Anne Michaels, From Skin Divers; “Skin Divers”

Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924)

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”

— William G.T. Shedd

স্বপ্নের দীপ্তি ছুড়ে ফেলতে হলো গাঙে

ডুবে যায় ঊষার সাথে সূর্য-শুকতারা

নিভে যায় সব আলো, জোনাকি-চন্দ্র-তারা।

/

Dreams' lamp made to be thrown in the sea,

To drown with the dawn, sun and Venus

To dim with the light of the fireflies, moon and stars.

Still falls the rain, Daichi Takagi

Nizar Qabbani once wrote There are some people that we didn't forget, but we don't smile anymore when they're mentioned.

Just like Ahmad Faraz said Ab tere zikr pe hum baat badal dete hain, kitni raghbat thi tere naam se pehle pehle

Today my mom was singing Mirza Ghalib's most famous ghazal, "yeh na thi humari qismat" (This was not our destiny). I said her "Let me record " and she replied "I won't let you record. I know you'll post it on your Tumblr and your friends will laugh at my voice." 😆After a lot of persuasion she finally agreed. Please ignore my strange voice, I have cold.😅

ye na thi humaari qismat ke wisaal-e-yaar hota agar aur jeete rehte yahi intezaar hota.

It was not my destiny that there would be a union with my beloved. If I had lived further on, there would have been this same waiting.

ye kaha ki dosti hai ke bane hain dost naaseh koi chaarasaaz  hota, koi ghamgusaar hota

What kind of friendship is this, where the friends have now become advisors. If only there were some healer, if only there was some sympathizer.

“You will burn and you will burn out; you will be healed and come back again.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Aphrodite of Bengal

হে দেবী, বিজয়া কল্যানি, মধুর আখিয়া

দিয়া চাইও, মরুভূমির সে ঠায়ের থেকে।

বঙ্গ জুরিয়া না, জনাকি উজ্জ্বল কীরণ

দিব আর্তির ঠালোয়ে। বিধাতা নয়নি,

বিজয়া কল্যানি, প্রসাদ এ লয়ো নিয়ে॥

— "বিজয়া" (২০২১)

“Don’t let them cut away your thorns in order to deem you a better rose.”

— heartlines-and-stanzas (via wnq-writers)