ali-khalid

[ali-khalid]

Juan Ramón Jiménez, tr by Robert Bly, from "Nocturne" wr. c. 1903

[ali-khalid]

I speak to you with my whole soul at the edge of my lips.

-Maria Casarès to Albert Camus, July 18, 1949

i believe in love because albert camus & maria casarès exchanged 1200 pages worth of letters

[ali-khalid]

"Just once, try to see yourself through my eyes.

Even the moon has blemishes, but you have none."

[ali-khalid]

All your fury is to hide a fragile heart.

-Ghassan Kanafani

[ali-khalid]

I remember a few years ago someone asked me that if you were not human, what would you want to be and I said "a cloud or a butterfly, something with a short lifespan, something that doesn't live long enough to see the sadness of this world."

But I cannot stop thinking about the little angels of Gaza who were blown into pieces the moment they were born. They saw the absolute worst of this world the moment they set foot on this Earth. They couldn't even experience the momentary happiness of this world. They couldn't feel the warmth of their mother. They couldn't feel the love of their father. They didn't get to play with their siblings. It fills me with so much anger and grief.

The only thing that keeps me sane is thinking that those angels are now playing peacefully in Allah's garden of eternal happiness.

[ali-khalid]

"The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun"

[ali-khalid]

Whenever life's tough on you just remember what Faiz said —

"dil na-umid to nahin nākām hī to hai, lambī hai gham ki shaam magar shaam hĩ to hai."

That even though the heart is defeated, it still has hope. That the evening of sadness is long, but it's just an evening. This evening will give way to a new dawn. So —

"Chand roz aur meri jaan; Fakht chand hi roz".

That — endure, endure, just a few days more.

[ali-khalid]

I exist only when she looks at me.

[ali-khalid]

(To a killer:) If you'd contemplated the victim's face and thought, you would have remembered your mother in the gas chamber, you would have liberated yourself from the rifle's wisdom and changed your mind: this isn't how identity is reclaimed!

-Mahmoud Darwish

[ali-khalid]

When you laugh, I want to transform the entire world so it will mirror you.

-Vladimir Nabokov

[ali-khalid]

What would the world have been if we had not been. If your eyes had not been, what would the world have been?

-Nizar Qabbani

[ali-khalid]

I look into her eyes, I feel the warmth of the sun. I look into her eyes, I feel the serenity of the moon.

-Ali

[ali-khalid]

And I keep looking at the moon the moonlight keeps reminding me of her noor.

-Ali

[ali-khalid]

This winter, I'll not give in to sadness.

-Ali

[ali-khalid]

Mr. Darcy: And... what should I call you when I am cross? Mrs. Darcy...?

Elizabeth Bennet: No! No. You may only call me "Mrs. Darcy"... when you are completely, and perfectly, and incandescently happy.

Mr. Darcy: [he snickers] Then how are you this evening... Mrs. Darcy? [kisses her on the forehead]

Mr. Darcy: Mrs. Darcy... [kisses her on the right cheek]

Mr. Darcy: Mrs. Darcy... [kisses her on the nose]

Mr. Darcy: Mrs. Darcy... [kisses her on the left cheek]

Mr. Darcy: Mrs. Darcy... [finally kisses her on the mouth]

[ali-khalid]

—Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena

[ali-khalid]

I looked at the moon and suddenly all I wanted to do was to tell you that I love you.