“اسی روز و شب میں اُلجھ کر نہ رہ جا کہ ترے زمان و مکاں اور بھی ہیں۔ Do not get entangled in this cycle of days and nights, For there are other times and places that belong to you.”—
Allama Iqbal
issi roz o shab mein ulajh kar na reh ja
ke teray zaman o makan aur bhi hain(via khayaal-ke-phool)
“There is a radiant beauty in the night that touches and… tortures me.”— “Kabnis,“ Cane, by Jean Toomer
Perfume began in Mesopotamia as incense offered to the gods to sweeten the smell of animal flesh burned as offerings, and it was used in exorcisms, to heal the sick, and after sexual intercourse. The word’s Latin etymology tells us how it worked: per = through + fumar to smoke. Tossed onto a fire, incense would fill the sky with a smoke otherworldly and magical, which stung the nostrils as if clamorous spirits were clawing their way into the body. Perfumed smoke began with the things of this earth but climbed quickly into the realm of the gods. Atop the famous ziggurat-shaped Tower of Babel, which stretched closer to the gods than mortals could reach, priests lit pyres of incense.
— Diane Ackerman, ‘Smell: An Offering to the Gods’ A Natural History of the Senses
