vita nouva · diary · µ · lately · graph

cosmography a small register of standing things

i. on the word, and what is meant by it تعريف

cosmography n. (older sense) the description of the universe, including the Earth, made by one observer. , from Greek κόσμος, world; and γραφή, the writing of a thing.

This page is a register of standing things, coordinates, calendars, and so, which I keep so that, when I am tired and forget what is true of me, I can come back here and find it written.

What is recent or moving, what I am reading this week, what I have published this month, belongs to the lately next door, where the news is. What follows here is older and slower: a private cartography of where I am under which stars, with what creed, and surrounded by which objects.

It is a partial description, since all cosmographies are. It is also, deliberately, a hand list.

ii. the co-ordinates of the desk حدود الطاولة

All measurements are taken from a small wooden desk near a window, on the third floor of a building, facing east-by-southeast.

magnetic decl.
≈ 4° 30′ E   (true north is to the right of magnetic)
desk faces
east-by-southeast, so the morning, when it comes, comes before me
qiblah from here
136° clockwise from true north, that is, south-east-by-east
mean climate
arid; hot summer, mild winter; rain about a dozen days a year, generously counted

the sun, today, in one drawing

day length 13 h 33 m  ·  solar noon 11:51  ·  asr 15:28

الفجرالشروقالظهرالعصرالمغربالعشاء00:0006:0012:0018:0024:0005:0518:38east, the sun rose ↗︎south, its apex↘︎ west, will set

iii. the same day in five calendars في تقاويم متعددة

Each calendar gives the day a different name. None of them is wrong; together they make the day larger.

today, computed five ways
calendarwhere it is kepttoday is
Gregorianmost of the worldSunday, 10 May 2026
Hijrī (lunar)the muslim world; my mother's house24 Rabīʿ I 1447 AH
Coptican older calendar still kept in some quarters4 Bashans 1742 AM
Julianthe eastern orthodox27 April 2026 (J.)
my ownsince a long timeday 8549

the hijri reckoning here is computed by mean synodic months and may slip from the moon-sighted calendar by a day in either direction; for the strict ruling, ask the muezzin.

iv. the twenty-eight mansions of the moon منازل القمر

In the older arabic astronomy each night the moon halts in a different mansion (منزلة) along the ecliptic. The fourteen below are the visible half; the other fourteen pass under the horizon while we sleep. The dates beside them are roughly when the sun, in its turn, reaches each.

today, the sun is in the 3rd mansion, الثُّرَيّا, ath-thurayyā, the cluster (pleiades) (ecliptic longitude 49.4°)

№arabictransliterationmeaningsun arrives
iالشَّرَطَينash-sharataynthe two signs (the horns of aries)≈ 17 apr
iiالبُطَينal-buṭaynthe little belly≈ 30 apr
iiiالثُّرَيّاath-thurayyāthe cluster (pleiades)≈ 13 may
ivالدَّبَرانad-dabarānthe follower (aldebaran)≈ 26 may
vالهَقْعَةal-haqʿahthe white spot (orion's head)≈ 8 jun
viالهَنْعَةal-hanʿahthe brand≈ 21 jun
viiالذِّراعadh-dhirāʿthe arm (of the lion)≈ 4 jul
viiiالنَّثْرَةan-nathrahthe nostril of the lion≈ 17 jul
ixالطَّرْفaṭ-ṭarfthe eye of the lion≈ 30 jul
xالجَبْهَةal-jabhahthe forehead≈ 12 aug
xiالزُّبْرَةaz-zubrahthe mane≈ 25 aug
xiiالصَّرْفَةaṣ-ṣarfahthe changer of weather≈ 7 sep
xiiiالعَوّاءal-ʿawwāʾthe howler≈ 20 sep
xivالسِّماكas-simākthe high one (spica)≈ 3 oct

, continued in the lower hemisphere; for the catalogue see al-Bīrūnī.

v. the moon, the month before and after القمر هذا الشهر

Tonight's moon is at the centre. Fourteen days behind it, fifteen ahead. The bigger the dark portion of each disc, the brighter the moon will be on that night.

26
first ¼
27
first ¼
28
 
29
 
30
 
1
full
2
full
3
full
4
full
5
 
6
 
7
 
8
 
9
last ¼
10
last ¼
11
last ¼
12
 
13
 
14
 
15
 
16
new
17
new
18
new
19
new
20
 
21
 
22
 
23
 
24
first ¼
25
first ¼
tonight, 10 may

the next four crossings

new moon Fri 15 May
first quarter Sat 23 May
full moon Sat 30 May
last quarter Sat 6 Jun

vi. stars visible tonight, from this latitude نجوم الليلة

A short list, given in the order they will arrive in the sky this month. Names are arabic in origin where I know it, since most of them are; that is the smaller, kinder genealogy of the night.

  • Vega, wāqiʿ, the falling eagle; in lyra, blue, very brightrises ≈ 21:00
  • Altair, al-ṭāʾir, the flying one; in aquilarises ≈ 22:30
  • Deneb, dhanab al-dajājah, tail of the hen; in cygnusrises ≈ 21:40
  • Arcturus, al-simāk al-rāmiḥ, the lance-bearer; orange, in boötesalready up
  • Spica, al-simāk al-aʿzal, the unarmed one; in virgo, blue-whitealready up
  • Antares, qalb al-ʿaqrab, heart of the scorpion; red giantrises ≈ 23:10
  • Polaris, al-jadī, the kid; the pole star, low herealways

on a clear night, looking from the roof, you can see perhaps twenty, and a hundred in the western desert. orion is gone for the season; he will return in the autumn, by way of the east.

ix. the weeks of my life أسابيع العمر

i am herechildhoodschoolyoungadultmiddlelate

x. what is within reach, at this moment ما في متناول اليد

An inventory of objects within the radius of one arm extended from the chair. The list is honest and incomplete in equal measure.

  • ×1 a clay cup of tea green, with mint
  • ×1 a clay cup, empty, kept for company a smaller one
  • ×4 books, of which two are open: either / or, ibn baṭṭūṭah
  • ×1 a black notebook, A5, a fifth full not a moleskine, kindly
  • ×1 a fountain pen, lamy safari, M nib diamine oxblood
  • ×3 other pens
  • ×1 a small photograph of my mother in college
  • ×1 a wooden ruler, twelve inches
  • ×? books i mean to read, on a shelf I will not photograph

last edited: 2026-05-08

xi. a creed, kept short on purpose معتقد

What I hold to, on this particular day, written here so as not to drift. Subject to revision in private; not in public.

  1. That there is one God, and that mercy is His usual mood.
  2. That a sentence written badly today can be rewritten kindly tomorrow.
  3. That writing every day, even badly, is a kind of prayer.
  4. That the journal should be private, the blog public, and the heart neither.
  5. That the moon is a sufficient calendar.
  6. That suffering is real and so is repair; the second is harder to write down.
  7. That to love a place well, one must learn to walk in it well.

xii. the people i listen to, in no particular order من أصغي إليهم

Not authorities of the doctrinal kind. Voices i return to when my own becomes thin, or when i suspect i am only flattering myself in print.

  • ibn ʿarabiat a distance; on a good day
  • etty hillesumfor what i cannot say in my own voice without embarrassment, and for not flinching from a word that ought to be flinched at
  • søren kierkegaardfor the diaries; for not pretending the question is settled; for the courtesy he extended his enemies
  • georges bernanosfor proving that one can write about faith without first apologising
  • czesław miłoszfor the sentence; for the small italics in The Captive Mind; for keeping a list of books that helped him survive
  • annie dillardfor paying attention as a discipline rather than a moral pose
  • my motherwho has not read most of the books, and is right about more of them than i am

xiii. apophthegms حِكَم صغيرة

Short sentences i have copied into the back of various notebooks, against forgetting. Some are kind; some are not; one or two are merely useful, which is a different virtue.

"Tell the truth and run."
, a yugoslav proverb, by way of miłosz

"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."
, simone weil, often misquoted, never improved upon

"What can be said at all can be said clearly; whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."
, wittgenstein; the bookend of every diary

"Pray as if everything depended on God; work as if everything depended on you."
, attributed to ignatius; the order of the clauses matters

"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."
, ellen parr, on a postcard a friend kept

"Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work."
, flaubert, in a letter; pinned over the desk

"Speak to me of the books you have not finished, and I will know more about you than from a year of confidences."
, overheard, lightly edited

 acts are by intentions.
, a hadith; the spine of every résumé i refuse to write

"On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur."  one sees well only with the heart.
, saint-exupéry; lent to me at twelve, never returned

xiv. things i refuse, with greater or lesser vehemence من المرفوضات

  • quietlyanalytics; cookies that follow a reader home; "engagement"
  • quietlythe marketer's em-dash, or nowadays GPT's and most importantly, the corporate "we"
  • more firmlywriting for the algorithm; reading reviews of a book i mean to read; replying to a letter the same hour i receive it
  • more firmlyany prose that begins "in today's fast-paced world…"
  • at lengththe sentence "everything happens for a reason"; it does, sometimes, but the reason is rarely improving
  • at lengthcynicism for its own sake; the english phrase "to be honest," as a pre-fix for everything that follows
  • flatlycruelty dressed as candour; tidiness dressed as virtue; humility that asks to be noticed
  • flatlyany document that has the word synergy in it, however adjusted

xv. small private fears, listed alphabetically في المخاوف الصغيرة

  • a.that the people I love will mistake my quietness for indifference
  • b.that the river will recede
  • c.that one day i will do somethnig magnific that my dad could not be shown
  • e.that the language will go before the speaker, that there will be no one left who calls a thing by its proper name
  • f.that i will mistake a habit for a vocation, or vice versa
  • h.large fears, of which i will not write here, since to name them is to feed them, and they have eaten enough already

xvi. a note on the method في المنهج

This page is built from a small handful of fixed numbers (the latitude, the longitude, the date of birth) and a larger handful of fixed sentiments. The five-calendar table is computed from astronomical means; the hijri date may slip from a sighted calendar by a day in either direction.1

The list of stars assumes a low northern-hemisphere summer evening. The compass at the top is drawn for true north, with the qiblah close enough for prayer, not close enough for navigation, which is fine because I am not at sea.

The creed is short for a reason.2 The fears are listed alphabetically because that, for the moment, is the only order I trust them in.

What changes about me, I send to the gazette; what does not, I keep here. Anything reported as a fact on this page should be taken with the same charity any reader would extend to a friend who is good with numbers and bad with vanity.

The classical hijri month begins with the local sighting of the new crescent (hilāl); the table on this page uses the simpler astronomical mean.

A short creed is more honest than a long one, partly because what you cannot remember by heart, you do not really hold to.