Archive - 2009 - Article

رستوران آقا ارمنی و روشنک جان

اولین بار در مغازه ی آقا ارمنی بود که روشنک را دیدم و هفته ی بعدش با هم حسابی دوست شدیم و با فرهاد به درکه رفتیم و وقت برگشتن به خانه ی فرهاد در کوچه ساری رفتیم و سری به خمره زدیم .چقدر عرق خوری سه نفری حال داد. عاشق لهجه دارآبادی روشنک شده بودم. نسل در نسل در نیاوران و دارآباد بزرگ شده بودند. دختر ماه و خوش سر و زبانی بود که دل من و فرهاد را حسابی برده بود. یک دوست خوب و با حال که اصلن فکر نمی کردی دختر باشد مثل پسر بچه ها تخس و بازیگوش بود. باور می کنی یک بار دست و پاهای من و فرهاد را به تخت بسته بود و از خانه جیم شده بود. از خنده روده بر شده بودیم از دستش. پدر سوخته جوری بسته بود که دو ساعتی طول کشیده بود که دست وپایمان را باز کنیم>>>

Rumi's Wine

When mist of past clouds your heart
When memories pierce like swords heated in flame
When broken vows empty your soul
When there’s no one to be blamed
Your heart slams its doors
On enchantments of pure love
It no longer can fathom
Further pain or harder fall >>>

Dark Ages

Probably one of the greatest lessons in the Shahnameh is when it warns us of the “enemy within”. One that resides in our own persona and nurtures a self destructive impulse when we lose self confidence, start lying to ourselves and thus break the old Zoroastrian Oath of “Pendar Neek, Goftareh Neek, va Kerdareh Neek” aka “Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds”. It is then when our soul becomes corrupt, our virtues dissolve into a potion of ignorance and True Pride is replaced by Arrogance ... Thus seems to be the dilemma facing Iran’s greatest hero Rostam in Hyperwerks and its creative team’s adaptation of the third book: Rostam: Battle with the Deevs. >>>

انتقاد از رهبر آزاد است؟

آیت الله سید علی خامنه ای مقام رهبری جمهوری اسلامی ایران، با سلام، همانطور که مطلع هستید یک جوان وبلاگ نویس به نام امید رضا میرصیافی که به جرم اهانت به شما در زندان به سر می برد و به دو سال و نیم زندان محکوم شده بود چند روز پیش در زندان درگذشت. گزارشگران بدون مرز احتمال قتل او را بر اساس شواهدی که پیوست این نامه است اعلام می کنند. امید رضا میرصیافی قبل از زندان به حکم خود معترض بود و آن را ناعادلانه می دانست و معتقد بود هیچگونه توهینی به شما نکرده است و حتی در رای دادگاه مشخص نشده بود که جملات توهین آمیز ایشان چیست؟ پس از فوت ایشان ما با مطالعه آرشیو وبلاگ ایشان که به دلیل مطالب همان وبلاگ زندانی بود، متوجه نشدیم که کدام مطلب ایشان در مورد شما توهین آمیز بود و مستحق دو سال و نیم زندان بوده است؟ >>>

The Secret Agent

Nojoom didn’t return until we were ready to board the bus. Meanwhile other hospital staff hosted us. I was waiting in the boarding line fending off Fournier’s inquires as to why I wanted us to stay, when I felt a nudge at my elbow. I turned around and was surprised to see Dr. Nojoom. “Excuse me,” he said, pulling me out of earshot ”I gather you are Iranian?” “Yes,” I said in Farsi. “Interesting bunch you are with,” he said. “What sort of school is this anyway?” I was sure he had been briefed by Dr. Parson, so I assumed he wanted an Iranian’s point of view.” I explained that it was mostly for children of foreigners living in Iran, and that my father had enrolled me here for a period because our family travels had put me out of synch with the Iranian school system>>>

War on Ignorance

A few days ago on this site Mr. Hossein Hosseini in his stimulating article seemed to imply that we Iranians have the most know-it-all people! Do we really? I respectfully doubt that. I used to fault friends, and I lost some because I did not approve of their pretending to be what they were not. That went on until I took some courses in modern psychology and discovered that what I or we consider pretension, is often benign and is a part of our defense mechanism as humans in order to save face in emergencies. In other words, what I discovered was that I should forgive the people as long as their pretension was temporary, for self preservation>>>

سیزده به در نحس

من مثل آن شاعری هستم که بر خلاف بقیه اصلاً بلبل را خوش آواز نمی دانست و احتمالاً تره جعفری و شنبلیله را هم بر دیدن گل های رز و گلایل و کاملیا ترجیح میداد. از همان روز ازل معتقد بودم که ماندن در خانه در روز سیزده فروردین نه تنها نحسی ندارد بلکه به علل گوناگون فواید زیادی به قول قدما بر آن مترتب است. ازجمله ایمنی اعضای خانواده در اثر حوادث گوناگون، صرفه جوئی در هزینه های خورد و خوراک و صد البته خوابیدن راحت بعد از صرف نهار در هوای بهاری و آن هم در تخت خوابی که همیشه عادت به استرحت برروی آن دارم. ولی چه کنم که نوعی دموکراسی کمونیستی در منزل ما بر قرار است و آن هم اینکه وقتی همه عقاید خود را در خصوص برنامه سیزده به در گفتند، این نظر عیال بنده است که صائب بوده و صد البته دلایل منطقی و عاطفی و اقتصادی و اجتماعی فراوانی برای توجیه آنها می توان ارائه نمود>>>

کفشها

برابرم چند تن تنها نشسته اند
هر کدام در کفشی سبکبار شده اند
آنسو
کفشی افسون شده چرم دفتر شعری
که روزی قیمتی چشمگیر داشت
اینسو
کفش لاستیکی خودکام دفتری
با کابوس واکس سنت مرور می شود >>>

Little Armenia

The king hung you like a crucifix
From the neck of my city, Isfahan:
With your cathedral and cobblestones
With your taverns and goldsmiths
And your blushing daughters.
The city remained apart from you
Lying beyond Zaiandeh River. >>>

Atomic Akhond

A few years ago, Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi shocked the Islamic Republic’s inner circles with this performance conducted in front of flashing cameras and rolling camcorders. Publicly, the conservatives admired his selflessness but envied his prudence behind closed doors; the moderates snickered and dismissed the news of the event with curt replies. The shock, however, must not be attributed to the publicly captured humility of any ayatollah towards the Supreme Leader. On the contrary, such scenes are entirely common and dully expected. What caused the jolt was not the act itself but the stature of the man behind the act, his existing ominous authority and decisive clout, and more importantly, the absence of any apparent gain bestowed upon him>>>

My absence

Mehrabad airport is crowded. Everybody seems in a rush to leave Iran. The air is dry. It’s the end of September, but the heat belongs to July. I push my valise on the floor, over the remaining pile of yesterday’s newspapers. A few pages are dragged with my suitcase. I stop pushing. I’m too tired. As the sweat runs over my forehead, I remember the exact moment when the three Pasdars raided the house last night. I wipe the sweat and wish I could wipe the tears off my mother’s face as she stood there at the center of the living room with all the eyes set on her. My mother, the woman who knows how to hide behind a serene smile, even when there’s a thunderstorm blowing her mind away>>>

Just take a wild guess

Bita: "I thought I would never be able to take a sauna again after what happened. On our way up here, I thought I would burst into tears, but I’m only feeling numb."

Ebi: "Well, you know, it's been more than a year now. You can’t just go on being depressed and miserable for the rest of your life. What happened, happened. We should start a new life all over again. I like to see us as happy as before."

Bita: "Yeah, before Shirin's death."

Ebi: "No! I mean like when we got married, long before she was born." >>>

Rose in spring

O rose, come and dance
On my heart as its soil
Has been dry
For too long.
O moon, come and smile
As there are a thousand
Willing flirtatious ones at
The door, these shining stars >>>

گوید به من

از درد روزگار, ناچار, میکند شادی
چونکه الا عشق, ماند کدام بازی؟

ولی در آغوش هر زن میگیرد بهانه
چونکه نیست در وجودش عشق جاودانه

عشق جاودانه چیست؟ همان عشق خدای
که در عمق خود باید کرد پیدای >>>

The bluff that never stops giving?

In an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to have told President Barack Obama that either America stops Iran or Israel will. Not surprisingly, the interview sparked quite a controversy and only a day later, General David Petreus told the Senate Arms Services Committee that "the Israeli government may ultimately see itself so threatened by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon that it would take preemptive military action to derail or delay it." So once again, in spite of President Obama's best efforts, the military option was put back on the table and the atmosphere for dealing with Iran was turned into "Do as we say - or else...">>>