saudade - morriña

A dictionary of Spanish history and culture

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Saudade is a Galician (and also Portuguese) word for a feeling of longing for something that one is fond of which is gone. It often carries a fatalist tone that the object of longing might really never return. The word morriña is synonymous. Both words are intimately linked with the huge numbers of Galicians (gallegos) who were driven by poverty and opportunity to migrate from Galicia, first to the Americas and later to the rest of Spain.

The word morriña is accepted by the RAE which defines it as:

Tristeza o melancolía, especialmente la nostalgia de la tierra natal.

External links

  • In depth article on saudade from all of the Portuguese/Galican dispora (Wikipedia)
  • “Along the centuries, and today still, the word saudade became one of the most recurrent expressions concerning Portugal, and of an enormous value to its literature and cultural history.” Interesting article on the Aesthetics of Saudade (Proz)

what is saudade, how do you say morriña?como se dice morriña? translation, galician immigration, galician longing