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Añoro la plenitud de esos años; ¡quién fuera despreocupado!

Añoro la plenitud de esos años; ¡quién fuera despreocupado!
I long for the fullness of those years; if only I were carefree!
From Lesson 369:First-person wishes (¡quién!)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Añoro la plenitud de esos años; ¡quién fuera despreocupado!

Why does ¡quién fuera! mean "if only I were" when quién means "who"?
In Spanish, ¡quién! followed by the imperfect subjunctive is a fixed, expressive formula used to state a strong, unfulfillable wish about yourself. Even though it literally translates to "who might be," it is always understood as "if only I were" or "I wish I were."
Why does this sentence use fuera (the imperfect subjunctive of ser) instead of estuviera (from estar)?
You would use estar when talking about being temporarily unworried about a specific situation. However, by using ser here (fuera), the speaker wishes to be a naturally carefree person as a permanent personality trait, which fits the nostalgic tone of the sentence.
Does despreocupado change if the speaker is female?
Yes! Even though the pronoun quién doesn't have a gender, the adjective must still match the person making the wish. A female speaker would say ¡quién fuera despreocupada!.
How does añorar compare to everyday words like extrañar?
Añorar is a more elevated and poetic verb that implies a deep, melancholic yearning or nostalgia for something in the past. While you would use extrañar to simply say you miss a friend, añorar is perfect for wistfully longing for the fullness of bygone years.

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