n.

[quotefeeling]

“How a person reacts to your sadness says a lot about how long they’re going to be in your life.”

— S. Z.

[wiaterwieje]

“Wet worms and Whalefall” by unreachablelight

[feral-ballad]

Sara Eliza Johnson, from Bone Map: Poems; “Beekeeping”

[lifeinpoetry]

“I am calm. I am calm. It is the calm before something awful:”

— Sylvia Plath, from “Three Women,” Winter Trees

[metaphorformetaphor]

“[…] memories which might remember, in the same way, any other love story. Memories that distort. That create.”

— Marguerite Duras, from India Song (Grove Press, 1994; first published 1973)

[memoryslandscape-deactivated202]

“(Isn’t memory often about loneliness?)”

— David Bottoms, from “Black Horses,” Otherworld, Underworld, Prayer Porch (Copper Canyon Press, 2018)

[primulaceas]

Maggie Nelson, Bluets

[existential-celestial]

C. S. Lewis, from “Canto 3.28,” in Dymer

[daniyyah]

"Someone will remember us, I say, even in another time."

~Fragments of Sappho, circa 630 - 580 BC🕊️

[noirvangogh]

गोरों का तूफाँ ये कहता है,

(Goron ka toofan ye kehta hai,)

The storm of foreigners ask me,

"हमें भी बता क्यूँ रहता है,

("Hamein bhi bata kyun rehta hai,)

"Tell us why this heart of yours,

गुफ़ाओं में ये दिल तेरा ?"

(Gufaaon mein ye dil tera ?")

remains closed in the caves ?"

- Verma Malik, Queen (2014)

[existential-celestial]

“On soft Spring nights I’ll stand in the yard under the stars—Something good will come out of all things yet—And it will be golden and eternal just like that—There’s no need to say another word.”

— Big Sur, Jack Kerouac

[noirvangogh]

साये साये फिरते हैं जिधर मुडूं,

Saaye saaye phirte hain, jidhar mudhoon,

(Wherever I turn, only shadows move around,)

बैठी है रुसवाईयां भी रुसके दूर,

Baithi hai ruswaiyaan bhi uske door,

(Even the disgrace is disgraced away from me,)

बहला, फुसला के खुद को नसीहतें करूं,

Hoo...behela phusla ke khudko,

(I somehow cajole and console myself,)

झूठी मूठी सी टूटी फूटी सी..

Jhooti moothi si, tooti phooti si..

(almost false, fake and broken..)

हो धुंधली-धुंधली सी मैं तो इधर-उधर फिरूँ,

Ho dhundhli dhundli si main toh idhar-uhdar phiroon,

(as of foggy, I roam here and there,)

रूठी रूठी सी...

Roothi roothi si...

(A little angry...)

- Anvita Das Gupta, (Queen, 2014)

[firstfullmoon]

“Is it foolish to speak of little joys that occur in the middle of tragedy? It is our humanity. Whatever we have left of it. We must not deny it to ourselves.”

— Ilya Kaminsky, from Still Dancing: An Interview With Ilya Kaminsky by Garth Greenwell

[noirvangogh]

तुम साथ हो या ना हो,

(tum saath ho ya na ho,)

whether you are with me or not ,

क्या फर्क है ?

(kya farq hai ?)

what's the difference?

बेदर्द थी ज़िन्दगी,

(bedard thi zindagi,)

life was cruel

बेदर्द है..

(bedard hai..)

and it's still cruel..

- Irshad Kamil, Agar Tum Saath Ho (2015)

[gorgonapologist]

In my stories, the horror flows from the real. And the best narrators of that horror are women, young women who often feel monstrous and on the edge, living behind glass that suffocates them and that they cannot break.

Notes on Craft, Mariana Enríquez, tr. Josie Mitchell

[noirvangogh]

तुम इतना जो मुस्कुरा रहे हो,

(𝘵𝘶𝘮 𝘪𝘵𝘯ā 𝘫𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘬𝘶𝘳ā 𝘳𝘢𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰,)

you who are smiling so,

क्या गम है जिसको छुपा रहे हो ?

(𝘬𝘺ā ġ𝘩𝘢𝘮 𝘩𝘢𝘪 𝘫𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘩𝘶𝘱ā 𝘳𝘢𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰 ?)

what is the sorrow that you're hiding ?

आँखों में नमी, हँसी लबों पर

(āñ𝘬𝘩𝘰ñ 𝘮𝘦ñ 𝘯𝘢𝘮ī 𝘩𝘢ñ𝘴ī 𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘰ñ 𝘱𝘢𝘳)

(your moist eyes, your laughter on the lips)

क्या हाल है क्या दिखा रहे हो ?

(𝘬𝘺ā 𝘩𝘢𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘪 𝘬𝘺ā 𝘥𝘪𝘬𝘩ā 𝘳𝘢𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰 ?)

in what condition have you been and how are you showing it ?

क्या गम है जिसको...

(𝘬𝘺ā ġ𝘩𝘢𝘮 𝘩𝘢𝘪 𝘫𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘰...)

what is the sorrow that you're...

- kaifi azmi, ghazal (arth, 1982)

[pusluktalaratlasi]

Sunrise and the snow, Peter Fiore