Velabodeh...

Golestan (Paradise)

TRUE LOVE'S DEVOTION (A DISCOURSE CONCERNING CONSTANCY)

Thy love renders thee impatient and disturbed. With such sincerity has thou placed thy head at her feet that thou art oblivious to the world.

When in the eyes of thy beloved riches count not, gold and dust are as one to thee.

Thou sayest that she dwelleth in thine eyes - if they be closed, she is in thy mind.

If she demands thy life, thou dost place it in her hand; if she places a sword upon thy head, thou holdest it forward.

When earthly love produces such confusion and such obedience demands, dost thou wonder if travelers of the road of God remain engulfed in the Ocean of Reality?

In the remembrance of their Friend they have turned their backs upon the world; they are so fascinated by the Cup-bearer that they have spilled the wine.

No medicine can cure them, for no one has knowledge of their pains.

With their cries of longing do they root up a mountain; with their sighs they dismember a kingdom.

Such is their weeping at dawn that the tears wash the sand of sleep from their eyes. Night and day are they immersed in the sea of love; so distracted are they that they know not night from day.

So enamored are they of the beauty of the Painter that they care not for the beauty of His designs.

He drinks of the pure wine of Unity who is forgetful of both this world and the next.

Sa'di Shirazi, one of the world's greatest and most gifted poets (1213-1293 A.C.)

Baroogir (Trapped in Rain)

A tiny drop of rain has the tremendous ocean ahead...

And so do I....

Chimneba... (I have nothing)

The caravan of life shall always pass

Beware that is fresh as sweet young grass

Let’s not worry about what tomorrow will amass

Fill my cup again, this night will pass, alas.

Khake ashna (Familiar land)

Some fifty km North of Shiraz, Persepolis looks across the wide plain of Marv-Dasht. It is the utmost expression of the culture of ancient Persia. Construction of Persepolis began under Achamenid Darius 1 (521-486 B.C.) and it was further developed under Xerxes and his successors. It was a superb spectacle of vast interior spaces and harmonious design. The whole construction process took about 150 years. This magnificent court was the summer residence of Achamenian Emperors, as well as their official reception quarters. This monument is a huge ensemble of 25 centuries of Persian Architecture.The most important pats of this complex are:
A double stairway
Entrance Gate
Apadana Palace
Hypostyle Palace
Palace with three Gates
Southern Structure of Apadana
Mirror Palace (Tachar)
Palace of Xerxes (Hadish)
Southern Palace
Imperial Treasury
ramparts and towers
ruin below Persepolis
surrounding area
Northern Ditch

Peace cannot be kept by force... It can only be achieved by understanding.


~~Albert Einstein

The Way to the Orchard

Keep on calling me -
your voice is so good.
It is the green
growing after long
comradeship of sorrow.

In the forms of this dead-quiet era
I am even less at home
than the clarion songs of late drinkers
in the alleys they spring from.
Come: let me tell you about
my unbounded loneliness.
Nothing could ever have foreseen
this incursion of your shape.
Such is love.
Now there is nobody about.
Let us steal a lease of life
and live it in two evenings.
Let us understand what we can

from the condition of a stone,
how to observe more readily.
Look, the clock-hands of the fountain

turn on the face of the pond,
pouring time like dust.
Come.
Dissolve in a line
of silence like a word.
In the palm of my hand

melt love's glowing bulk.
Warm me.
In the deserts
of Kashan once it grew
heavy with cloud and rain
and I was cold.
But then
behind a rock I met with

a poppy's furnaces.
In these dark lanes I fear
match-flares and doubts
proliferating everywhere;
the cement-face of this century
fills me with dread.
Come, so I needn't fear cities
where cranes graze the black earth.
In this era of steel's ascendancy
open me like a window on
the full gravity of pears.
Lull me to sleep beneath a branch
far from the nightly grinding of metalsand
wake me only if someone comes
who can unearth daylight ores.
Like jasmine dreaming behind your hands
I will rise into wakefulness.
Only then should you tell me
about the spray of bombs,
about the cheeks that streamed
while I was sleeping.
Tell me how many ducks

fled across the waves
while tanks tracked over

the dreams of children.
To what scrap of tranquillity
did the canary attach
the yellow thread of her song?
What innocent shameful cargoes
were unloaded at the quays?
What science uncovered the tuneful
crack and smell of shot?
To what thoughts did the ambiguous
taste of bread give rise
in the mouths of missioners?
At long last, then, like an inspiration
warm from the earth's own girdle,
I will place you and set you down
at the seeding of an orchard.

Our image of God is outmoded, whether the tsunami occurs or not. Religion has become divisive, quarrelsome, and idiotic. Religion is the reason we have all this conflict in the world. We have squeezed God into a volume of body and the span of a lifetime; given God a male identity, and ethnic background, made him a tribal chief and gone to war. Yet people are not ready to forsake their image of God.

Deepak Chopra, Indian-Born Physician, Author

Come along, come along, the fields are a-flower

Come along, come along, it’s the lover’s hour.

Come along, all at once, every soul and all the world

Bathe yourselves in the sun’s golden arrows’ shower.

Mock the crone who is left without a companion

Weep for the lonesome he, who has left his lover.

Everyone must rise up, and spread the news,

Mad man has cut his chain and escaped the tower.

Beat the drums without care, and remain speechless,

Mind and heart fled long before the soul fled the bower.

What a day, what a day, it feels like Judgement Day,

Impotent is our life’s book, has lost its very power.

Be silent, be silent, keep the veil, keep the veil,

Go for the sweet grapes, let go of the sour.

Rumi...

Kharge Badom

Night of Pleasant Loneliness

Listen, the world's farthest bird is singing.
The Night is fluid, whole, and open.
Geraniums And the loudest branch of the season,
hear the moon.
Stairs in front of the building,
Door with lantern in hand,
And the lavish breeze,
Listen,
the road is calling your steps from afar.
Your eye is not the darkness's ornament.
Shake your eyelids,
put on your shoes and come.
Come until the moon's feather alerts you
And Time sits with you on a lump of earth
And the psalms of night, absorbs your body
Like a piece of music.
There is a pious man there who will tell you:
The best thing is to come upon a look
that is still moist with love's advent.

There are some people who would rather be right
than happy, as though making a point was more
fun than having a good time. These are the people
who will risk their lives to get the last laugh,
even though it isn't funny.

~~~Merrit Malloy

Happy Eide Ghorbaan

A meaningful life is about loving, giving and sacrifice...
May this Eid be a turning point in your life and
a blessed event for you and your family.

Persian Garden

what do you think will happen?

if you pass your night
and merge it with dawn
for the sake of heart
what do you think will happen?
if the entire world
is covered with the blossoms
you have labored to plant
what do you think will happen?
if the elixir of life
that has been hidden in the dark
fills the desert and towns
what do you think will happen?
if because of
your generosity and love
a few humans find their lives
what do you think will happen?
if you pour an entire jar
filled with joyous wine
on the head of those already drunk
what do you think will happen?
go my friend
bestow your love
even on your enemies
if you touch their hearts
what do you think will happen?
Rumi

I am still alive!

I would rather be ash than dust!I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot.I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
~~~Jack London,