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Article: Aesthetics of Saudade
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Sep 12, 2007

This topic is for discussion of the ProZ.com translation article "Aesthetics of Saudade".
 
Mark Robertson
Mark Robertson
Local time: 05:55
Member (2010)
Portuguese to English
+ ...
Needs a good revision Feb 8, 2011

The article would benefit from a thorough revision by a skilled native EN reviser. The text is somewhat stilted and strained.
 
Vika Lex
Vika Lex
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:55
English to Russian
+ ...
re.: equivalents to the concept of saudade in other languages Jun 10, 2014

The exclussiveness of the word-concept "saudade" in the Poruguese is just a language construct. This article highlights contributing factors that shape this concept as specific to the Portuguese national identity (or identity of the Portuguese speakers). The claim that there is nothing like it in the other languages effectively singles out "saudade" and makes it a property of the Portuguese language. However, the evidence that supports this claim comes from few European languages that the Po... See more
The exclussiveness of the word-concept "saudade" in the Poruguese is just a language construct. This article highlights contributing factors that shape this concept as specific to the Portuguese national identity (or identity of the Portuguese speakers). The claim that there is nothing like it in the other languages effectively singles out "saudade" and makes it a property of the Portuguese language. However, the evidence that supports this claim comes from few European languages that the Portuguese intellectuals and polititians wishing to promote the exclussiveness of "saudade" had chosen. Perhaps those are the languages they were familiar with. Perhaps it is a very hard scientific task to find a match and that task as such was never accomplished as it is not really needed for the purpose of constructing a theory around this particular word.
Interestingly, the Portuguese "saudade" is synonimous with the Russian word "тоска" [taska] (stress the last syllable). The only difference that the Russian "cousin" is not theorised to such an extent. Although it is well represented in Literature and Poetry and has connotations to the Motherland. As far as the Russian is concerned the intellectuals and polititians alike talk more about exclussiveness of the Russian sole and that is where the concept of "тоска" or "saudade" is attached.
So, it seems to me that each language deals with the word-concepts differently and sometimes claims of exclussiveness for one or the other concept are made. This process of meaning production should have an implication for translation practice as an activity that looks at the language(s) critically. Each word has its own untranslatable baggage and the concept of "saudade" denotes this fact. ▲ Collapse
 


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Article: Aesthetics of Saudade






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