Chronicle: A Feeling on the Plane
Do you know the meaning of saudade?
Writing about homesickness can seem tacky, tiring, a beaten topic. But for those who miss something, none of it justifies. The feeling comes. It takes up a huge space. And it stays. It does not matter what you do. Then it leaves. But just by staring at a trigger. And it comes back.
It has several names. In some languages, it needs to be explained. It has more than one word. Or a single one that means a world of feelings. All forms of drawing this feeling, follow the same path: that, whatever it was, it was/is good. Because nobody misses what was bad.
There is also future nostalgia. I will miss you. This is a finding. A certainty that the moment will be remembered with affection and with the feeling of wanting to go back. To hear these words is to know that you have done well. That what has been experienced will not be forgotten.
This is one of those texts I made for myself. To try to explain inside, what was experienced outside. To try to calm down a heart that breaks away again from yours. But that has the feeling of accomplishment. Because it takes and leaves a lot of saudades.
*Note: There are some speculations about the origin of saudade. Some argue that the word comes from the Arabic saudah. Others understand that it is sourced comes from the Latin sólitas, which means that loneliness. For other specialists, following the perspective of Carolina Michaelis or José Pedro Machado, the word saudade comes from the Latin solitate, which means isolation, loneliness.
Saudade represents a set of feelings, usually caused by the distance or absence of something or someone. This absence can be physical or not, that is, you can feel saudade when some friendship relationship, for example, ends. This word then expresses a feeling that involves affection.
Researching a little more, we will notice that the word saudade has strong cultural symbolism in the Portuguese language. Therefore, all the feelings expressed by this are evidenced in other ways in other languages. As you will see, the exact word to say saudade in English varies a lot, depending on what you miss: To miss, To be homesick/to feel homesickness, To have a yearning/to yearn for something, To ache for someone/for something, To long/longing.
* https://www.natgeo.pt/historia/2019/12/descubra-algumas-curiosidades-da-palavra-saudade * https://www.mosalingua.com/pt/saudade-em-ingles/