...are better than shoes!!
I found myself thinking of words today... not so much in the sense of putting hem together to form a sentence and make a point, no... just words... how beautiful and powerful they can be, how much emotion can they carry, how much of our history lies within them... how marvellous to be able to express so much of one's self with only a handful of letters... I have my favourite words in all the languages that I manage to more or less speak... but I will not write about my personal favourites, I want to mention two words that I feel carry the essence of a whole nation, the nation which came up with them...
One is from my home... my mother tongue, my people... and it is, they say and... I tend to agree, the most untranslatable word ever... it is filotimo... and it does describe us in more ways than I can think of... it is "pride, dignity, courage, duty, sacrifice -even one's life- and above all demands respect and a deep personal freedom". With all our flaws, it is always part of us... hidden sometimes, asleep, covered under the vices, but the virtue is there... waiting for the right moment to shine... Greek? most definitely!
The other is from my second home... the land which took me in its arms and the people who showed me so much love they were destined to become my second family... and it is saudade... the longing, the yearning, the love and passion which run so deep it's almost impossible even to express... the unbreakable bond, the melancholic smile, the certainty of the feeling even when it's not spoken... does it describe the Portuguese? ohhh, it most certainly does!
Two words, two nations... my beloved ones... and those words, which say so much in so few letters, so strong, so pretty, like the people who speak them... better than shoes? Without any doubt!
I found myself thinking of words today... not so much in the sense of putting hem together to form a sentence and make a point, no... just words... how beautiful and powerful they can be, how much emotion can they carry, how much of our history lies within them... how marvellous to be able to express so much of one's self with only a handful of letters... I have my favourite words in all the languages that I manage to more or less speak... but I will not write about my personal favourites, I want to mention two words that I feel carry the essence of a whole nation, the nation which came up with them...
One is from my home... my mother tongue, my people... and it is, they say and... I tend to agree, the most untranslatable word ever... it is filotimo... and it does describe us in more ways than I can think of... it is "pride, dignity, courage, duty, sacrifice -even one's life- and above all demands respect and a deep personal freedom". With all our flaws, it is always part of us... hidden sometimes, asleep, covered under the vices, but the virtue is there... waiting for the right moment to shine... Greek? most definitely!
The other is from my second home... the land which took me in its arms and the people who showed me so much love they were destined to become my second family... and it is saudade... the longing, the yearning, the love and passion which run so deep it's almost impossible even to express... the unbreakable bond, the melancholic smile, the certainty of the feeling even when it's not spoken... does it describe the Portuguese? ohhh, it most certainly does!
Two words, two nations... my beloved ones... and those words, which say so much in so few letters, so strong, so pretty, like the people who speak them... better than shoes? Without any doubt!