Nina Simone - Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair
Færslur
Saudade
We all experience within us what the Portuguese call ‘saudade’, an inexplicable longing, an unnamed and enigmatic yearning of the soul, and it is this feeling that lives in the realms of imagination and inspiration, and is the breeding ground for the sad song, for the love song. Saudade is the desire to be transported from darkness into light, to be touched by the hand of that which is not of this world … The love song is never simply happy. It must first embrace the potential for pain. […] The love song must resonate with the whispers of sorrow and the echoes of grief. The writer who refuses to explore the darker reaches of the heart will never be able to write convincingly about the wonder, magic and joy of love, for just as goodness cannot be trusted unless it has breathed the same air as evil, so within the fabric of the love song, within its melody, its lyric, one must sense an acknowledgement of its capacity for suffering.
Many of the terms referred to highly specific positive feelings, which often depend on very particular circumstances: Desbundar (Portuguese) – to shed one’s inhibitions in having fun Tarab (Arabic) – a musically induced state of ecstasy or enchantment Shinrin-yoku (Japanese) – the relaxation gained from bathing in the forest, figuratively or literally Gigil (Tagalog) – the irresistible urge to pinch or squeeze someone because they are loved or cherished Yuan bei (Chinese) – a sense of complete and perfect accomplishment Iktsuarpok (Inuit) – the anticipation one feels when waiting for someone, whereby one keeps going outside to check if they have arrived
