Edited by Richard Hill, Saturday, 1 Oct 2022, 18:18
I grew up, to English parents, in a small welsh village in Wales, Bontdolgadfan. I spoke english at home, but welsh at school. When I was at primary school, we would attend 'Eisteddfod's. A competitive festival of singing and recitation. I would recite welsh poetry, none of which I can remember. However, I found the one below called Hiraeth(A welsh word for a lost home that can never be returned to). The word Hiraeth means a lot to me in so much it describes (in a single word) how I feel when I think of my eleven years being brought up in that little welsh village. I'd love to be that young welsh/english boy again. Here's a poem I found:
Hiraeth
I grew up, to English parents, in a small welsh village in Wales, Bontdolgadfan. I spoke english at home, but welsh at school. When I was at primary school, we would attend 'Eisteddfod's. A competitive festival of singing and recitation. I would recite welsh poetry, none of which I can remember. However, I found the one below called Hiraeth (A welsh word for a lost home that can never be returned to). The word Hiraeth means a lot to me in so much it describes (in a single word) how I feel when I think of my eleven years being brought up in that little welsh village. I'd love to be that young welsh/english boy again. Here's a poem I found:
Hiraeth
Hiraeth, he called me
Even when I did not know
I recognised Raeth, of the sands,
And believed, he thought of me as home
The earth from which his heart was made
Hiraeth, he murmured, longingly
Even though his fingers cupped my face
I was not what his eyes could see
I had dreamed, as had he
And the whole time, we were just searching
For a word neither understood
For a word we could not lose in loving
In the end I, was for him the meaning
In my folly, I’d believed to be
Like sand I slipped away from him
And he was Hiraeth
A lost home
To me