“I Do Understand—and It Is Terrible.”

انحصار

Inhisar

Reliance

Who do I turn to when I find myself rolling in the deep, the trenches from where it's next to impossible to get out? Who can I rely upon, who will not forsake me when the chips are down? Aren't these and more, the questions we keep asking ourselves as we grow through the years? Sometimes these are tied with the people, be it our family or friends, and then again, more often than not, this becomes tied with the one we fall in love with. We tell ourselves that they will be there for us, no matter what, that we can rely upon them. While that may be true in many cases, it doesn't always work out that way. On top of that, we can't always rely on our own selves either, because we can't be our own critics when that is what might be needed at some point. So, we do need to find something or someone else, a higher entity, upon whom we can rely upon, without any judgements.

- DG

Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse on translating Abdulla Pashew's "Resurrection" (essay here, full poem here) [ID'd]

moon·struck

/ˈmo͞onˌstrək/

adjective unable to think or act normally, especially because of being in love. 

Vladimir Nabokov, from Letters to Véra

“You can’t betray yourself too often, or you become somebody else.”

— Ed Harris

Constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want. - Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), German historian and philosopher

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

—

Donna Tartt, The Secret History

Aeschylus’ (?) Prometheus Bound (tr. David Grene)

Portugese

ne·fe·li·ba·ta

/nefilēbätä/ 

noun a cloud walker; an individual who lives in the “clouds” of her own imagination or dreams.