 Whirling spell
Excerpt
October 1, 2003
The Iranian
Preface to Hamid Zavosh's Rumi & Friends (iUniverse,
2003). Zavosh edits
books, and caries out translation, teaching, speaking engagements,
and does volunteer work at the Persian Community Services Center
in Los angeles, California. He is Also a member of the
publications committee and editor of the Center's
Magazine.
Two considerations prompted me to present the verses
that follow [in this book] mainly to reach the two audiences
that I had in mind. The first of these two being those living
in the English-speaking part of the Western World, while the second, the second
generation of Iranians living outside their country, mainly in
the United States, Canada
and England, who have received their education through the medium of the English
language.
I had always believed that Persian Mysticism,
so eloquently encapsulated in the form of poetry, had delicious
spiritual food to offer to the people of
the West,
and to satiate their hunger, that is so thoroughly sharpened and made ever
so painful, by their deeper involvement in daily chores to obtain their piece
of
bread. Persian mystical poems can literally be, for the spiritually thirsty
and hungry, a veritable fresh springwater and Manna from Heaven!!
The second generation of Iranians, completely
absorbed in the modern traditions, industrial culture, language
and the chores associated with obtaining their
piece of bread in the West, unknowingly and unwittingly have had to compromise
their
Persian traditions, language and culture, or more importantly their sense
of who they really are, nay even their soul, to join the milieu of alwayshurried
new compatriots, especially in the United States.
Late in the year 1995 my good friend and companioninwalk,
Mr. Yacoub Bazleh, on behalf of his daughter Sheila, asked me
to translate a piece of poetry
from Sa'di, to be printed in a brochure on her impending operatic/piano
concert in Beverly Hills. I decided to do the translation in verseform
and it was
the
first
time that I did so. Towards the end of the same year, during one of our
regular walks on Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, he conveyed Sheila's suggestion,
followed
by his own encouragement, that I try my hand at what I did, which they
both thought to have been a good verse translation, on a wider scale.
That suggestion fired my imagination in such a
way that I hardly heard what my friend said during the rest of
the walk, and while we were parting,
I
thought that I was bowing to an audience enraptured by one of the versetranslations
that
I had just personally delivered in a big hall!!
My head began to ring
with the poems of worldfamous Persian poets, from Khayyam,
to Sa'di, to Rumi, to Hafiz to the 20th Century Persian
Poet
Iraj Mirza,
whose poem on "Mother", though having nothing to do with the intended
spiritual message
in the following verses, has nevertheless prompted me to include
the same as my way of dedicating these writs to the memory of
my mother.
And if
this single
versetranslation touches the soul of only one reader, I will have
accomplished my purpose.
When I cooled down, I told myself that I am no
poet. In one's own world one may choose to do what one wishes,
presuppose and presume anything,
do all
kinds of
physical, mental and verbal acrobatics. In the real world, however,
care needs to be exercised and one must not make oneself a laughing
stock,
nor presume
to take the pearls of wisdom from one literary world, and transplant
it, without being equipped to do so, into another.
No amount of selfcritique could stop the gusto
that gushed from within me. Even though not finding myself up
to the task, I finally acquiesced
setting
myself
parameters that would at least make the act of translation a more
natural one. There is no telling that translation from any language
to another
is a very
difficult task. Certain thoughts, phrases, even words are not translatable
at all. Persian
poetry presents even greater difficulties in translation, as it
is impossible to transmute its lilting flow into another language,
even
if it be in
the form of poetry. And then there is the fear that one might lose
the soul
of the message
in the translation!!
My task was even more difficult. Discounting the
technicalities of translation, I was genuinely fearful of embarking
on a project
that
necessitated presenting
something whose whole message was a spiritual one. I therefore
decided to set the following parameters in order to make my task
spiritfriendly
i.e.:
To begin
translation on impulse, without reservation as to time of day
or night, unencumbered by reservations of place, technicalities
of
translation, and without reference
to a dictionary. In other words to make my task as purely inspirational
and as spiritually achieved as I possibly could.
It was therefore under the spell of my first two
beliefs and the encouragement which I received that I embarked
upon the task,
unplanned
and haphazardly,
began the versetranslation of Persian mystical odes, lyrics,
quatrains, etc. The poems
I have selected are meant to bring a spiritual message, that
I hope will appeal to the Western mind, totally engrossed in
the
chores
of this world.
For the second generation Iranians, who do not
speak and or write in their mothertongue, I hope and pray these
verses will
entice
them to
appreciate
the thoughts expressed
by their country's worldfamous poets, and induce them to
learn to read and write their mothertongue, thereby obtaining
more
precious jewels
with brighter
sparkle
from the treasuretrove hidden deep in the ocean of Persian
Mystical poems, which I have not translated, or which I have
not done
justice to, as
much as I had
wished to do so.
Aside from these two audiences that I had in mind,
I must admit, as any reader would, that these verses cannot and
should not
remain the
monopoly
of those
originally intended, and anyone versed in the English language,
and inclined towards spiritual
messages will, and indeed is welcome to, drink A Cup and
satiate the thirst of his spirit, from the Boundless Ocean
of Persian
Mysticism.
As one of the poems so very eloquently suggests,
the inner assimilation and understanding of spiritual messages,
both
literal and symbolic,
is a totally
unduplicable and
unconveyable personal experience unique to the reader
himself. Similarly, the nuances of the spiritual path is different
for each person, and
if there are
over 6 billion souls residing on this planet at this
time,
there are 6 billion spiritual Paths and nuances. A Persian
poet says
it rather
well:
Each spirit tossed in whirling spell,
By The Enchanter's Charm it fell,
Drunken laughter or the midnight's wail,
Are one, though souls are set on separate sail.
I invite all readers, spiritually inclined, to gently
and without haste taste and relish the spiritual drink
poured
into the
glass of these
mystical poems,
and nourish their spirit by imbibing further and better
drinks, poetically or otherwise made available by other
spiritual
winemakers and bartenders!!
Like
wines of varying vintage, spiritual drinks also taste
and affect people in a variety of ways. In spite of
heralds extolling the taste and qualities
of typical
wines, each person's reaction in tasting these is dependent
upon several biological, structural and mental faculties.
Be
it the
best and the
oldest, not everyone's
enjoyment can be the same. And so it is with spiritual
drinks. Nevertheless, I say to you Cheers, Bey Salamaty,
Salut, etc. Purchase Rumi & Friends from
amazon.com
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