Sodade is a word for which there is no meaning for in the English language. I first came upon it when I heard the beautiful song with that title sung by Cesario Evora. I remember walking into a store in Venice, California, maybe 16 years ago and instantly suppressing tears as I heard her crooning those words: “sodade, sodade.” Without knowing the literal translation I could feel the longing and haunting meaning. Wikipedia describes sodade or saudade as a “vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist… a turning towards the past or towards the future”. A stronger form of saudade may be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, or a family member who has gone missing. It may also be translated as a deep longing or yearning for something, which does not exist or is unattainable. Saudade is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, well-being, which now trigger the senses and make one live again. It can be described as an emptiness.” This is the same feeling I think Chekhov evoked with his plays. In Three Sisters they are trying so hard to get back to “Moscow,” not unlike the Iranians of my generation idealizing the Iran they knew.
