9 Comments

I remember though being very happy when I learned the word "hireth". "At last", I thought, "the word for me is found, I'm a bad case of hireth, pity I can't pronounce it properly"

..thank you, Richard.

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Thank you Chen. Hireth is a strange word which I have only recently come across. I have David Julyan's wonderful album of the same name to thank for it. Strange, really, given that it is a Cornish word and I'll lived in Cornwall for for 14 years without ever coming across it. Whatever the word or phrase that's used I think the feeling is always the same.

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"Hireth" is a Welsh word, isn't it? The feeling expressed by the word sounds very similar to the Portuguese "saudade." Is there a word in almost every language that expresses that same feeling?

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Hireth is the Cornish word - Hiraeth the Welsh ... I think there are nuances in definition but it's fairly much an 'unplaceable melancholy' - it seems there are lots of variation on this - i'm thinking 'Mono no aware', 'Sehnsucht', 'Saudade' (as you mention) - I have always called mine 'the absence' and I assume there must be so many more ...

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Thank you for the clarification, Richard. The word sounds like a good candidate for mention in John Koenig's The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. I think "the absence" is a pretty good name for it, too. Thank you.

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"The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows" sounds right up my street thank Paul!

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Interesting book, Richard.

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A very, very nice piece. Slow down for just a moment and soak it in.

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Thank you Donn - I appreciate your kind words.

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