Poem 5: Longing
The Brazilians have a wonderful word that encapsulates all the ethereal qualities of longing: saudade. It is impossible to translate saudade into one single English word. Rather it is a mixture of homesickness, sense of loss, remembering and the bittersweet nature of longing. Waiting for the longed-for dream to come true can feel like a state of suspended animation – much like fish waiting for the water around them to warm in the spring sunshine. I hope this poem chimes for anyone who, at this moment is experiencing their own personal saudade.
“I don’t know what they are called, the spaces between seconds– but I think of you always in those intervals.”
― Salvador Plascencia, The People of Paper
“A saudade é uma tatuagem na alma: só nos livramos dela perdendo um pedaço de nós.”
“Longing is a tattoo on the soul: we only get rid of it by losing a piece of ourselves”
― Mia Couto, O Outro Pé da Sereia
Longing
You shed your skin –
its scales catch light
amongst the lily stalks.
Strange, you are still
breathing, still moving –
just enough to keep you
suspended between
un-uttered depths
and a shimmering
possible sky.
Deborah Sloan
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