Hiraeth
What it means to me - Beth mae'n meddwl i fi
I spent the day back home in North Wales two weeks ago, the motherland. It just so happened to be St. David’s Day, Dydd Gŵyl Dewi and I couldn’t help but feel a rush of hiraeth. For those who aren’t from Wales, the word hiraeth although not having a direct translation means, a longing for one’s homeland specifically Wales.
The beauty of the word is that hiraeth feels different for everyone. It’s hard to describe to people who haven’t grown up in Wales but, I’ll tell you my version.
Being away from home for a prolonged period and living in England for uni, means that when I meet another Welsh speaker, I feel a giddy bubble form inside of me and become the most patriotic Cymraes (Welsh woman) you’ve ever met. I’m the only Welsh speaker in my family and don’t have many Welsh speaking friends, so any opportunity to speak it is exactly what hiraeth feels like.
Hiraeth is also walking on the beaches back home, walking around the valley by my house, sitting by the river, swimming in the lakes and the feeling I get when I drive around North Wales in my little car. Basically, just being outside.
One of my first memories of this feeling was in secondary school when my Welsh teacher made us listen to this song called ‘Gwreiddiau’ with translates to ‘roots’, by a band called Sŵnami. The actual lyrics of the song are a great depiction of what it feels like to want to leave your homeland for more opportunities but being called back to your roots. Every time my teacher would play it to us I’d feel nostalgia, and I still do.
Although I don’t miss school, sometimes I’d like to go back to a Welsh lesson with my very passionate teacher and listen to whatever Welsh song he’s decided to play for us that day. Or even just to hear the sound of the spoken language by my peers. I think my feelings of patriotism have definitely stemmed from the groundwork that my teacher put in to making us love the Welsh language (even if I didn’t try as hard as I should have in those lessons).
Ac wrth I mi ysgrifennu hwn, dwi di synnu fod dwi’n siarad am faint mor pwysig Cymru yn feddwl I mi on ddim yn corffori unrhyw Cymrag. Hyd yn oed does neb darllen yn gallu deall. Dwi’n slightly rysti hefo fy Nghymraeg ysgrifenedig (dwi’, meddwl fod hwnna’n cywir) ond dwi ddim eisio defnyddio google translate, mae’n teimlo fel twyllo. Dwi’n gobeithio yn y dyfodol I ysgfriennu cofnod yn llawn yn Gymraeg.