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Friday, September 26, 2025

Chanting

 In Lalitha sahasranama and Soundarya Lahari chanting today, pancha bhootha kiranavalim

sree lalita sahasra nama stotram

44-50 start with na

Mantra pushpam



Finally I got started on a project I have been meaning to do for over a year. Learning the meaning of Lalithasahasranamam. This is a great book as it has the right dose of meaning and other texts without translation getting too much in the way of comprehension.

Bhaskararaya commentary

Khadgamala

sri-lalitha-trishati-stotram

The_Sacred_Sounds_of_Sri_Vidya

Vinay Varanasi

Sangeetha Sadananjali

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Poetry Workshop

 Today we read summer songs by Rigoberto Gonzalex

Ancestors by Ada Limon 

According to chatgpt --- the meaning of --- Mederush cancahuish nirash Inguia

Wondered why there was no translation provided in the poem. Seems like it is a choice that creators make when the translation or subtitles are left out - eg  unsubtitiled Korean in Columbus movie.

This pirekua is titled "Male Severiana", likely referring to a woman named Severiana who has caused the singer emotional pain (perhaps unintentionally). The repeated lines, phrases, and rhythmic structure evoke lament, longing, and emotional repetition — classic traits of the pirekua tradition.


🌾 Tentative Translation (Poetic Interpretation)

Mederush cancahuish nirash Inguia
"I come, wounded, from over there"

Por causa de males Severiana jimbo
"Because of sorrows, Severiana, I go"

Mederush cancahuish niras-n
"I come, wounded"

A ver si quianis mi nicurian male, Severianita-nia
"Let’s see if you still remember me, little Severiana"

Hueran hueran Severiana
"Cry, cry, Severiana"

Insquia shinquia cunqui shue
"Your tears fall like rain" (very rough poetic gloss)

Mederush cancahuish niras-n
"I come, wounded"

A ver si quianis mi nicurian male, Severianita-nia
"Let’s see if you still remember me, little Severiana"


🗣️ Notes on Language

  • "Mederush cancahuish" — Likely a construction related to movement or return with emotion (e.g., "I come" or "I return").

  • "Nirash Inguia" — Could be “from there” or “from afar.”

  • "Severiana jimbo" — Mixes Spanish (“Severiana”) with "jimbo", which often means “I go” or “I walk.”

  • "quianis mi nicurian male" — Possibly “do you remember the pain I caused?” or “do you remember me, my sorrow?”

  • "Hueran hueran" — Possibly "cry, cry" or "weep, weep."

  • "Insquia shinquia cunqui shue" — Difficult, but may reference crying, rain, or sorrow imagery.

Saturday, September 20, 2025

Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue

 

Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue

Grandmother Tongue
I studied my mother tongue till 5th grade and repeated a lower level till 8th grade due to change in syllabus. I wonder how my writerly senses would have developed differently in both languages or any other languages.
'differences between spoken Swiss German and standard German and what those differences mean for Swiss Literature" - I was able to understand this where my language is more of spoken and casual while written is more formal.



Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future

 

Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future

by products of growth - environmental destruction, excessive highway construction, corporate interests above public interests.
social engineering
emperor restructuring a person's relationship to the land - ordering mass migration into newly opened territories, conscripting people to build great walls or grand canals.
hydraulic engineer's view of economy and society as liquid flows
Eisenhower Interstate system



All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, Book 1)

All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, Book 1)


 https://x.com/NikoMcCarty/status/1969057172098351108/photo/1

Cormac Mccarthy's tips for writing


Wednesday, September 17, 2025

The Bamboo Grove: An Introduction to Sijo

 

The Bamboo Grove: An Introduction to Sijo

I learned of sijo this morning.
It is shown as an in between haiku and ghazal in terms of volume.
The brush and the sword Recto verso en face



Saturday, September 13, 2025

Honey in the Wound: A Novel

Honey in the Wound: A Novel

Jangseung totempole
Jige carrier
Gamasot cauldron
Jangdokdae storage



 

いじわるなトラとおしゃべりなタンポポ イ・ジウン

 

いじわるなトラとおしゃべりなタンポポ イ・ジウン
The mean tiger and the talkative dandelion Lee Ji-eun


A Guardian and a Thief: A Novel

 

A Guardian and a Thief: A Novel

climate visa
"grids holding not numbers but words written in the Bengali script that folded and straightened like caterpillars upon a stem"
buses failing pollution tests, heatstroke (recently read an article headline that day laborers who cant work because of heat by law would still want to for the wages)
"But the room's envious eyes could not see his apprehension. Those eyes saw only their triumph." (fiction writing lets you see the inside that an observer/narrator of a non-fiction would only see the surface. Is this the empathy with roots in the German concept of Einfühlung, or "feeling into" that fiction reading is supposed to develop in a reader, an inner eye)



Time travel


 slow-is-the-new-fast-performance-productivity

What is the boundary of time travel? 

A friend was talking about opening a park gate which requires turning the knob on the unintuitive side. The next time it worked, we said that slow works not to fumble.

This led me to the slow activity in Jin on a market street in Edo period. 

time-travel-and-the-law-exploring-legal-implications-and-potential-regulations/ When pencillin is made 

Time travel in a different culture, teaches you about the history that you are not familiar with. When Jin realises that he met Sakomoto, we are to know that he is a popular figure. It would be funny if the time traveler did not know the history and its import.


Tuesday, September 9, 2025

These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means

These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means


How to get a thought from your head into others?
 
news-clip new-yorker-19 - The Mystery of people who speak dozens of languages

Language is purely generated signal.

Saturday, September 6, 2025

Japanese - English Bilingual Visual Dictionary (DK Bilingual Visual Dictionaries)

 

Japanese - English Bilingual Visual Dictionary (DK Bilingual Visual Dictionaries) 

I love this book. My plan was to go through the book once and then on second read, from the index try to sort out the ones with Kanji and write them down and along with it, use my cjkv dict to learn or note the commonalities between the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese dictionaries.
One of the words I came across today is abura enugo
あぶら えのぐ - oil paint



Japanese paints

Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI Watercolor Paint Set 

Recognised this in 

umi to mori no kyoshitsu

うみ と もり の きょしつ

Sea and Forest Museum in Learning to Love Japanese show on Netflix.