The longing...

I remember even from the early literature lessons the history of the romanian word "dor". Romanian teachers used to say it cannot be translated, but if I come to think about it more, there are possible translations. The english word for "dor" would be "longing", the german one "Sehnsucht" and the list can go on.
The Romanian teachers also used to say it cannot be defined, tough some tried to explain it as a diffuse and acute feeling, triggered by the absence of a person, object,or place with which a person feels emotionally connected. In this case, if I come to think about it more, "dor" cannot be defined. The longing is based on a emotional connetion, but is it the same thing with sadness, love,hope, outrage, nostalgia, or is it a mixture of all those and many others? We love something that is missing, therefore we feel sad; the absence urges us to revolt against a fate that we call unrighteous. However, tired of asking ourselves questions, we come to terms with the so called fate, dwelling in our nostalgya the memories of the object that we are longing for. "Dor", or "longing" doesn't only imply revolt, but also sad acceptance, sometimes with a feeble flavour of hope, but also many other contradictory feelings. Can we get a coherent definition out of the description above? Not really, and if we tried we would inevitably cut from its complexity and magic, in our attemp to make it fit into a logical structure.
Ceasing to run for generalizations. there are two things I could say about longing. Firstly, there's a paradox about it - a multitude of feelings ,triggered by an absence. Secondly, there's something pure and unselfish about longing - it implies the kindest feelings, without expecting anything in return, since the object of the longing is always away from us...

Ducu Bertzi - Asa-mi vine cateodata (Sometimes I feel like...) -a romanian folk song about fate, bad luck and longing