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This Portuguese Untranslatable Word Teaches Us Everything About Life
As a language lover and teacher, I have always been fascinated by words that have no direct equivalents in other languages.
I guess some words have such deep meaning that they are just beyond translation.
For those who aren’t familiar with me, I come from a Portuguese background. In my language, we have a key word that describes a strong emotional state many of us feel on several occasions throughout our lives.
Countless writers and articles have tried to capture its essence, but none have quite really “hit the nail on the head”:
“Saudade”
If you have a sit-down with a Portuguese friend, they will more than gladly try to explain this word to you. I’m going to do my best in written words.
Perhaps the closest and most accurate definition I found online was this one:
“The famous saudade of the Portuguese is a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present, a…