If there is one language common to the world, it is the language of affection. Attractions swells, sex sells, motherhood tears the body apart, nostalgia seeps into the soul, heartbreak reverberates in the thrum of our blood as humans continue to love and lose. I’ve been trying to encapsulate those affections that different languages across the world express, through a myriad of stunning words. Sensations of love, lust and loss are fleeting through the course of our lives and yet forever, as we grow into the people we are meant to be. Eternal. So here it is – a series of poetry that captures affection in every syllable and word.

Dictionary of Affections is The Zoya Project language, common to the world…

FITOOR

obsession’

Today I heard a song.

A precarious melody
Hanging on the edges of the stars
Playing acrobat
Across fiery edges
That sparkle like liquid silver.

I heard it lilt across the moon
Unfurling the raat-raani
And clasping its fragrance to its chest
It danced across the cosmos
Painted in shades of midnight blue streaked with sapphire
And crowned a deep Prussian azure.

It waltzed and wandered,
The swirling beats and treble clefs
Swished craters in lustrous moon dust
Coating itself in a gown
Conjured
Of twinkles and tales
Lying dormant in the sky
Waiting to one day blink awake
Against slate-tinted clouds.

Today I heard a song.
A ballad
Writing a romance across the galaxy
And in that moment
I realised why,
Love crazed people
Drowned in the depths of ripe passion
And skipped heartbeats
Often counted the stars.

Today I heard a song,
Turned my telescope
So I could count every sharp-edged star
With the melody hanging off its edge
And found myself unable to stop.
उस फितूर में
सुप्त तारे भी चमक उठे ।