Night Blooming Jasmine (nyctanthes Arbor-tristis) 🌟🌛

Dark Academia for Brown People

 Most people, when they think of dark academia is books (that’s the whole point) and ancient languages such as Latin or Ancient Greek. I’m here to tell you that you all are SLEEPING on brown culture. Love that is conveyed in the languages of Persian and Urdu (my native language) crosses borders. Sure, Shakespeare and Sappho wrote great pieces of literature but the stories and poems of Rumi, Manto, Hafez and Iqbal have a special place in my heart. 

Some of my favourites are:- (all are translated)

Sit at my grave with wine and a minstrel in a trance, so your smell will raise me from the dead.

HAFEZ

My lover’s sadness lit a fire in my heart that burned my chest, there was a fire in his house that burned the nest.

HAFEZ

O the day turned night, what a shame, a gazelle of kindness a lion became, my partner and lover grew tired of my words and prayers too.

RUMI

These are my personal favourites. I can always make a longer post if you all want.

Female poets deserve a whole other post.

As someone who goes to an English-Medium school, we are always taught to converse in English, see the language as a part of yourself but deny a place to Urdu. As I grow older, I have come to appreciate my identity and so should all my fellow brown people. Take pride in your mother tongue.

カーテン(2021)

my color tips pdf is now available ! i had a lot of fun with this, i hope you enjoy ^^

BUY HERE or HERE

It still drives me crazy that this was written in 2014

My Favorite Fruits Basket Quotes Part 1—TOHRU

(My first volume has been lent out and not returned, so we don't have the classic plum quote, sorry)

A lot of these are kinda sad bc I really love the part of the story where we learn about Tohru's inner demons

"I believe it, too. I want to hold every memory in my heart and believe in it. So that I become strong enough to stick it out, and to one day overcome them...until they become precious memories." (ch. 23)

"For me, it's always the people around me who give me the strength to go on." (ch. 30)

"Just like you've listened to all my whining, Kyo-kun, from now on I want you to let me hear your complaints. I want you to tell me when it's hard, when you're scared, when you're weak. I want us to be able to confront your troubles together. Together...just like we've been doing. I want to live, eat, study, and struggle together! I want to be with you!" (ch. 33)

"After all...you have courage in your heart." (ch. 38)

"Maybe the truth is that no one is born with a 'reason.' Maybe that's something each person has to find on their own. A reason for being born, a reason to stick around, a reason to exist. I think everyone has to find it on their own, and decide it on their own." (ch. 45)

"I have a feeling that I can't even find the words to describe." (ch. 48)

"I want to protect them. I want to use all the strength I have to protect the paths they're walking on." (ch. 67)

"I can't give up. Something...there must be something I can do. I want to believe that. I have to believe that." (ch. 67)

"The warmth in our hearts is proof that there is light. It's so small that it seems like even a tiny wind might blow it out...but the light is definitely there." (ch. 72)

"My heart aches. It feels like it's going to be torn apart. Is it because my outrageous wish doesn't stand a chance? Is it because I know that some wishes just don't come true? Even so...I'll keep wishing." (ch. 75)

"Every night greets the dawn. There is no night that goes on forever." (ch. 99)

"One step at a time...I want to unravel these mysteries, these truths. One step at a time." (ch. 99)

"I know I'll have to do something when the time comes...but I think I already know what I'll have to let go of." (ch. 108)

"My heart was breaking on my way home that day. I was crying ugly tears because I could feel it yet again...the feeling of something fading away. Fading away into 'memories.' And even if I don't forget the loneliness and sorrow that tore me apart, the memories themselves are fading, too. No matter how much I try to hold on, no matter how many times I swear it to myself...time moves on, and they begin to fade. It's cruel." (ch. 114)

"And that 'me' is becoming a memory, too." (ch. 114)

"I'm ashamed. I'm dishonest, weak, and dirty." (ch. 114)

"I can't. Stop...don't go anywhere. Don't leave me." (ch. 114)

"I'm sorry...for being such a coward." (ch. 114)

"I can't get the words out. I have to gather up my courage. Courage...it's time to be brave. I'm not going to put the lid back on. This feeling...can't be stopped anymore. It's time to be brave." (ch. 114)

"If change is part of life, then it's such a cruel kindness." (ch. 121)

"I've decided...I can't remain at a standstill anymore." (ch. 121)

"Neither people nor feelings can be bound, frozen in time." (ch. 121)

"Just as all good things, happy things, fun things must come to an end...scary and sad things will also come to an end. Always. Even if you can't believe it when it happens, please...please don't give up. Live. I want you to live. You might make mistakes or lose your way, but please...please live. Don't ever stop moving forward. Please...that's all I ask. Don't give up. Even if I'm no longer at your side." (ch. 122)

"I do want to be with him. Not being able to...breaks my heart. It breaks my heart." (ch. 129)

"I've always been lousy at hiding my feelings." (ch. 129)

"I could hear those words dozens of times, hundreds of times, thousands of times...and I would still think this is like a dream." (ch. 129)

"I really love you...and that love is invincible!" (ch. 129)

"I'm so thankful that you're feeling this pain for me, in my stead. I'm so thankful..." (ch. 133)

At least we have a business proposal to look forward to after the mess that was 25 21

allow me to introduce my favorite genre: supernaturals falling in love with humans

Kamisama Kiss

Fruits Basket

Noragami

Bed and Breakfast for Spirits

Spice and Wolf

Inuyasha

Inari konkon

Can you recommend some essays about speech or language?

Here are a few essays and articles about language use (off the top of my head). I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do!

How Words Fail by Cathy Park Hong

Politics and the English Language by George Orwell

Of Strangeness That Wakes Us by Ilya Kaminsky

The Meanings of a Word by Gloria Naylor

Mother Tongue by Yoojin Grace Wuertz

Borrowing a Simile by Walt Whitman

Word Order by Lewis H. Lapham

Four Essays by Mikhail Bakhtin

Nature: Chapter IV Language by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Strange Persistence of First Languages by Julie Sedivy

What Do You Lose When You Lose Your Language? by Joshua Fishman

we stan one (1) chaotic boi

The World of Interiors, January 2020. Photo - Roland Beaufre