Sehnsucht

A male and female set back to back with a wing/flame between them. They strain heavenwards

Sehnsucht is a powerful German word which is difficult to fully explain. It's a kind of a painful ‘yearning’ like that of homesickness or nostalgia. An intense, mostly bittersweet longing for something remote or almost unattainable that would make life more complete. Plato presented it as the origin of our desire for partnership and love. But these two figures yearn and stretch upwards together with inner yearning for something higher to rise above their personal circumstances for hope; to reach for utopia or God.