I was forwarding these to a friend and figured it’d be worth sharing them all here too so enjoy some free books and essays and things in no particular order:
Jeanette Winterson - Art Objects
Does Your Daughter Know It’s Okay To Be Angry? - Soraya Chemaly
Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
Zami, Sister Outsider, Undersong - Audre Lorde
Garments Against Women - Anne Boyer
Laziness Does Not Exist - Devon Price
Learn Socialism Resources
Do Economists Actually Know What Wealth Is? - Nathan J. Robinson
Love Dialogue: CÉLINE SCIAMMA on Portrait of a Lady on Fire - Carlos Augilar
Teaching To Transgress - Bell Hooks
Sexing the Cherry - Jeanette Winterson
Sinister Wisdom Archives
Why Pop Culture Links Women and Killer Plants - Amandas Ong
How To Suppress Women’s Writing - Joanna Russ
Women’s Voices Now
The Life of Tove Jansson
Unbearable Weight; Feminism, Western Culture and the Body - Susan Bordo
‘A Simple Favour’ and That Whole Lesbian Psycho Thing - Ciara Wardlow
OUTWEEK Archives
AirPods Are a Tragedy - Caroline Haskins
Devotions - Mary Oliver
Go Tell It On The Mountain - James Baldwin
Nevertheless, She Feasted: Why Girls Get Hungry in Horror Movies - Francesca Fau
Written on the Body - Jeanette Winterson
Sula - Toni Morrison
Not Vanishing - Chrystos
The Fever - Wallace Shawn
Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Céline Sciamma: ‘Ninety per cent of what we look at is the male gaze’ - Alexandra Pollard
Minimalism Is Just Another Boring Product Wealthy People Can Buy - Chelsea Fagan
AIDS, Art and Activism: Remembering Gran Fury - John d’Addario
In the Day of the Postman - Rebecca Solnit
Blood and Guts in Highschool - Kathy Acker
Mark My Words: The Subversive History of Women Using Thread as Ink - Rosalind Jana
Exploring Frida Kahlo’s Relationship With Her Body - Rebecca Fulleylove
Ravens have paranoid, abstract thoughts about other minds - Emily Reynolds
The Lady in the Looking Glass - Virginia Woolf
Angela Carter talks beauties and beasts with Terry Jones
A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing - Eimear McBride
Why Female Cannibals Frighten and Fascinate - Kate Robertson
Lesbian Herstory Archives
Bartleby
Guggenheim Books
We Are Lisa Simpson: 30 Years with the Smartest and Saddest Kid in Grade Two - Sara David
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Her Body and Other Parties - Carmen Maria Machado
How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation - Anne Helen Petersen
hi everyone! it’s been a while since i made a huge playlist masterpost, but i thought that right now when we’re all stuck inside wondering what to do with our time i would make a list of all my playlists. listening to music is so calming and definitely helps me pass the time…so enjoy! - cam
songs that remind me of a fashion show
a mix of songs that remind me of driving down the coast
a playlist dedicated to paris
songs that inspire me
a dreamy mix
songs to listen to when you feel carefree
a super fun workout/running playlist to keep you pumped up
songs to listen to during golden hour
a mix of songs to listen to on a sunny day
a playlist full of songs that make me feel alive
songs that remind me of my teenage years
a study/coffee shop playlist to keep you calm
songs to listen to on the weekend
songs that make me feel like living in the moment
a friday kinda mix !
songs that remind me of a warm spring evening
a mix dedicated to nature
my all-time favorite songs all in one playlist
songs that remind me of flowers and sunshine
a 12-hour long playlist of songs that make me feel nostalgic
songs that remind me of going back to school
my ultimate summertime playlist
songs that make me feel like i’m in a movie
upbeat songs to get ready to in the morning
songs i’m currently loving & listening to right now
a playlist dedicated to italy and all its wonders
songs that are soft and delicate
a mix to listen to while watching the sunrise / sunset
a playlist for a rainy and stormy day
songs to listen to when you wake up !
another nature playlist because why not?!
a monday playlist to make your monday more enjoyable
my springtime playlist
songs that are bittersweet
my girl power anthems playlist
for the daydreamers
songs that remind me of the spirit of traveling & exploring
a mix to listen to before bed
songs to listen and dance to in your kitchen
a super fun 70s playlist
relaxing songs for a sunday
songs that remind me of wintertime
for people who love the east coast
for people who love the west coast
a mix of lo fi beats
songs to listen to in your car at night
fresh finds (new songs every monday!)
the ultimate sing along playlist
an indie playlist
the perfect road trip / daily commute mix
a super studious playlist to keep you extra focused
songs that remind me of the beach
a mix of songs to listen to when you’re j chillin
songs that remind me of a trip to outer space !
listen to this when you’re in love
songs for stargazing…
the perfect autumn playlist
songs that make my heart flutter
a mix of carefree & happy tunes
the grooviest 80s playlist around
a mix of golden oldies
listen to this if you like rap / r&b
another workout playlist !
a mix of fun, upbeat songs to dance to
a playlist inspired by call me by your name
a coming of age playlist
a mix of songs that deserve more hype
songs for all the main characters out there
a mix inspired by the king harry styles
songs that make me feel angelic
a dark academia playlist
a spooky halloween mix !
a playlist inspired by dystopian novels
a special cottagecore playlist
a light academia playlist
songs to listen to while looking at the moon
Transition Signals:
Transitions are words and phrases that connect ideas and show how they are related.
To repeat and ideas just stated:
In other words,
That is,
To repeat,
Again,
To illustrate an idea:
For example,
For instance,
In particular,
To illustrate,
In this manner,
Thus,
To announce a contrast, a change in direction:
Yet,
However,
Still,
Nevertheless,
On the other hand,
In contrast,
Instead of,
On the contrary,
Conversely,
Notwithstanding,
In spite of this,
Time:
At once,
In the interim,
At length,
Immediately,
At last,
Meanwhile,
In the meantime,
Presently,
At the same time,
Shortly,
In the end,
Temporarily,
Thereafter,
To restate an idea more precisely:
To be exact,
To be specific,
To be precise,
More specifically,
More precisely,
To mark a new idea as an addition to what has been said:
Similarly,
Also,
Too,
Besides,
Furthermore,
Further,
Moreover,
In addition,
To show cause and effect:
As a result,
For this reason,
Thereafter,
Hence,
Consequently,
Accordingly,
Conclusion:
In short,
To conclude,
In brief,
On the whole,
In summary,
To sum up,
an ever-updating masterpost of books i've recommended. please check these before you ask for recommendations in case they've been covered —
fiction
"the tragedy still happened, but it was important that the love was there"
japanese literature
korean literature [1], [2]
gothic writing
spooky adult horror gothic
some favourites
marathi books
some ruskin bond
indian fiction [1], [2], historical fiction, stories, [3], [4]
non-fiction
general assorted ones i like
some favourites
about people living through crises
on geopolitics, foreign policy, international affairs
on political philsophy
vaguely sociology
biographies
on economic history
on the silk route
on prisons, convict labour
on afghanistan, soviet invasion, terror
capitalism
on language and linguistics
on the ancient and prehistoric world
just a bunch on india
the indus valley
indian aestheticism, art
gupta empire
sangam literature
on the northeast
india and southeast asia
nur jahan, mughal women | more
islamic conquest and state-making
on kashmir
assorted nonfiction
colonisation and aftereffects
on nationalism
on cities
on mumbai
on bollywood in bombay
on cities
on delhi
on kolkata
essays
history, migration, labour
art, reading, travel, gender, sports
nature, climate, some history
political economy, environmental and urban history, cartography and space
my comfort books
light reading
books that have got me out of my slumps
on art, photography, aesthetics, design [1], [2], [3]
on the environment
just some story and essay collections
just kidding you're not a dummy, you're some hot stuff right there! i will be going through the entire iliad and giving you a general overview, some interesting plot points, additional context, and some other analysis tools to better help you understand the epic!
This post will serve as a table of contents (at the end) to my Iliad posts and a general overview that I will be constantly updating! I am using the Richmond Lattimore translation of the Iliad, alongside my companion book by Malcom M. Wilcock
Before we get into analyzing the actual Iliad, we need to get into some essential questions and context about the book
The Iliad was written by Homer (this is actually debated but we can get into that later) around 750 and 550 B.C.E.
At its core, the story is about heros and humans. It's an Iron Age poem about an event, the Trojan War, that was supposed to have taken place in the Bronze age. The Iliad is considered to be a poem comprised of multiple books, 24 to be exact
This story is only a few days of the tenth and final year of the Greek siege against the city of Troy- this means it relies on the audience already knowing most of the basic details about the Trojan war and the gods themselves (don't sorry, I will provide this for you as we go along)
The age old question: who the fuck is Homer?
Literally nothing is known about this dude except that he wrote (or was credited with writing) the Odyssey and the Iliad
People have referenced his writings for EONS. Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, Callinus, and even Sappho have referenced the poems of Homer in their own works. These also were popular in fine art in the late 7th century B.C.E.
There is a general consensus that Homer was from Ionia- a territory in western Anatolia or modern day Turkey that was populated by Greeks who spoke the Ionian dialect, aka the birthplace of Greek philosophy. Want more info on Ionia? Click Here!
His descendants were called the Homerids/Homeridae
There is scholarly debate on if he even wrote both the Iliad and the Odyssey, or if he only wrote one, etc etc etc. This is due to some very specific differences in the structure of the words used (like the use of short vowels, and the seemingly unimportant semivowel of the digamma being missing from the epics...yeah it's a lot)
The poems were reproduced ORALLY. This means that the poems were passed down by word of mouth, which if I were to sit and listen to this entire book via a guy singing at me...idk man I think I would leave
All of this to say, we really don't know who Homer is. There's a lot more information about what he could have looked like, if he really did write the Iliad, and a million other things, but I've already talked your ear off and we haven't even gotten into the book yet. If you want more information about Homer, check out my sources at the end of the post!
Yeah. There were nine layers exposed at the site of where Troy was expected to be, and nearly fifty sublayers at the mound of Hisarlik
Troy was a vassal state: meaning it had an obligation to a superior state, which happened to be the Hittite Empire
Troy had a lot more allies than original fighters in the city, meaning they had many language barriers- making the army harder to control than the unified Greek enemy.
Cause - Effect - Solution
The poem is concluded with a mirror image of its beginning: an old man ventures to the camp of his enemy in order to ransom his child
The poem foreshadows the death of Achilles in MULTIPLE passages! He knows he is destined to die young if he fights at Troy, and the demise of his lover (don't fight me on this) Patroclus gives us an even more extended foreshadowing of the grief that is to come
When Achilles dies, Thetis (his mom) takes his body from the pyre and takes him to a place called the White Island. It's not clear whether he is immortalized BUT the reference to Achilles funeral in the Odyssey states that Achilles is cremated and his bones are placed in a golden urn along those of Patroclus, and the urn is entombed under a prominent mound (tsoa fans...you're welcome)
This isn't really necessary knowledge but moreso something I think is cool: the backstory from the Iliad of an abducted bride also appears in the Sanskirt epic Ramayana (circa 4th century B.C.E.)
Humanity is the center of the universe in the Iliad. Humans motivations and concerns generate action in the poem, while the gods are often reduced to the role of enablers or spectators
The style of the poem collaborates with the vision that the speciousness of this epic means that every thought and gesture, spear cast and threat, intimate conversation and lament CAN be recorded. It gives a consciousness behind the demands of the iliad that these interactions MUST be recorded, this attention to detail is another way of showing centrality and the worth of the human experience (Greek OR Trojan)
The Iliad is ultimately a poem about death, the chief elements that distinguish the mortals from gods are: Death shadows every action, and death is neither abhorred nor celebrated. Instead it crystalizes by means of this one theme, death in battle, the essence of what it means to be human (Life is a struggle each person will always lose, the question is how one acts with that knowledge)
Modern readers and analysis blogs will state that one's inner spirit is somehow the "real" self, however the Iliad assumes the opposite: The psykhai (soul, spirits) of dying heroes fly off to Hades while their autous ("selves") are left behind in the form of dead bodies
Glory is INCREDIBLY important in the iliad, why? If mortals could live forever (like gods) then glory would be useless. It's a commodity to be exchanged, and because of this it has an economic and symbolic reality
Companionship is incredibly important
Pity is also very important, it's the concluding note of the poem. Even the gods feel pity
The Iliad gains depth by the divine dimension shedding glory on the humans at Troy. The gods are so intensely concerned with warriors and their fates which elevates the mortals to a special plane
Mortals are only separated from gods because they grow old and die
The symbiotic bond of gods and mortals is always see-sawing between adoration and antagonism
Humans who get too close to the gods risk being struck down, case in point, Achilles. He's young, well-made, he's a warrior but also a singer/musician (the only hero to be seen doing such a thing), he looks and acts like Apollo. THEREFORE...it's no coincidence that Apollo is ultimately the god who slays Achilles, just as he did Patroclus
Poetry supplemented or even guided ancient Greek religious interpretation much more than the activity of priests due to the lack of any official religious text. This gave ancient Hellenism a very fluid nature
This was a long post, and it's only the first of many! I will continuously update this with more sources about the Iliad and answer any FAQs that come up! I love classic literature, and as a STEM student I need to entertain my passion somehow lol. There is a table of contents at the top of the post, as well as right here. This will be updated for each book of the Iliad I write about, as well as any supplemental posts I make about certain topics and themes as I go along. I am putting a LOT of work into this series of posts, so let me know your thoughts or anything you'd like me to change/add/etc! Happy reading!
(This is empty because this is the only post...more posts coming soon)
Homer- Britannica
Homerids- Britannica
Who Is Homer- The British Museum (fuck the British Museum)
Ionia Information- World Encyclopedia
The Hittites- Britannica
Ramayana Overview- British Library
Overview of Greek Mythology- Theoi
The Iliad- Overview via Britannica
Thetis- World Encyclopedia
I’ve seen a lot of curious people wanting to dive into classical music but don’t know where to start, so I have written out a list of pieces to listen to depending on mood. I’ve only put out a few, but please add more if you want to. hope this helps y’all out. :)
stereotypical delightful classical music:
battalia a 10 in d major (biber)
brandenburg concerto no. 5
brandenburg concerto no. 3
symphony no. 45 - “farewell” (haydn)
if you need to chill:
rondo alla turca
fur elise
anitra’s dance
in the steppes of central asia (borodin) (added by viola-ology)
if you need to sleep:
moonlight sonata
swan lake
corral nocturne
sleep (eric whitacre) (added by thelonecomposer)
if you need to wake up:
morning mood
summer (from the four seasons)
buckaroo holiday (if you’ve played this in orch you might end up screaming instead of waking up joyfully)
if you are feeling very proud:
pomp and circumstance
symphony no. 9 (beethoven; this is where ode to joy came from)
1812 overture
symphony no. 5, finale (tchaikovsky) (added by viola-ology)
american (dvořák)
if you feel really excited:
hoedown (copland)
bacchanale
spring (from the four seasons) (be careful, if you listen to this too much you’ll start hating it)
la gazza ladra
death and the maiden (schubert)
if you are angry and you want to take a baseball bat and start hitting a bush:
dance of the knights (from the romeo and juliet suite by prokofiev)
winter, mvt. 1 (from the four seasons)
symphony no. 10 mvt. 2 (shostakovich)
symphony no. 5 (beethoven)
totentanz (liszt)
quartet no. 8, mvt. 2 (shostakovich) (added by viola-ology)
young person’s guide to the orchestra, fugue (britten) (added by iwillsavemyworld)
symphony no. 5 mvt. 4 (shostakovich) (added by eternal-cadenza)
marche slave (tchaikovsky) (added by eternal-cadenza)
if you want to cry for a really long time:
fantasia based on russian themes (rimsky-korsakov)
adagio for strings (barber)
violin concerto in e minor (mendelssohn)
aase’s death
andante festivo
vocalise (rachmaninoff) (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)
if you want to feel like you’re on an adventure:
an american in paris (gershwin)
if you want chills:
danse macabre
russian easter overture
egmont overture (added by shayshay526)
if you want to study:
eine kleine nachtmusik
bolero (ravel)
serenade for strings (elgar)
scheherazade (rimsky-korsakov) (added by viola-ology)
pines of rome, mvt. 4 (resphigi) (added by viola-ology)
if you really want to dance:
capriccio espagnol (rimsky-korsakov)
blue danube
le cid (massenet) (added by viola-ology)
radetzky march
if you want to start bouncing in your chair:
hopak (mussorgsky)
les toreadors (from carmen suite no.1)
if you’re about to pass out and you need energy:
hungarian dance no. 1
hungarian dance no. 5
if you want to hear suspense within music:
firebird
in the hall of the mountain king
ride of the valkyries
night on bald mountain (mussorgsky) (added by viola-ology)
if you want a jazzy/classical feel:
rhapsody in blue
jazz suite no. 2 (shostakovich) (added by eternal-cadenza)
if you want to feel emotional with no explanation:
introduction and rondo capriccioso
unfinished symphony (schubert)
symphony no. 7, allegretto (beethoven) (added by viola-ology)
canon in d (pachelbel)
if you want to sit back and have a nice cup of tea:
st. paul’s suite
concerto for two violins (vivaldi)
l’arlésienne suite
concierto de aranjuez (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)
pieces that don’t really have a valid explanation:
symphony no. 40 (mozart)
cello suite no. 1 (bach)
polovtsian dances
enigma variations (elgar) (added by viola-ology)
perpetuum mobile
moto perpetuo (paganini)
pieces that just sound really cool:
scherzo tarantelle
dance of the goblins
caprice no. 24 (paganini)
new world symphony, allegro con fuoco (dvorak) (added by viola-ology)
le tombeau de couperin (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)
carnival of the animals (added by shadowraven45662)
if you feel like listening to concertos all day (I do not recommend doing that):
concerto for two violins (bach)
concerto for two violins (vivaldi)
violin concerto in a minor (vivaldi)
violin concerto (tchaikovsky) (added by iwillsavemyworld)
violin concerto in d minor (sibelius) (added by eternal-cadenza)
cello concerto in c (haydn)
piano concerto, mvt. 1 (pierne) (added by iwillsavemyworld)
harp concerto in E-flat major, mvt. 1 (added by iwillsavemyworld)
and if you really just hate classical music in general:
4′33″ (cage)
a lot of these pieces apply in multiple categories, but I sorted them by which I think they match the most. have fun exploring classical music!
also, thank you to viola-ology, iwillsavemyworld, shayshay526, eternal-cadenza, tropicalmunchakoopas, shadowraven45662, and thelonecomposer for adding on! if you would like to add on your own suggestions, please reblog and add on or message me so I can give you credit for the suggestion!
I’m not studying any Greek or Roman this coming year (I sacrificed intro classical languages for gender & history), but I will be doing a Roman history module and engaging with the language is always useful. I know a few people who have been looking for Greek/Latin learning resources, which is how this list came about. It includes MOOCs, youtube videos and websites. Not really knowing much Latin or Greek I can’t vouch for them 100% but my googling skills are pretty on point, so they should be okay. Feel free to correct me or add to this.
Latin
Getting started on classical Latin
Duration 10 hours
Introductory level
This free course, Getting started on classical Latin, has been developed in response to requests from learners who had had no contact with Latin before and who felt they would like to spend a little time preparing for the kind of learning that studying a classical language involves. The course will give you a taster of what is involved in the very early stages of learning Latin and will offer you the opportunity to put in some early practice.
Continuing classical Latin
Duration 4 hours
Intermediate level
This free course, Continuing classical Latin, gives you the opportunity to hear a discussion of the development of the Latin language.
FLVS Latin
As we build our Via Latina, we will travel back to ancient Rome. On our travels we learn about their culture, history and literature.
National Archives: Beginner’s Latin
Welcome to the beginners’ Latin tutorials. These lessons cover the type of Latin used in official documents written in England between 1086 and 1733. This can be quite different from classical Latin, as used by the Ancient Romans.
Learn Latin
Here are two dozen short lessons on learning Latin designed for “mountain men” (and women: montani montanaeque), engineers, philosophers, and anyone else looking for entertainment and with lots of free time by the campfire. My course is quite different from Peter Jones’ Learn Latin (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1997), but it is just as devoted to interesting you in Latin.
Learn Latin (Learn101)
I would like to welcome you to the Latin lessons. I’m here to help you learn Latin, by going step by step. All the lessons contain audio and are all offered for free.
The London Latin Course
170 videos
Learn Latin from the ground up. This is a serial course, structured to bring you to a high level of Latin fluency. The pace is slow and unhurried. This course is suitable for all ability levels. Restored Classical Pronunciation.
Latin Online
Latin is probably the easiest of the older languages for speakers of English to learn, both because of their earlier relationship and because of the long use of Latin as the language of educational, ecclesiastical, legal and political affairs in western culture.
Latin Excercises
Welcome to UVic’s practice exercises for Wheelock’s Latin (6th edition). There are 40 units comprising many hundreds of exercises to help you consolidate your progress in the classroom and with the textbook.
Ancient Greek
Introducing Ancient Greek
If you are starting to learn Ancient Greek, this site is for you! This site will help you prepare for a Beginner’s Ancient Greek course.
Classical Greek Online
Greek has been important in the intellectual life of western civilization, but not to the extent of Latin except for ecclesiastical matters. In years past, Latin was introduced in the first year of High School, followed by Greek in the third year.
Ancient Greek Online
This site was designed to be a learning environment for students as well as a reading room for scholars. The large print Greek is easy on the eyes. The Internet has returned us to the scrolling method of reading texts, which lends itself particularly well to the project at hand.
Teach Yourself Ancient Greek
The material presented here will be of use to anyone beginning ancient Greek, but is specifically designed to accompany our book.
Ancient Greek Grammar
103 videos
Including pronunciation tips. I haven’t personally watched this and there’s no real description, but it looks pretty comprehensive from what I can see.
Greek & Latin
Introducing the Classical world
Duration 20 hours
Intermediate level
How do we learn about the world of the ancient Romans and Greeks? This free course, Introducing the Classical world, will provide you with an insight into the Classical world by introducing you to the various sources of information used by scholars to draw together an image of this fascinating period of history.
Discovering Ancient Greek and Latin
Duration 12 hours
Intermediate level
The free course, Discovering Ancient Greek and Latin, gives a taste of what it is like to learn two ancient languages. It is for those who have encountered the classical world through translations of Greek and Latin texts and wish to know more about the languages in which these works were composed.
Textkit
Textkit began in late 2001 as a project to develop free of charge downloads of Greek and Latin grammars, readers and answer keys. We offer a large library of over 180 of the very best Greek and Latin textbooks.
Take a car drive
Look out the window
Take a walk in a forest
Tour a museum
Take a walk in the city
Listen to the radio
hello, i don't really know how to describe these, but i was wondering if you knew any poems with slightly specific and 'homey' lines that make you feel warm inside like the line "we're eating pasta (with pesto plus garlic)" from june jordan's poem. it's totally fine if you don't, sorry for being so specific !! :)
do you know, these are my favourite kind of poems and I love that you thought of this line it’s probably one of my favourites lines ever written. these are poems who give me a similar warm feeling:
“West Coast Episode” by June Jordan (“the color of the rug was green / and out beyond the one room / of our love / the world was mostly / dry”)
“In Time” and “Wish” by W. S. Merwin (“and we stood up / and started to dance without music / slowly we danced around and around / in circles and after a while we hummed / when the world was about to end / all those years all those nights ago”)
“Snow and Dirty Rain” by Richard Siken (I'm thinking My plant, his chair, / the ashtray that we bought together. I'm thinking This is where / we live. When we were little we made houses out of / cardboard boxes. We can do anything. It's not because / our hearts are large, they're not, it's what we / struggle with. The attempt to say Come over. Bring / your friends. It's a potluck, I'm making pork chops, I'm making / those long noodles you love so much.”)
“Aubade” by Yanyi
“For Grace, After a Party” by Frank O’Hara (And someone you love enters the room / and says wouldn't / you like the eggs a little / different today? / And when they arrive they are / just plain scrambled eggs and the warm weather / is holding.”)
“On the Back Porch” by Dorianne Laux (“I want to stay on the back porch / while the world tilts / toward sleep, until what I love / misses me, and calls me in.”)
“You made crusty bread rolls” by Gary Johnson (“How simple life is. We buy a fish. We are fed. / We sit close to each other, we talk and then we go to bed.”)
“During the Impossible Age of Everyone” by Ada Limón (“Your shoes are piled up with mine, and the heat / comes on, makes a simple noise, a dog-yawn. / People have done this before, but not us.”)
“when you have forgotten Sunday: the love story” by Gwendolyn Brooks
“Red Brocade” by Naomi Shihab Nye (“Your plate is waiting.” !!!)
“Perhaps the Worlds Ends Here” by Joy Harjo (“The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live. (...) Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.”)
“This Hour” by Sharon Olds (“Even if we wanted to / we could not describe it, / the end of the second glass when I begin to / weep and you start to get sleepy—I love to / drink and weep with you”)
“Onions” by William Matthews
be - essere / stare there is - c’è there are - ci sono have - avere do - fare go - andare want - volere can - potere need - aver bisogno think - pensare know - sapere say - dire like - piacere speak - parlare learn - imparare understand - capire
Note - Verbs in Italian change all the time depending on the mood, tense and person. Here’s a useful Italian conjugator.
that (as in “I think that…” or “the woman that…”) - che and - e (if the following word starts with a vowel it is preferred that you use “ed”) or - o (if the following word starts with a vowel it is preferred that you use “od”) but - ma because - perché so (meaning “therefore” as in “I wanted it, so I bought it”) - per questo, perciò, quindi if - se
of - di to - a from - da in - in, a, da at (a place) - in, a, da at (a time) - a with - con about - circa, su like (meaning “similar to”) - come for (warning, this one has several meanings that you need to take care of) - per before (also as a conjunction) - prima di, prima che after (also as a conjunction) - dopo di, dopo che during - durante
Note - Prepositions in Italian are joined with the definite articles; e.g. di + la = della, a + il = al, etc.
who - chi what - che where - dove when - quando why - perché how - come how much - quanto/-a, quanti/-e which - quale, quali
a lot - molto, un sacco a little - un poco well - bene badly - male only - solo also - anche very - molto too (as in “too tall”) - troppo so (as in “so tall”) - davvero, molto so much - tanto more (know how to say “more … than …”) - più less (know how to say “less … than …”) - meno as … as … (e.g. “as tall as”) - tanto… quanto… best - meglio, migliore worst - peggio, peggiore now - ora, adesso then - allora, quindi here - qui there - lì, là maybe - forse always - sempre usually - di solito often - spesso sometimes - a volte never - mai today - oggi yesterday - ieri tomorrow - domani soon - presto almost - quasi already - già still - ancora enough - sufficiente, abbastanza
this - questo that - quello good - buono bad - cattivo all - tutto no - nessuno many - molto few - poco other - altro same - stesso different - diverso enough - abbastanza, sufficiente one - uno two - due first - primo easy - facile hard - difficile early - presto late - tardi important - importante interesting - interessante fun - divertente boring - noioso beautiful - bello big - grande small - piccolo happy - felice sad - triste busy - occupato excited - emozionato tired - stanco ready - pronto favorite - preferito new - nuovo right (meaning “correct”) - corretto wrong - sbagliato true - vero
Note - Italian adjectives always have to agree in number and gender with the noun they modify. The above list presents the adjectives in their masculine, singular form.
To know more about the pronouns, check out this post I wrote a while ago.
I - io you - tu she - ella, lei, essa he - egli, lui, esso it - esso/-a formal you - Lei we - noi you (plural) - voi they - essi, esse, loro
everything - tutto something - qualcosa nothing - niente everyone - tutti someone - qualcuno no one - nessuno Spanish - lo spagnolo English - l’inglese thing - la cosa person - la persona place - il luogo time (as in “a long time”) - il tempo time (as in “I did it 3 times”) - la volta friend - l’amico woman - la donna man - l’uomo money - i soldi country - il paese city - la città language - la lingua word - la parola food - il cibo house - la casa store - il negozio office - la oficina manager - direttore job - il lavoro work (as in “I have a lot of work to do”) - lavoro problem - il problema question - la domanda idea - l’idea life - la vita world - il mondo day - il giorno year - l’anno week - la settimana month - il mese hour - l’ora mother, father, parent - la madre, il padre, il genitore daughter, son, child - la figlia, il figlio, il bambino wife, husband - la sposa, lo sposo girlfriend, boyfriend - la ragazza, il ragazzo
Note - Italian nouns inflect by gender (masculine and feminine, with some instances of vestigial neuter) and number (singular and plural).
work (as in a person working) - lavorare work (meaning “to function”, e.g. “the TV works”) - funzionare see - vedere use - usare should - dovere believe - credere practice - praticare seem - sembrare come - venire leave - andarsene return - ritornare give - dare take - prendere bring - portare look for - cercare find - trovare receive - ricevere buy - comprare try - provare start - iniziano stop (doing something) - smettere di (fare qualcosa) finish - finire continue - continuare wake up - svegliarsi get up - alzarsi eat - mangiare eat breakfast - fare colazione eat lunch - pranzare eat dinner - cenare happen - succedere feel - sentire create (aka “make”) - creare cause (aka “make”) - causare meet (meeting someone for the first time) - conoscere ask (a question) - chiedere wonder - chiedersi reply - rispondere mean - significare, voler dire read - leggere write - scrivere listen - ascoltare hear - sentire remember - ricordare forget - dimenticare choose - scegliere decide - decidere be born - nascere die - morire kill - uccidere live - vivere stay - rimanere change - cambiare help - aiutare send - inviare study - studiare improve - migliorare hope - sperare
hello - ciao goodbye - addio thank you - grazie you’re welcome - di niente excuse me (to get someone’s attention) - scusa sorry - mi dispiace it’s fine (response to an apology) - non fa niente please - per favore yes - sì no - no my name is … - mi chiamo what’s your name? - come ti chiami? (informal singular); come si chiama? (formal singular) nice to meet you - piacere di conoscerti (informal singular); piacere di conoscerla (formal singular) how are you? - come stai? I’m doing well, how about you? - sto bene, e tu? sorry? / what? (if you didn’t hear something) - come? how do you say …? - come si dice …? what does … mean? - che vuol dire …? I don’t understand - non capisco could you repeat that? - puoi ripetere? (informal singular); può ripetere (formal singular) could you speak more slowly, please? - puoi parlare più lentamente? (informal singular); può parlare più lentamente? (formal singular) well (as in “well, I think…”) - bene really? - davvero? I guess that… - credo che… it’s hot (talking about the weather) - fa caldo it’s cold (talking about the weather) - fa freddo