“Here, dignity isn’t spoken of.
It’s measured in hours worked and weather endured.”
Prototype Language
World Languages
Cultural Languages
Nordic Languages
Northeastern Languages
Balkan / Oriental Languages
Languages Neighboring German
Non-European Cultural Languages
At last we learn
to discern, with care,
how community
is sustained within the circle of reason,
shaped by thought,
refined through restraint,
yet allowing each mind
to stand in measured independence:
dignity.
Dignity
People know one another
by how they hold themselves
in front of others.
It shows
in knowing the line,
and not crossing it.
Across years and hard seasons,
it lasts,
without needing to be named.
Still, everyone knows
the grinding thought
of not being enough.
When the end comes closer,
it becomes clear
what dignity weighs —
more than what you owned,
more than what you controlled.
It carries on
beyond a single life.
Dignity deepens
through work done,
through what a person has carried —
unless it breaks them.
Through cold,
through being worn down,
until memory itself thins
of who one once was.
Love is there,
quietly.
Only when it holds steady
does hardship lose its grip.
Then dignity
can be seen again —
not spoken,
but standing.
