Have you ever caught yourself recalling the past and feeling a bittersweet longing for someone, something, someplace…?

The Portuguese have a word to describe this noble feeling: SAUDADE!

Before you start searching for an equivalent in your language, let me tell you that this word is closely related to the Portuguese melancholic and afflictive culture. All you need is to listen to some Fado (traditional Portuguese music) in order to dive deeply into the dreamy and elegiac Portuguese-speaking world. 

“Saudades, only the Portuguese

are able to feel it well

because they have a word

to say that they feel it!”

– Fernando Pessoa

On the other hand, even though we tend to believe that Brazilian music can only cheer us up, it’s hard to link any image of happiness to traditional musical genres like samba.

Check out my post What Brazilian Music Taught Me About Happiness:

https://artofsaudade.com/2020/09/05/what-brazilian-music-taught-me-about-happiness/

The fact is that Saudade is a feeling that everyone gets to experience at least once in life.
Some people feel it more intensely, some people less, but at the end of the day, we are all but a fragment of memories, hopes, and dreams.

This is why Saudade is a noble feeling that makes us feel alive. 

“I am nothing.

I’ll never be anything.

I couldn’t want to be something.

Apart from that, I have in me all the dreams in the world.”

– Fernando Pessoa

Feel Saudade through music:

Get inspired today! Check out our selection of inspiring quotes. 👇