This word came up to my mind today, as soon as I saw two old men in a really old vehicule. This vehicule is really ugly, simple, old and shitty. But I imagined why this old man bought this car: Nostalgia - he might have had poignant moments in his youth that he wanted to bring them back with the car.
Looking for this word in wikipedia, I think the English version for Nostalgia is a bit mixed with the term "homesickness" which in my opinion, is not the case. However in English there's an entry for 'saudade', have a look
In my opionion, the portuguese version for Nostalgia is better. Now the question is: Is there any other word for nostalgia in English or French? I guess so.
Something similar in feeling BUT with different name. Let me know!
Portugues
Nostalgia descreve uma sensação de saudades de um tempo vivido, frequentemente idealizado e irreal.
Nostalgia, é um sentimento que surge apartir da sensação de não poder mais reviver certos momentos da vida.
o interessante sobra a nostalgia, é que ela aumenta ao entrar em contato com sua causa e nao diminui como o sentimento da saudade,exemplo: se alguém sente saudades ou falta de um conhecido, este sentimento cessa ao se reencontrar a pessoa, com a nostalgia é exatamente o oposto, ao reencontrar um amigo que gostava de brincar,este sentimento nostálgico irá se alimentar e não diminuir como a saudade.
English
Saudade (singular) or saudades (plural) (pronounced [sawˈdade] in Galician, pronounced [sawˈdadɨ] in European Portuguese and [sawˈdadʒi] or [sawˈdadi] in Brazilian Portuguese) is a Galician and Portuguese word for a feeling of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one was fond of and which is lost. It often carries a fatalist tone and a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might really never return. Saudade differs from nostalgia in that whereas nostalgia involves a mixed happy and sad feeling for the lost memories, saudade involves the hope that what is being longed for might return. Saudade has been described as a "vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist,... a turning towards the past or towards the future"[1]. A stronger form of saudade may be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost lover, or a family member who has gone missing.
Français
La nostalgie ou "mal du pays" - du grec νόστος (nostos) : le retour et άλγος (algos) : tristesse, douleur, souffrance - est un sentiment comprenant souvent une mélancolie accompagnée d'un envoûtement par rapport à des souvenirs souvent liés aux lieux de l'enfance qu'on évoque à travers une jouissance qui est douloureuse.
La plupart du temps, ce sentiment est provoqué suite à un manque d'une certaine époque que l'on a vécue et que l'on a apprécié vivre ou que l'on se plait à croire agréable a posteriori. Ce manque est souvent provoqué par la perte ou le rappel d'un de ces éléments passés.
D'un point de vue sociologique, la nostalgie est souvent le fait de personnes isolées qui s'en servent stratégiquement pour avoir le sentiment d'appartenir toujours à une communauté et de participer encore à la vie sociale.
D'un point de vue politique, la crispation de certaines sociétés sur leur passé peut devenir particulièrement manifeste quand les évocations d'un Âge d'or passé se font de plus en plus fréquentes.
mal du pays:
L'expression mal du pays désigne le malaise ressenti par certains personnes ayant quitté leur pays ou région d'origine.
Brazilian nostalgia, revival 80's 90's
