burn mona lisa;

this is maybe half of what hiraeth means- it specifically means a longing for wales, for cymru, and is intertwined innately with the process of colonization and anglicization. in early welsh poetry “hiraeth” refers to grief for a lost loved one, particularly after death, but the word came into prominent usage after attempts by the english to wipe the welsh language (cymraeg) entirely, especially during the 19th century. this process was particularly enforced in school contexts, meaning that children could be caned or flogged for speaking cymraeg instead of english. it isn’t nostalgia for a place you’ve never been, it is specifically a longing for one’s lost culture. the other brytthonic languages also have an equivalent: the cornish (kernewek) "hireth" and breton (brezhoneg) "hiraezh." the brittonic word hir is found in the word for standing stones, menhir, “long” (hir) “stones” (men), and also in the cymraeg hiraeth. it is both ontological and physical longing. the past is a physical place, and it is a place that has been colonized.