STORY

An Identity Case

Part 1

29-May-2009 (one comment)
The whole thing started in early June when Mohsen, whose Canadian name was Molson, bought a dog—a white Shih-tzu, only three months old. He had recently moved to a new apartment in downtown Vancouver after the separating from his wife. For ages his daughter Anahita had been asking him for a dog. In spite of the fact that it was not at all a good time to get her the puppy, Molson could not resist buying the Shih-tzu when a friend of his said he wanted to give away the puppies their dog had given birth to. Anahita couldn’t take care of a puppy by herself. Neither could his son, a two-year-old who moved around not much better than the puppy on all fours>>>

UNDERSTANDING

Let Us Heal

Let Us Heal

Photo essay: Mansour Taeed on his one-man play “Ma Jaasoos Neesteem”

by Nazy Kaviani
27-May-2009 (4 comments)

>>>

RELATIONSHIPS

Sexual revolution

Excerpt from "Sexual Politics in Modern Iran"

27-May-2009 (6 comments)
One of the best-known examples of love and reciprocity in mystic circles appears in an account of the life of Rumi, the greatest Sufi poet in the Persian language, whose followers founded the Mevle known for its ritual whirling. While living in Konya in 1244, Rumi forged an intense bond with Mawlana Shams Tabrizi, a mystic and accomplished teacher who claimed to have reached union with God. Theirs was a unique relationship since both were mature and renowned masters. Franklin Lewis writes that contemporaries defined their relationship as falling in love, which Franklin qualifies as a “Platonic love of a disciple for his teacher.” Rumi took Shams home, “ where they lived happily for a year or two before the disciples of Rumi became to act on their jealousy”>>>

SONNATI MUSIC

Expression of life in its entirety

Homayoun Shajarian and Dastan Ensemble Concert

27-May-2009 (5 comments)
Traditional Persian music, otherwise known as Sonnati music, has officially entered a new era; an era where creativity and unconventional thought have intertwined together to surpass the limitations of tradition. As his father steps down from the throne, the Prince and soon to be the Master of Sonnati avaz (singing), Homayoun Shajarian, has prepared himself for this moment: to inherit the style of music that has been dubbed by most first generation Iranians-Americans as dull and dreary. He provides a new vision; a hope that Sonnati music, through his youthful heart and voice, will gain its inspiration through imaginative innovation, while maintaining true to its traditional roots>>>

POETRY

No thingness
27-May-2009 (3 comments)
Tell me who is the witness
Of your own seeing
And what is revealed
Through your own looking
Tell me who is attached to experience
Can you experience the space of no mind
If there is not an experiencer,
The experience won't last >>>

POETRY

Breathing
27-May-2009 (one comment)
In
And
Outside
Funneling
Throughout all our minds
Finding the reflection of who
We are and why we are here, these questions are not so
Clear >>>

ART

Damaged

Damaged

Paintings

by Alireza Malek Jafarian
25-May-2009 (6 comments)

>>>

MAYMAND

چرا غارنشينی بايد چيز بدی باشد؟

اندر دلسوزی برای ميراث فرهنگی و طبيعی

24-May-2009 (3 comments)
اخيرا" خبری ديدم در مورد دهکده ميمند در کرمان که گويا بخاطر وجود گنج يابان، در خطر قرار دارد (خطری که تقريبا" هر دهکده و منطقه ای در ايران را تهديد می کند). نويسنده مطلب برای تشخص دادن به ميمند، گفته بود که دهکده 12 هزارسال آثار سکونت دارد و مردم آن به دين «مهری» پايبند هستند که قبل از «ظهور» زرتشت در ايران وجود داشته، و حالا بعد از حضور اسلام در ايران، ساکننانش به غارها پناه برده اند که از شر اعراب در امان بمانند و حالا جمهوری اسلامی، که در ذهن دوستان حمله دوم اعراب است، سعی در تخريب دهکده از طريق تشويق غارت گران و «مسلمان» کردن مردم مهرپرست آن دارد. بعد هم ادعا کرده اند که زبان مردم ميمند به دليل زندگی در غارها «دستنخورده» مانده و کلمات «ساسانی» در آن موجود است. فکر نکنم لازم باشد که کسی تخصصی در تاريخ يا زبان شناسی ايران داشته باشد که بتواند مشکلات موجود در اين «گزارش» را ببيند و تاسف بخورد >>>

LIFE

I am no longer waiting

Why, out of nothingness, I hear this voice?

24-May-2009 (4 comments)
It's sick, it's been sick for a very long time. As I sit here by its bedside,I hear it taking its last breaths. I am waiting. I only recently found out it was sick, but I was told it had been sick for a very long time. I had never seen the signs. How could I have known? It had always been that way, ever since I first met it, it had been sick. It was never well. No one told me. I am waiting. It sometimes goes into a coma and my heart stops beating, stops hoping. Is it really gone?Can this be? But it always comes back, regains consciousness; I keep on hoping. I am waiting.>>>

STORY

فراتر از باور

مردی پر از میلگرد

24-May-2009 (one comment)
شما هم «عجیب‌تر از علم» می‌خوانید؟ آن مطلب را درباره مردی که از کنار یک گودبرداری ساختمانی رد می‌شده خوانده‌اید؟ همان که ناگهان می‌افتد توی گودبرداری، روی میلگردها؟ میلگردها در تنش فرو می‌روند. یکی از زیر دنده‌هایش می‌رود تو و از طرف دیگر درمی‌آید. یکی هم از کنار رانش رد می‌شود. درست یادم نیست. چند میلگرد دیگر هم در تنش فرو می‌روند. ولی مرد نمرده است. صورت مرد رو به آسمان است. بین زمین و هوا. مرد لابد آسمان را نگاه می‌کرده که ابرهایش با سرعت رد می‌شدند. مرد شاید از ناهار برمی‌گشته است. سعی می‌کند ساعتش را نگاه کند. درد از زیر سینه می‌پیچد تا زیر گلو. کارگرها بالای گود برداری مرد را نگاه می‌کنند. سر کارگر با بی‌سیم با کسی حرف می‌زند. >>>

POETRY

Far away love
24-May-2009 (3 comments)
She was a precious soul
Her heart spacious and free
He, was an Imperial soldier
A grandiose oak tree

The two souls merged as one
In no time were they in love
Entangled was their mind and
Enchanted was their heart >>>

STORY

A Tourist in Iran

“Strange man!” said Farideh's father as he watched the Tourist walk away down the street

22-May-2009 (4 comments)
“I love the beards,” said the man at the internet cafe to the Tourist, stroking his chin ironically. “They are very good for people like me.”
“Why's that?” asked the Tourist.
“You must have a drink. Come inside. You want a coke? Please, I insist.” He beckoned the Tourist up the stairs to the door of his cafe.
“Yes, sure. Thanks. Sorry, what's your name?”
“I am called Roozbeh. You can call me Rooz.”
Inside the cafe the Tourist took a bottle of coke and sipped on it. The two of them sat beside a desk at one end of the internet cafe. Roozbeh fiddled purposefully with his mobile phone as he stuck a straw in his bottle, as though to imply he was taking time out of his busy schedule to talk to the Tourist. >>>

STORY

تعطیلات ساندویچ

تازه گرم شده بودم که احساس کردم منصور از شنیدن اشعار بند تنبانی من دارد حالش به هم می خورد

22-May-2009 (5 comments)
نمیدانم این خاطره ای که برایتان تعریف میکنم متعلق به کدام تعطیل ساندویچی است. منظورم اینه که اغلب روزهای سال در کشور ما تعطیل عمومی است، تا عادت میکنی بری سرکار یک دفعه می زنه و مثلاً یکشنبه تعطیل میشه و چون جمعه و پنجشنبه ها هم در ایران تعطیل است، دولت هم شنبه را که اصطلاحاً روز ساندویچی ( روز کاری گیر کرده بین دو روز تعطیل) نامیده می شود، تعطیل اعلام و یک دفعه می بینی که چهار روز متوالی تعطیل هستی. تقویم ما پر است از اینگونه تعطیلات ساندویچ. اغلب مردم از این تعطیلات برای مسافرت استفاده میکنند تا خستگی چند روزی را که به اصطلاح کار کرده اند در آورند.نمیدانم چرا من با خانواده ام به مسافرت نرفتم و عیالم به اتفاق بچه ها و همراه خانواده برادرش رهسپار شمال شدند و آن روز از خدا خواسته در منزل تنها شدم. معتادان گرامی خوب میدانند که وقتی خونه خلوت است جان میدهد برای تریاک کشی و عرق خوری و چرت و پرت گویی>>>

POETRY

When Will You Return?
22-May-2009 (one comment)
You came so late, Parmida!
My face and hair have turned so white
and my shoulders have sunken--
as if I have been waiting
for you in all the terminals of the world;
as though my shoulders
have wept in all the stations of the world! >>>

POETRY

You Must Remember
22-May-2009 (2 comments)
You must remember to forgive
but not to forget
to hold on
and let go
to hold hands with the
wind blowing to the end of the earth
taking what's left and what shall remain >>>

ART

Staying alive

Staying alive

Paintings

by Sima Chakamian
20-May-2009 (13 comments)

>>>

EXCERPT

Morality & marriage

"Sexual Politics in Modern Iran"

20-May-2009 (9 comments)
The 1979 Islamic revolution was not a wholesale return to the past; rather, the new state reinvented and expanded certain retrogressive cultural practices and presented them as what Foucault has called a “regime of truth” through modern technologies of power. As part of its commitment to modernity, the Islamist state continued the literacy and health campaigns of the Pahlavi era. It also created, alongside the army and the police force, a parallel series of paramilitary forces. As soon as the regime attained some degree of authority, it established a new juridical discourse on sexuality, whose underlying theme was granting more power over women’s sexuality and reproductive functions to the state and to men, while also reversing modern trends in love and marriage.>>>

STORY

 مترجم ساعتی

از همان ابتدا احساس می کردم این اسم یه جورایی برایم آشنا است. خودش بود: "عباس کثافت"

20-May-2009 (8 comments)
دو هفته پیش ترجمه همزمان دادگاه متهم فارسی زبانی را بهم داده بودند که با خودش نزدیک یک کیلو تریاک از مشهد آورده بود و مدام اصرار داشت که دکترش برایش تجویز کرده و معنی این سوال را که حالا چرا دکتر دو و نیم پوند تریاک آنهم برای مدت کوتاه یک ماه سفر توریستی به آمریکا را تجویز کرده را هم اصلا نمی فهمید. آخرش هم کلی به من فحش و بد و بیراه ناموسی به من داد که تو هموطنت را فروختی و خائنی و پدر مادر نداری. هرچی هم با احترام سعی می کردم برایش توضیح دهم که بابا وظیفه من فقط مترجمی است و کاری به جز ترجمه حرفهای شما و ترجمه حرفهای قاضی برای شما ندارم، رگ گردنش کلفت تر می شد و سرآخر هم با کلی احوالپرسی از اقوام اناث نسبی حقیر به بازداشت برگشت>>>

POETRY

Repentance
20-May-2009 (4 comments)
Oh, Lord, forgive Thou me,

Not as Thou forgavest Thy children, Eve and Adam.

They tremble still

Behind the trees of Eden,

In awe of Thy mighty strides.

And they clutch the stolen green fruit

In their small hands >>>

POETRY

The Wise Woman's Stone
20-May-2009 (5 comments)
A wise woman with a heart of gold
Travelling in the mountains ice-cold
Found a priceless gem in a river
And concealed it in her satchel fold.

Next day she met another walker
Who was a worn and hungry hawker
The woman opened her bag to share
Her food with the youth, a smooth-talker. >>>