In Czech, there is a word used to describe a kind of sadness that people are happy to have. Krasosmutnění is a beautiful sort of blues, a pain that uplifts us even as we’re feeling down.
It’s not the same feeling as bittersweet. When we’re feeling bittersweet, it’s an emotional phyrric victory. The emphasis is on the downside of the up, the shadow of the glory. Krasosmutnění emphasizes the pleasure of immersion in certain kinds of suffering.
The Czechs have their word for the feeling, but the rest of us recognize the emotion as soon as we hear it described. So it was that in 1955, when Frank Sinatra sang the following words, his fans happily listened to the sad song, embracing its familiar sorrowful beauty.
I sit around and sadly mumble.
Fools rush in, so here I am
very glad to be unhappy.
I can’t win, but here I am
more than glad to be unhappy.
