Arts and Literature

سفری به دیروز

ای کودک قشنگ اشک تو نبیند مادر
قوی باش پدر در زندان نماند تا آخر
هر لحظه که دل برای پدر گیر می شود
امید آور که او با تو پیر می شود
ای زن زیبا ای درخشان آنان که توهین به انسان می کنند
ایمان و افکار را محکوم و در زندان می کنند
نمی دانند آنان که خنده و عشق در فال توست
گوشان که نبرد در راه آزادی مال توست >>>

Shah vs. Khomeini: Round 1

After the 1953 coup, Shah’s reign as an autocratic monarch started. Similar to his father’s rule, soon the parliament became a rubberstamp of the royal decrees, and the political rights were in effect suspended. However, it still took the Shah another decade before he could gain the absolute power over his court, the army and the Persian nobility. Meanwhile, he had to contend with his family, who were forcing him into divorces and remarriages; the power-hungry generals of his army, who were planning coups behind his back; and the older and wiser nobility, who were trying to teach and mentor him! Besides, the country was dirt poor and most people were illiterate and living in abject poverty>>>

First Khanom

Since becoming president in 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become one of the most widely known Iranian politicians. In direct contrast, his wife has been one of the most discreet spouses in Iranian political history. The world got its first glimpse of her in 2005, after she accompanied her husband on a trip to Malaysia. However, she did not speak any words and has hardly ever appeared in front of cameras since then. What was even more mysterious was her identity. She was only referred to as Mrs. Ahmadinejad in the very few reports which mentioned her. Her real identity was strongly protected>>>

Three Gifts

One day my father called us and said:
I have three gifts for you--
A red heart, an hourglass, and...
O God, I don't remember the other one.
Mehdy took the heart
Opened its two halves
And strummed the strings of its chambers. >>>

Our Friend the Atom

Malek Khanoum walked several steps from the minivan and took in a lungful of air. “The jasmines must be in bloom,” she smiled. Her voice was the same, confident and declarative. She had aged less than I imagined, but she dressed differently now. Brown headscarf, dark shoes like two eggplants, covered from neck to ankle in drab gray. Only her face showed. She had never worn makeup. Never needed it, even when she used to wear strikingly modern dresses and flashy high heels. I wondered how gray she had turned beneath her scarf. Her hair was once, as the American poet puts it, “one warrior innocent of defeat.”>>>

Give Me Back My Story

“Rooster” is one of those associations that connects me to major roads of my past, to the intersections from which different paths of association branch out. I can take any of these roads and soon be traveling to different spaces of my life and identity. It links me with many clusters of memories, to the street I was raised in, to my mother’s colleague Raana, to my playmates and a zoo we created together, to Americans, and to our yard which is itself associated with many other faces and stories. Finally I got you there. Now you are curious, asking, “How is it that your yard is associated with roosters? That is a good question that opens up a whole story of its own>>>

مسیر زندگی

دوست قدیمی از تونشنیده بودم بس مدتی
دورانه پرسیدمت تا بدانم چه یاد داری

گفتی که روزی بیش از سی سال پیش
با من و خواهر توپ بازی روی میز کردی کم وبیش

جمله افزودی که این دیدار آسان نوجوانانه
برایت مهم بود و مسیر زندگی عوض کرد >>>

Christmas Eve

“Go talk to your professors, do something. The entire summer you worked for the university and they paid you nothing,” she wiped her tears.

“I owe them tuitions for the last two semesters.”

“Talk to the Foreign Students Advisor. Tell her we’ve two small kids.”

“I already did. She said that’s the university policy. If there is a balance, they garnish my income.”

“They do what to your income?” >>>

تو

یاد تو از روزگار من نمی گذرد
نمی نگرد
به خواب ناتمام تمام شب
پس من کیم؟
یا حد اقل  در چه زمانی سیر می کنم؟
شاعر روزهای سرد
شاعر روزهای بی حماسه >>>

عطر خوش بختی

به فروشگاه عطرهای چینی سر زدم تا شاید عطر خوش بختی را پیدا کنم .جیمز فروشنده جوان فروشگاه هر چه گشت عطری را که با نام صدایش کرده بودم پیدا نکرد .دیگر خسته از جستجوی چند ماهه شده بودم. ساعت کهنه ی دیواری پنج بار نواخت و جیمز خودش را برای بستن مغازه آماده کرد. وقتی عقربه ی ساعت شصت ثانیه را گذراند در تارو پود کنار پنچره عطر را پیدا کردم. خودش بود. با همان نام و با همان مشخصات! دو بسته ی گلبرگ گل سرخ هم خریدم تا وقتی بیایی روی سرت از بالای تخت بریزم. خودت بهتر از هر کسی می دانی چقدر گل سرخ دوست دارم. بویش همیشه مستم می کند. مادر قبل از اینکه به خانه ی آقای خدا برود گل های تازه در باغچه ی خانه کاشته بود! >>>

Cinema Paradiso

Somewhere in the night
The moon in the gutter
The magic flute
Wings of desire
Heart like a wheel
A man and a woman
Made for each other
Falling in love. >>>

1953 to 1979

Unfortunately, Mosaddegh’s second year in the office unravelled all the gains of his first! He proved to be much better as the speaker for opposition than the leader of government, and much more resourceful in weakness than tactful in power. His emotional and authoritative style (my way or no way) soon upset and aggravated most of the nationalist and Islamist allies, who gradually turned into sworn enemies. Finally, when Mosaddegh lost the majority support in Majles, he simply dissolved it, in order to prevent the parliament from voting him out of the office! >>>

One Cannot Have Love

I want your gaze
Not your eyes.
I want your kiss
Not your lips.
I want your hug
Not your arms. >>>

Feb. 11, 1979 - Feb. 11, 2009

When narcissist idealist
Takes over the moment,
However imperfect the moment’s truth,
When dust in the wind
Becomes vanishing motto,
Blasting this house apart, >>>