"saudade"

one of the stories i'm currently writing for one of the magazines on which i'm working is a travel piece about rio. it's just a general-info article on what to see and do.

during the course of my research, i decided to browse popular brazilian phrases to see if i could somehow incorporate one into the story. you know, to add a splash of colour.

in doing so, i came across the word "saudade" (pronounced sow-dadge), which has different interpretations but is described as a melancholic feeling for something you loved that no longer exists or is no longer present. my favourite definition, though, was the one that said the word means "the sadness we have for happy memories."

i thought that beautifully poetic.

(and, as a trivial aside, brazil actually honours the feeling with the day of saudade every january 30th.)