranslatable, but hopefully we’re now within striking distance of getting a handle on it…

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3. 

   teddy

   December 25, 2008

   Geoff,You wrote, read the case study by Carlos E. Sluzki, you won`t be disappointed. You are right. Absolutelydelightful.Teddy Lloyd

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4. 

   Geoff

   December 25, 2008

   Teddy, you’re very welcome.

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