 Nakhosteen poetry
Bitter-sweet impression of the
West
Ali Parsa
August 13, 2004
iranian.com
We can be out of Iran and still have Iran within us. This is
especially true of those of us who have spent our formative years
in Iran. The reality is that Diaspora is nothing new. Leaving one's
homeland for greener pasture probably had its beginning in nomadic
life when the shepherds went, and are still going, after greener
pasture. We, in today's world, leave our homelands for more reasons,
among which are education, freedom, money, family reasons and the
like.
Many, if not all of us, are not bothered by being away from home. This is especially
true about those with universalist inclination that is least affected by geographic
location. Iranians throughout history have served humanity in every continent
just as they are doing now. Perhaps the greatest of these men is Rumi who left
Iran, Persia of that time, for Turkey where the situation was more conducive
to continuation of his productive life. He became so great that each of the
two countries vie for his 'ownership'!
 Several years ago I came across
a great man of more recent times quite accidentally. My daughter in San Francisco,
who knows I like history and Persian literature
aside from my natural sciences field, found a book titled Kolliateh Mehdi
Nakhosteen (Collected Works of Mehdi Nakhosteen) in pile of used books.
See samples below
She paid fifty cents for the book, but for me it
proved to be a priceless treasure of
fine
work
in the
areas of philosophy, education, poetry, humanities. I especially liked his
treatment of cross cultural problems, his bitter-sweet impression of the
West that I found so timeless and soothing as I go through the
same cycle.
This great man was born in Iran in 1905. He went to grammar school in Iraq
and Turkey and attended Alborz HIgh School-my almamater. He had his higher
education at Wooster, Cornell, and Colombia universities and became a professor
in University of Colorado where he taught for 36 years with honors and distinction
before dying in 1980.  Nakhosteen has a total of 18 books both in English and Farsi
in the area of education, religion and philosophy of education in the East
and West . His works includes translation of Omar Khayyam Robaiiat into English
a sample of which will appear here. I consider myself lucky to have been
touched by the writings of this great man and I hope that you will
feel the same.
I like to share with you some excerpts from his English and Farsi work.
[sample1]
[sample2]
[khayyam
translation]
[cover]
About
Ali A. Parsa, Ph.D. Colorado State University, former faculty member of College
of Agriculture, University of Shiraz in Iran, and retired Soil Scientist
from United States Depatment of the Interior. One of his publications, Rediscovery
of Hakim Omar Khayyam is listed with amazon.com. He welcomes feedbacks at umahforever@yahoo.com
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Nakhosteen poetry
