"I too have fallen in love with Cymru and we try to return every year. When we have moments of American insanity and are overwhelmed with life here in the USA we long to go home to Wales. Ah, Hiraeth." - Bill Hebrank, Maryland, USA, Maryland
"Hiraeth - This is the word, the Welsh word that I have found that totally describes the essence of my longing, of my desire, of my hope to visit the shores that I know are 'home' although I have yet to walk upon them." - Dawn, Florida, USA, Florida
"We are Americans. My wife is of Welsh extraction, and through her so are our children. We have visited Wales. There is mystery in Wales. I am 100 per cent German and can lay no claim to Welsh heritage but I am very happy for my wife and children's sake, that they can." - Earl Newman, Michigan
"I am happy to be able to claim Welsh heritage. When I visited Wales a few years ago it felt like my spiritual home. As the US gets more and more crazy, it feels less like my home. Thank you for reminding me of my spiritual home. I hope to return one day." - Fern, Virginia
"I am with that word Hiraeth. I live within sight of Wales and I can only claim a second generation Welsh descent, but I can tell you where my heart lies and it is west... and one day I will follow my heart and the sunset." - Ian, Virginia
"Hiraeth to me is all the time I am in England I yearn to be in Wales. When we reach the sign saying Croeso i Cymru I know I am home and my heart soars to the places where my ancestors walked. As I have been researching family history for about 6 years now in Wales I have walked many places where my ancestors walked and it sends shivers down my spine. I believe it truly is a privilege to be born Welsh." - Sue in Suffolk, England
"Dweudwch, fawrion o wybodaeth
O ba beth y gwnaethpwyd hiraeth
A pha ddefnydd a roed ynddo
Na darfyddo wrth ei wisgo.
(Tell me, you so great in wisdom,
Of what is hiraeth made;
Of what material is it
Not to wear away when worn.)
Does dim gair yn Saesneg am "hiraeth" -- There is no word in English for hiraeth -- so goes the conventional wisdom.
Hiraeth is the sense of being so much a part of a place -- and the place, a part of you -- that you feel forever incomplete when separated from it.
On visiting Wales for the first time in 1987, attending the National Eisteddfod in Porthmadog, I felt I had come home to a land that affirmed a part of who I am that had been denied in America: my love of song, poetry, good fellowship, and truly belonging to a community. Hiraeth for Wales brought me back twice and led me to volunteer for ten years as a foreign propagandist and fund-raiser for the Welsh home rule and language restoration movements. My elder daughter was conceived at Nant Gwrtheyrn; this summer, she, her sister, and I will return together to see the land that is so much a part of their heritage." - Eric "ab Owain" Bowen, Washington
"The insane desire to purchase an airplane ticket as soon as I begin to listen to my Welsh CDs--especially the CD "Swansea Riot" by my friend Robin Campbell in Swansea. He gave me the CD last year when I was visiting there. At the first note, I am back in Wales walking the cliff top at Rhosili or lifting a pint of Brains. Hiraeth can be a dangerous condition with no known cure but a trip back to Cymru. " - Mona, Wisconsin
"Hiraeth (pronounced ‘hee-rah-y-th’) is a Welsh word which has no single-word equivalent in English. It implies a wistful longing, interwoven with homesickness, with overtones of happiness for fond memories of happy times that once were, tinged with sadness (even tears) because they are no more, plus an aching emptiness and some heartache too, all rolled together into a painfully deep, gut-wrenching yearning. That’s hiraeth! " - Bob Jones, Canada
"I have lived in New Zealand for 20yrs but always, always there is this pull from 12,000 miles away and it surely is the green green grass of home. My four children who now have children of their own talk about old friends and wonder where they are now.I have made the trip several times to see family and friends and there is always a welcome and a friendly greeting. New Zealand is a nation of sports fanatics especially rugby but even they are in awe when they here the voices at the old Arms Park and now the Millennium Stadium which I had the privilege to see when the world cup was played there several years ago.
The feeling I get when I cross the seven bridge and know I am on Welsh soil is indescribable - it is Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh I'm HOME and it will always be my home.
" - Margaret and Children - Jeremy,Michael,Helene, Colin, New Zealand
"To me it is a longing to be in the Land of Song. I live in Florida and it is home but not the land of my birth, I hear the Welsh National Anthem or hear the spoken word of Welsh and I have this longing "Hiraeth" which is difficult to explain. " - Liz, Florida
"You can take the girl out of Wales , but you can't take the Welsh out of the girl......... I think that describes me to a T. I have been in Canada 18 years now. But, I still long for the green green grass of home. Infact, as I get older, the feeling of "Hiraeth" deepens. Even though I visit Cymru every year. I still want more. I miss the people , the places and all it's splendour. There is no doubt in my mind that one day I shall return............ and my Hiraeth will be gone that day" - Carys DeRudder, Ontario
"When I left Wales for the shores of New Zealand I thought I knew the meaning of Hiraeth, I was wrong! since being away I have discovered that Hiraeth is the very blood that flows through my veins, the very being that makes my soul and the "oneness" that bonds me to Wales.
Hiraeth is the very thing that one day will bring me home, home to Wales.
" - Merlin Astley-Jones, New Zealand
"For me it’s crying all the way from ‘The Bridge’ to Swindon on the way back to Reading. " - Ceinwen Jones, New Zealand
""Hiraeth" is the deep, heartfelt longing I have to return to the land of my ancestors and the town of Llangollen, more specifically. Although I have not visited there yet, I have travelled to northern Wales, and adored every minute of it! The stunning beauty and tranquility of the Welsh landscape is indescribable, and this, coupled with the sense of ancient history which permeates the entire country, stirs my very soul and makes me yearn to live out the rest of my life in my ' true' home." - Edward Buckingham, South Africa
"For me this word means a sense of loss and incompleteness. I didn't get to know my Welsh father. My Mothers parents where also Welsh. When I decided to move from my native Lancashire, it had to be west, so I could learn the language of my ancestors. Have I come home? I'm not sure. I can't visit the past, just the place where it used to be. I feel lucky, but also sad. This seems to be acknowledged by the wind, and the rain, when they sing ... hiraeth.
I've written a poem called hireath, apologies for the Welsh, I haven't had any lessons yet.
I heard it in the wind
I heard it whispered by the rain,
calling to a sadness in my soul,
an emptiness within.
hireath...hireath.
I cannot go to the past
only to the place where it has been,
the hillside and the sea,
the crashing of the waves.
hireath...hireath
where do you come from,
where are you going.
please speak it slowly.
hireath...hireath.
o ble r'yd chi' n dod
ble dych chi'n mynd
os gwelch yn dda siardwch yn araf.
hireath...hireath
" - Allan Jones, South Africa