“Saudade” by Alceu Valença
Source: Prefeitura de Olinda, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Alceu Valença (born July 1, 1946) has released over 4 dozen albums in a career that dates back to the early 1970s. This is the title track of an album that was released last month, the second of a planned four voice-and-guitar-only albums to be released this year. This song was written while in quarantine during the ongoing pandemic.
As I’ve noted previously, some people claim that “saudade” is untranslatable. I don’t really agree with that, but I have left it in Portuguese here because it really would require more than one word to capture the mixed feelings of nostalgia, longing, fondness, regret, heartache, homesickness, and yearning that the word embodies in different contexts. Using English words here would either require using different words in different places, or cluttering the text with multiple options.
“Saudade”
Saudade for the road
Saudade for the street
Saudade for the sun
Saudade for the moon
Oh saudade
Saudade for friends
Confined like me
Who even far away
Are by my side
Ah saudade
There are videos, souvenirs
Messages, notes
Portraits in an album
Already so faded
Oh saudade
Calm me, my love
I breathe the now
I forget the past
The months and the hours
Shoo saudade
I plan a planet
That’s more civilized
Health, empathy
Without poor wretches
Begging in the street
And without shelter