To Understand
This article is part of the Claritas spring 2025 issue, Connection. Read the full print release here.
by weronika kasperkiewicz
To understand
The sun beats down, painting the sand orange
the table is lined with half-full finjans, beside a bowl of dates,
the smell of oud clings to my dusty abaya.
Look into my eyes as I ask your name. You try to tell me what it means but stop—the words are in your head, but they won’t come out.
Grab my hand as you burst out in laughter upon hearing me pronounce your name. I repeat it after you again and again but I stop. I hear what it’s supposed to sound like, but it won’t come out.
Ask me a million questions and tell me a million secrets. You admit to thinking about death, and your sister scoffs—but I look at you silently, and we both know nothing more needs to come out.
To understand is to know the meaning of something said by another. But between my English and your Arabic, where is common meaning found? How has this Tower of Babel become a breeding ground for unity?
1 a.m.
2 a.m.
3 a.m.
Sleep is worth sacrificing to talk a little longer. We were once strangers halfway across the world, and have become the closest of friends. But the hours are short and the days move fast. I am desperate for you to understand.
I want to hold your face in my hands and cry
HE IS FOR YOU
HE IS FOR YOU
HE IS FOR YOU
my heart breaks as the hours become minutes.
Wipe away tears as I play you my favorite worship song. You try to understand its lyrics but you stop— you don’t need English to experience the Spirit.
“And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” [1]
I preach so that you may hear.
I preach because you do not know the name of the man who saved my life. I preach because despite all of this my Jesus knows you, and He loves you, and wants you more deeply than you will ever know. I preach so that when you finally hear, inshallah,
at last you will understand.
[1] Romans 10:14 (ESV)