Embracing Hiraeth: Exploring the Deep Longing for Home and Belonging
PAO is about a love of home. (East or West coast home-life specifically.) It’s about throwing on that piece of clothing to represent your heart, your home, your essence.
You may live where you were born or you may love where you were born and live somewhere new, but the roots in your original soil are deep.
In Welsh the word hiraeth (heer-eye-th) describes a feeling of homesickness or longing for a place that doesn't necessarily exist or is unreachable; it is nostalgia and yearning combined with comfort and belonging. There’s no direct translation in English, but at PAO, we get it. Here are other versions of this strong and powerful feeling in other languages:
Saudade (Portuguese): Saudade is a Portuguese word that describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for someone or something that is absent or distant. It carries a sense of melancholic longing and is often associated with missing someone or something from the past.
Sehnsucht (German): Sehnsucht is a German word that expresses a profound yearning or longing for something unattainable or beyond reach. It can refer to a desire for a person, place, or experience and is often associated with a sense of profound emotional or spiritual longing.
Fernweh (German): Fernweh is another German word that is often translated as "wanderlust" in English. However, it carries a deeper meaning, describing a longing or ache to travel and explore far-off places. It's a combination of the words "fern" (far) and "weh" (ache), expressing a deep yearning for distant lands and the sense of adventure they offer.
Natsukashii (Japanese): Natsukashii is a Japanese word that conveys a nostalgic longing for the past, particularly for experiences, places, or things associated with happy memories. It reflects a bittersweet sentiment of missing something from the past and carries a sense of fondness and nostalgia.
While these words capture certain aspects of hiraeth, each one has its own unique cultural and linguistic context. Ultimately, the depth and complexity of hiraeth make it difficult to find an exact equivalent in other languages, but these words offer similar shades of longing and nostalgia–these are the tapestry of PAO. The warm blanket of home.
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