اِسْتِقْرار root: ق-ر-ر / form X verbal noun / definition: settling down, stability For the past month, studying productively (and at all) has been a struggle. I’ve been settling into a new life and trying to settle back into a study routine—at a time that my annual, late-autumn sleepiness lulls me into cognitive numbness. I’mContinue reading “Reading Arabic Literature: Settling in and Heading Back”
Tag Archives: فرانكشتاين في بغداد
Reading Arabic Literature: Endings and Never-Endings
نِهائيّ root: ن-ه-ي / nisba adjective / definition: final, definitive It’s becoming a pattern in my life, I’ve noticed, that things end in winter. I can’t wait to bid farewell to this season of goodbyes, some of which have felt final. What feels endless, on the other hand, is having my head buried in literature.Continue reading “Reading Arabic Literature: Endings and Never-Endings”
Reading Arabic Literature: Thinking Back
التَّمْر root: ت-م-ر / collective noun / definition: dates Akkadian class flew by this week as we ate dates and drank (only mê, water, not karān-am, wine) all in order to learn new vocabulary and begin talking about our daily routines. I noted how the Akkadian word for “star”, kakkab-um, mirrors the Arabic كَوكَبٌ, kawkab-un,Continue reading “Reading Arabic Literature: Thinking Back”
Reading Arabic Literature: Struggling to Connect
جَهْد root: ج-ه-د / noun / plural: جُهود / definition: effort, struggle Procrastination is an odd thing. You see, I’ve been busy with the academic reading I need to get through in order to write my PhD literature review, but I’ve partially busied myself with that because reading the second novel I’m supposed to analyseContinue reading “Reading Arabic Literature: Struggling to Connect”
The Arabic Pages 