Hiraeth
Hiraeth (Here-eyeth) is one of those words in Welsh that doesn’t have a specific equivalent translation into English. The nearest you can get is ‘Longing for ones home’ and frankly ‘Home-sickness’ really doesn’t come up to scratch. An example I remember being told of was an aunty of mine who had married and moved to the outskirts of London in the 1930’s and remained there for the rest of her life. When she was feeling particularly down and missing Wales she used to sit and watch the coaches going between London and Swansea on the off chance of seeing somebody she knew. Funnily enough this was something that I thought I was now immune from having now passed the point in time where I have lived in England longer than I ever lived in Wales. That was however until we went on holiday to South Wales this summer. We stayed on the edge of the Black Mountains and over the space of one week took in some of the most beautiful scenery the UK has to offer. To think this is the same scenery I gr...