Sic Semper Tyrannis

So why are you here, comment after comment after comment...?

Contradicting yourself again?  Listen peer-e mard, this is not the place for you.  Why don't you go write another Palestine blog where you're in your comfort zone.  

Plus, are your culture and your great poets so fragile, like the glass that you talk about, that a critical blog--or even an offnesive one--shatters them so easily?  I thought they were mighty and giant and infallible?  A nobody's blog on the internet causes them so much damage?!!  Wow!  How little these people were (and are).  Did not know.

I think that there's no option left for you at this time but to commit suicide.  Your poets have been insulted and  irreparably defamed. Or may be you should hire a lawyer on behalf of Hafez and sue me for defamation.  :-))

A zero who considers himself "Hero"!

           The other day one threw a stone breaking someone House's window. The owner came out screaming at the idiot asking why did he do it!

          The idiot got in a contemplative mood and said, instead of screaming you should do some "soul searching" as why your windows are so weak to break upon meeting a flying stone!

          Folks I am outta here. Internet empowers individuals. But what those individual do with the  power is up to them. Here we see another case of Internet empowering someone with ideas that otherwise could not get audience even among his siblings! ;-)

Isn't it hilarious and sad at the same time

that we are so "gheyrati" over a poet?  I mean, seriously, look at the comments on this thread.  It's like I killed their mothers by calling a poet stupid!!!  You can't make this stuff up!!!  

Wow, what a reflection of our culture!!  I'm so glad I wrote this blog.  We need more of them to cause people to do some serious soul seraching...hopefully that is...if they're not foaming at the mouth and insulting (and writing attack blogs aganist) me!!!

keep it coming people.  Let's see what this culture is all about!!!! 

Germans also invented the jet engine and rocket technology

all in a decade!  What have we done for the past 1400 years?  

Now see the point of the blog?  Or are you still going to continue your personal attacks like a rabid canine? 

Anyone up to

my post guys and gals? No insults or attacks or do you just want to beat on each other. Will a person any one agree to do something other than complain or not.

German great poet Goethe & Hafez!

 This is from Wiki:  "The encounter of Goethe with Hafiz's ghazals became so inspiring to Goethe, that he produced his own "West-Ostlicher Divan" (Oriental Divan) and "led the way to the discovery of Persian poetry by the Romantics", according to Shusha Guppy."

       So Goethe is impressed by Hafez and AO finds him stupid! Hum... That's  a tough choice. Should we go with Goethe or our eminent cultural, literary critic AO?! :-)

       It was Hafez who said:

      Ey magas arseye simorgh na jolan gahe tost

                        Erze khod meebaryo zahmate maa meedaaree

       I am sure this does not make sense to some. They just don't get Persian poetry! Nontheless they express OPINION!

Leave it be TS-9 jaan

Knee jerk reaction is exactly what this guy is about.  Plus, let the guy advertise his book.  May be he will sell a copy and make a buck.  

Ali Parsa

Your comment to AO, full of personal insults says nothing. In fact it makes you look worse, as you have shown a knee jerk reaction without content to your post. 

Mr. Parsa, will look forward to your blog

just like all other blogs that are scheduled to be published against me sooner or later.  :-))

Now JJ really owes me some revenue!!! 

PS- Mr. Parsa - tool a look at your book on Amazon.  If I may suggest, the "description" part--you may want to have it revised and simplified.  The sentences are too long and confusing.   

A. O. needs two eyes to see the truth!

 I am afraid that you do not even have one eye!  Bringing you back in line requires eye transplant which has an extremellyremote hope to restore your vision.

You are off base beyond description. I will have to write a blog to expand my opposition just like some other readers of yours have. For now and to get prepared to read my blog please see my e-book under the title of Literary Tranquilizers at amazon.com

khodee 

Disenchanted - another thing that you don't get

ready for it?  This blog is not about Hafez and Saadi.  It never was. Neither was the other blog or my comments.  It's a about the greater cultural issue.  Hafez and Saadi are just minor characters, and poetry is the setting.   Nonetheless, I do venture to say that Haafez and Saadi were probably pretty stupid in some respects, just like we all are in one way or the other.  

Mullahkosh Jaan - It never fails dude

it never fails.  They get attracted to the stuff like flies to a bug zapper!

AO and Mullahkosh...

            This is nothing personal... But honest to goodness, this is not your cup of tea. You don't even realize how ridiculous it is for you to critique Hafez!

           Let me see if I can give you a glimpse of how it looks like from point of view who knows a thing or two more than you.

            Imagine two grade schoolers on way back from school start ridiculing Einstein's ideas because they find his hair puffy and funny!

         I share with AO the view that we have to examine our cutural heritage but believe me this is not the way to approach it. Hafez was a rebel in his own time.

A new challenge to you all

I have read a great deal about shortcomings of Iranians. How about this. Why don't you all try to do something about it. I have some ideas listed below. Please add your own ideas to them:

• Invent something and file a patent. Does not have to be big even a small idea or a refinement on a process is fine. I have filed 3 so far.
• Start a company or join a startup. This is what fuels the American system. Make jobs and help the nation that gave you a refuge.
• Make a discovery. No matter how minor or major. Discover a new species; planet or a phenomena. Anything just do something for science.
• Write a book a good one; or even a mediocre one. If not that then translate a book to Persian helping  other Iranians.
• Make art anything from painting to music or god forbid poetry. Beauty inspires others to do things.
• Teach an share your knowledge.

Any of the above beats sitting and complaining how about it.

AO jaan

Is it not awesome to see your point validated and proved by the same characters who have been opposing you. Right after you criticize person worship, and the undeserved attention that is given to these poets, guess what? Disjointed comes out all offended because oh no, you had said Hafez is stupid. Well played...

Sure dear AO, next poem

that I will blog (comments not counted) will be about scientific discovery. so remind me if I forget this and blog the next poem and it is not about scientific discovery.

Thank you Anahid jaan for the compliment

Please post more poetry.  It's always refreshing to take a break from work and read them on IC.  

You are free to criticize anything I write

Don't make it into a personal attack issue.  Hafez is a famous historical character.  He is open to criticism, and can be called stupid.  Just like Geqorge Bush can be called stupid (for good reason, I may add).  You want to discuss how good Hafez is, please go right ahead.  We had a person here who used to do that on regular basis.  I don't believe that I ever even commented on her blog (as fars as I can remember).  She was entitled to her opinion and had the right to write whatever she wanted without behing personally attacked.  That's what democracy and free exchange of ideas are all about.

You (and most other Iranians) need to discard this whole antiquated person worship and focus on issues.  If you haven't noticed, (don't worry-didn't place that high of a burden on your limited intelligence) that's what the title of my log is about.  It's meant to break taboos--and to also attract people like you who do not have the intellectual strength to see through the obvious attempt. In your specific case, it seems to have worked on both fronts!

:-) 

Is calling Hafez stupid, STUPID?

               That makes for a better blog! :-) Critiquing Hafez in not something a college sophomore should embark on! Unless of course it means insults, superficial judgments and blogs dozen a dime!

I agree AO

I agree with your comment about shortcomings of Hafez and Saadi being culture driven. I also enjoy your writing. For instance, yesterday, you had a link to a blog that you had written about best things about Iranians. That was a good blog.

There was also a good comment  from another commentator that had written about how wrong it is that Iranians always adapt to bad situation and he had mentioned the reason for it was that they are looking for best in heaven. I have also thought that one problem with Iranians is extreme adaptability of them but I had not connected that to their religious views.

Good point MM overall - Thank you

Also, I have always pondered about this issue as well:

I was also under the impression that even Ferdousi did not know passed the Sassanid period and we have to thank the Greeks who actually wrote down history to know our past.  

Very sad.  Did we have the records and they were destroyed in the Arab invasion, or did we never have them at all?   

Yeah, in disjointed's point of view

"civil discourse" is calling people ignorant, stupid and insane for expressing an opinion.  

Are you still p'ed off because your personal attack blog crashed and burnt? :-)) 

disjointed

Oh no, one of our great poets who we must worship is been insulted. I am sure after a 1000 years burried under the ground, he is really pissed off about a comment on Iranian.com. Was Hafez your lost cousin? Why are you getting so worked up about someone insulting Hafez? p.s. I am glad your blog was removed. It did not deserve to be in the Featured section. You were misrepresenting AO's views big time.That is why, out of the 11 responses you got, 12 of them were yours...By the way, that is Haffezian mathematics...

AO, I would have liked to

AO,

I would have liked to see you write on

Persepolis will cease to exist in less than a decade or

rather than a 20/20 hindsight issue.  Sa'adi and Hafez are not here to defend themselves, but in their defence, I have to say that, first of all, travel as we know it did not exist back then and 70 kilometers was a long ways away to see ruins that even the early explorers thought they were old Jewish ruins (Persepolis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).  And, secondly, c'mon man, there were no may, maykhaneh, saaghi or mahboob to entice the likes of Sa'adi and hafez to old "Jewish" ruins.

I was also under the impression that even Ferdousi did not know passed the Sassanid period and we have to thank the Greeks who actually wrote down history to know our past.  That is why it is ALSO so important to preserve the Persepolis Fortification tablets which have given us a whole new view of the lives of the old Persians: //www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Archaeology/Hakhamaneshian/persepolis_elamite_tablets.htm

Actually Anahid, I enjoyed your poem (as I always do)

I do not deny the value of poetry AT ALL.  Hila Sedighi is one of my favorite heroes.  She's the BEST!!!  

Look, poetry has great value.  It enriches our lietrature, gives meaning to it and beautifies it.  It impacts many peoples' lives.  No doubt about that whatsoever.  

You actually raise a very good point about the impact of religion.  Quite correct.  Shiism has impacted Persian poetry to a great extent.  Hafez and saadi were creatures of their time.  I will even go as far as defending them by saying this: the fact that they were not more curious about their surroundings was probably cultural--mostly religion driven cultural.  We can't really pick on them as individuals.   

Dear JK, the fact that my blog was featured but then removed

           makes a difference. It says admin has judged that it is not appropriate. That is not acceptable. You can't go around throw stone and expect flowers in return.

           One can discuss Hafez poetry and character w/o calling him "stupid" in the title. That is when the vulgarity comes in. this is not a civil discourse. This is replacing insult in the place of content and substance to perhaps get more "clicks"!

The only meaningful question is to ask this fellow: Do you even understand Hafez poems?! I bet my last dollars the real answer is NO!

Dear AO

AO, about mentioning you in the Mr. Noury' s blog, I hope you realize that I did not mean anything bad. Since discussion was about Iranians, you came to mind.

I also believe that some problems attributed to poetry are problems that should be attributed to religion. To the extent someone's poetry has reflected religious beliefs, then they are guilty too. But any way, poets like Hafez lived many centuries ago and even they did not expect to be the sole reference for any one hundreds of years later. Even regarding science, if one studies algebra, they they can ask why this did not explain particles, where is mention of electrons, protons, Mandalief table, Oxidation, etc, etc. Reply is that Algebra is algebra and chemistry explains elements, oxidation, etc, so algebra, physics, painting, poetry, music, chemistry, trigonometry, each have their own place. Some poets write about ills of society when all scientists are silent. you can not deny the value of poets like Mohammad Reza Alipayam and Hilda Sedighi.

Why does he care JK?

Because he's attention starved.  He wrote a personal attack blog expecting people to pile on.  They didn't.  He got embarrassed.  Now he's crying about it.  Incidentally, my blog wasn't featured either!

And yes, Islam, Christianity and Judaism are giant piles of s**t! 

PS- the difference between me and this guy is that I don't attack people personally (unless I am responding to an attack).  He does. 

JK-Iranians do not like to be confronted with their shortcomings

They have created this fantasy bubble that they live in and don't want anyone to pop that bubble.  And I'm not talking about anyone specific here.  That's not my style.  Do I have a tendency to go too far a bit? Perhaps.  But reminders are not too bad.  

Incidentally, this subject keeps being brough up by various people.  Anahid wrote a poem about it just today on Mr. Noury's blog, there was a whole blog written about it (to which this is a response), Mr. Ala keeps bringing it up.  So, really, I'm not the only person.

Again, for the millionth time, I have nothing against poetry and literature.  I just don't believe that we should consider it to be the focal point of our existence.

As usual, people are free to disagree with me and call me whatever they want to call me.   

Dear Disenchanted

"My blog standing up to his nonsense was removed from front page by admin!!"

Why do you care?