The term sehnsucht still regularly crops up in different languages. The German word is difficult to translate and actually has no equivalent in the English language. The well-known German dictionary Duden describes the meaning as follows:
“inniges, schmerzliches Verlangen nach jemandem, etwas” (deep, painful longing for someone, something)
Sometimes sehnsucht is described as a somewhat vague and inconsolable longing for something unknown. Or one knows what one desires, but the object of desire is far away or unattainable.
According to many, the first part of the word ‘sehnsucht’ is derived from the German verb ‘sehnen’, which means something like ‘to crave’ or ‘to desire’. The German Benedictine Father Anselm Grün comes up with a different explanation. He states that the word is a combination of ‘sehne’ (tendon) and ‘sucht’ (sigh or sickly inclination). This last component of the word does not come, as is sometimes thought, from the verb ‘suchen’ (to search). The bowstring would be reminiscent of the string that is tense when a person prepares to jump or the bowstring before firing an arrow. Grün:
“Desire therefore has to do with inner tension, with inner concentration. With all his energy, a person waits for the leap to grab what his desire is on, or for the shot that hits the target.”
Anselm Grün wrote the following in his Book of Desire in 2004 about the background of this special word:
“So by ‘sigh’ is meant a morbid desire, a morbid dependence. But the term ‘desire’ does not mean that you are addicted to, for example, alcohol or drugs, it is also not about the urge to assert yourself or lust for fame. The longing is focused on something else, on ‘feeling at home, security, happiness, love, beauty, fulfillment’. It is aimed at completion. But just as a person can sometimes be sick of love, the longing for the eternal can become so strong in him that he no longer enjoys his everyday life. Then he feels sick with desire.”
The word is known among music lovers thanks to the second album of the German Tanzmetall band Rammstein. That album, which marked the band’s international breakthrough, is entitled Sehnsucht.
