Mirdamad Boulevard

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Mirdamad Boulevard
by Multiple Personality Disorder
05-Jul-2011
 

Any time I listen to the song Mirdamad Boulevard tears well up in my eyes.  The lyrics of this song is by Mohammad Ali Sepanlou, and it is sung by her daughter, Shahrzad Sepanlou.  She will be performing live at Yoshi's San Francisco on Sunday July 17th.  I can't wait to see her performance.

The following is my adaptation of the lyrics in English.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Mirdamad Boulevard

O!
Days of tomorrows,
beautiful dreams,
golden words,
trembling skies,
sea of wind and air,
above city of Tehran,
awaiting pending storm,
a cold and heavy one
I sing for you, springing out of myself,
opening my sealed lips for a moment
My ancient home!

A poet walking along your streams,
with a simple message: Good times are to come,
unlike these saddened times!

From groves of Gilan, domes of Sepahan,
alleys of Shiraz to fires of Ahvaz,
sweet smiles!

I sing for you, springing out of myself,
opening my sealed lips for a moment
My ancient home!

Mirdamad Boulevard, in freer times,
will remember us fifty years from now,
in colorful days,
in a sunny day with blue skies,
beyond lonely times,
a picture of friendship,
olden ties

I sing for you, springing out of myself,
opening my sealed lips for a moment

My ancient home!
I sing for you, springing out of myself
opening my sealed lips for a moment
My ancient home!

 

 میرداماد

 

ای روزهای فردا
ای فکر‌های زیبا
ای واژه‌های زرین
ای آسمان لرزان
دریای باد و باران
بالای شهر تهران

در انتظار طوفان
طوفان سرد و سنگین
بهر تو می‌سرایم، از خود برون می‌آیم
لب‌های بسته‌ام را یک لحظه می‌گشایم
ای سرزمین دیرین

یک شاعر پیاده همراه جویبارت
با یک پیامِ ساده خوش باد روزگارت
نه این زمان غمگین

از بیشه‌های گیلان، گنبدهای سپاهان
پس کوچه های شیراز تا آتش‌های اهواز
لبخندهای شیرین

بهر تو می‌سرایم, از خود برون می‌آیم
لب‌های بسته‌ام را یک لحظه می‌گشایم
ای سرزمین دیرین

بلوار میرداماد با لحظه‌های آزاد
پنجاه سال دیگر از ما می‌آورد یاد
در روزهای رنگین
یک روز آفتابی با آسمان آبی
آن سوی عصر غربت
تصویری از رفاقت
پیوندهای پیشین

بهر تو می‌سرایم, از خود برون می‌آیم
لب‌های بسته‌ام را یک لحظه می‌گشایم

ای سرزمین دیرین
بهر تو می‌سرایم از خود برون می‌آیم
لب‌های بسته‌ام را یک لحظه می‌گشایم
ای سرزمین دیرین

 

 

Footnotes

Mirdamad Boulevard: wikipedia

360 degree view of Mirdamad Boulevard

Shahrzad Sepanlou's website

شهرزاد سپانلو از ویکی‌پدیا 

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more from Multiple Personality Disorder
 
Anahid Hojjati

Dear Aynak, thanks for name of "ghasre Mooj"

by Anahid Hojjati on

We used to go there a lot and yes, there was a huge swimming pool.


Nazy Kaviani

Beautiful translation

by Nazy Kaviani on

Excellent work MPD, and on what a beautiful song! I also really enjoyed the nostalgia shared by all on this thread. Thank you all for the heart.


aynak

Pashmak at fun-far

by aynak on

Anahid Jan, sure I remember the Pashmak at fun-far.   Also the mini coaster ride on the left hand side at the enterance and the big ferris wheel.  And yes, Driving Cinema Vanak.   This park was there way before Luna Park and Mini-City.   Actually just a few years prior to revolution, there was a restaurant also on Mirdamad named "Qhasr Moj" if I recall correctly my dads friend was part owner with a great/huge swiming pool ....  That's about all my memoy serves, but with your  help I remembered the mirrors (both they had a concave and convex one, which distorted height and waist).

 MM jan, I don't remember the street you mentioned, by here in Califorina in Santa Cruz we have a road called Mystery Spot with exact same property as you described.

 

 

May we all have good dreams.


Latina

.....

by Latina on

I do plan on buying her CD.

Cheers!


Multiple Personality Disorder

My dear friends,,,

by Multiple Personality Disorder on

.

.

 

I find Shahrzad Sepanlou to be a wonderful lady.  I am only a small volunteer in this venture, the real hard work is being done by others who are working tirelessly to bring this wonderful artist to the Iranian community in the Bay Area.  I hope those who have the time and the means would join us for a great time.

divaneh, Disenchanted, Ari Siletz, Shazde Asdola Mirza, and aynak, it's great to see you here in this blog with your comments.

 


divaneh

Thanks MPD

by divaneh on

Beautiful poem, Beautiful translation. She is a very talented singer and the music is just perfect.


Disenchanted

From Personality disorder to Manic depression! :-)

by Disenchanted on

 

     Thanks for posting!


Ari Siletz

Planning to be at Sepanlou's concert

by Ari Siletz on

Met her at a recent gathering of artists. Shahrzad is even lovlier in person. Woud like to hear her perfrom this song live.

Great translation, MPD!


Shazde Asdola Mirza

A Must See: can't wait to enjoy her performance in Canada

by Shazde Asdola Mirza on

You guys are so lucky that Shahrzad Sepanlou will be performing live at Yoshi's San Francisco on Sunday July 17th. Well instead we have 6 months of winter up here!


MM

nice song: gotta get me some - yes, yes and yes to Aynak

by MM on

Anyone remembers Fan-Far? YES   Joojeh Kabai Hatam? YES  The Zoo? YES 

Wasn't there a street on the western side of Mirdamad Blvd in late 70's where the cars seemed to "roll" uphill due to a perspective-related illusion?


Anahid Hojjati

Dear Aynak, I remember all three places you noted

by Anahid Hojjati on

Fanfar was great fun, I still remember the pashmak and the mirrors that made you look thin or fat. I also remember Hatam and zoo. Wasn't there a Drive in theatre close to Fanfar? On the vanak side, there was a bakery that its ownership or management was by a famous actor, maybe Fardin ? If we are going to discuss vanak, then there was kababi peeshi and of course nice homes.


aynak

Yes Zafar

by aynak on

Although I did not live there, one of my teachers home was there and I used to go there for private tutoring.  (I was basically flunking math and had to  get extra help :)).   I remember my dad driving me there and there was a field nearyby where they had horses and did some horse jump trainings.   On my last visit to Tehran a few years back, it was strange to see all the one story homes replaced by 5-10 story homes.    Luckily, the trees are still there, but so crowded now.

Anyone remembers Fan-Far?   Joojeh Kabai Hatam?   The Zoo?   These are all my memories of that neighborhood.

May we all have good dreams.


Multiple Personality Disorder

Great comments and contributions to this blog,,,

by Multiple Personality Disorder on

.

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and feelings.  Let’s see, the last comment that I replied to late last night was from Red Wine, so keeping up with my blog, while I am busy at work:

ramintork, I believe Mohammad Ali Sepanlou’s poem and Shahrzad’s voice affects all of us emotionally deeply within, the craving that we have for our homeland.

Soosan Khanoom, It seems like the Americans also liked living in Mirdamad Boulavard.

hadi khojinian, Nowadays if the air above Tehran is not dusty it for sure is smoggy.

Anahid Hojjati, From what you and Soosan Khanoom remember from the old days it appears that Mirdamad Boulavard is highly commercialized now.

Unique Ponder, Both of those words have roots in the Persian language.  Great thoughts!

Latina, My dear friend!  Get on an airplane and come for the concrete, and bring your son and his friends.  You can all stay at my friend’s house :O)

Red Wine, Great piece of information.  I remember, from time to time, when the asphalt in an old street in Tehran was removed for re-pavement the old rock lined street would resurface again.

ebi amirhosseini, I am so glad to see you here again in this blog.  I am so glad you like the poem, the song, and the translation.

Monda, I hope to see you again at the concert.

Souri, You get on an airplane too and come to the concert.

Yolanda, Good to see you here again.  Yes, Shahrzad Sepanlou has seen this blog and she likes the translation.  You are also doing a great job with catching my little mistakes. And righ on the fires of Ahvaz. 


yolanda

.........

by yolanda on

Hi! MPD,

   Thank you for translating this beautiful song.....I listened last nite....the lyrics are very nostalgic and touching........I will put this blog and your greatest hit Aghasi blog in the same categoy! I visited the singer's facebook a while ago, she has 18,000 fans on facebook, she also posted Nazy's photo essay there..... What a great partnership that the dad is a poet and the daughter is a singer!

I spotted this song on her facebook, the lyrics are by the controversial Forough Farrokhzad

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztQ-xwYJ_6U

I hope the singer and her dad will find this blog soon! I am sure they will appreciate the beautiful translation of the song.

I was interested in "Fires of Ahvaz".....I was wondering if it is like this? I know Khuzestan is oil-rich.......Wikipedia says oil field is near Ahvaz. I heard Abadanis like to boast about their bravery during I/I war: they put up a fight.....etc!

Thank you for the shark joke! Wow! Iranians are brave!

This singer is different! She seems to enunciate when she sings!

She has flawless skin and should be a spokesperson for Oil of Olay or whatever she is using!

 

 


Souri

Beautiful song, beautiful lady......

by Souri on

Amazing translation!

Great idea, dear MPD ! You did a great job, translating this lyric, full of deep feeling for the wonderful land.....Mirdamad was one of the amazing place in Tehran, at the time I was a teen. I have lots of sweet memories from there.

Thanks for bringing this to the attention of all readers.


Monda

So beautiful

by Monda on

Thank you MPD, for your blog, the wonderful translation of this gorgeous poem and Sepanlou's concert info. 


ebi amirhosseini

MPD jaan

by ebi amirhosseini on

Priceless translation,beautiful song & a great blog. Rarely I see blogs these days on IC(Red Wine's exculded),worth..........

Sepaas aziz.

Ebi aka Haaji


Red Wine

...

by Red Wine on

یادآوری می‌کنیم که قبل از اینکه این بُلوار ساخته شود،این منطقه گُذرگاهی مهم بوده است از بدوِ  مَرکز الخَلافه شهرِ  تَهران.آن منطقه چُو باتلاقی بُوَد و کَم سَنگلاخ و کَم خطر..بدین جهت گُذرَی پیدا کردند تا از آن سرِ  شهر تا بدان یک تهِ  شهر..خَلق الله عبور و مرور کنند.

قبلاً تمام سَنگفرش بوده است و حتی شنیده ایم که زمانیکه مهندسین را آوردند،به لحاظِ  امنّیتِ  شهری و جاده یی،دستور داده شد که راه و خیابان را همانجا بَنا کنند و سنگ را دست نزند،این گونه بَرداشت میشود که ترس از ریزشِ  خیابانِ  شُوسه بوده است و بعداً تصمیم میگیرند که آنرا به سبکِ  جدید ساخته و بلوارش کنند.نکته اینجاست که کمتر کَسْ بداند که آن سنگ که مربوط به دوران پایانیِ  قاجارْ و اوایلِ  ورودِ  میر پَنج اوّل است،کَماکان در چند مِتر پایینتر از ساخته اصلی‌ِ  بلوار،در زیرِ زمین وجود دارد !


Latina

Lovely..........

by Latina on

Thank you for sharing! It is such beautiful music and voice. I am still in Texas so I will not make it to the concert. Maybe I will be lucky and she will come to my area.

MPD, please let me know if she is ever scheduled to come to my area. I would do my best to go and I would take Julio with me. He could benefit from some culture. If his little friend is in town then I would take her too.  It is time she gets to experience Persian culture too. :o)

 

Cheers!

 


پندارنیک

I don't want to politicize a rather poetic blog..........

by پندارنیک on

...but, for me,  there's a  strong sense of nostalgia in here...........I lived in Naft, the North one............From what I knew about my neighborhood, I was pretty sure that  they wouldn't be able to make the desirable changes on their own.......I knew that they needed the help of our honorable fellow-citizens who live in Tehran South.......I was proved right after the last presidential election, and its contested result..................

Thanks........


Anahid Hojjati

My last year of high school, I frequented Mirdamad

by Anahid Hojjati on

For my last year of high school, I went to Tarbiat. Tarbiat was very close to Blvd. Mirdamad. 

 After finishing high school, I still frequented this area  since few of my friends lived there. Even back in 1359, there were boutiques in the area and it had started becoming commercial but obviously not as much as now. I must have had at least four very good friends who lived there. One was a friend whose dad was a writer, Mr Sameei and knew Gholamhossein Saedi. I remember her talking about Saedi. The way Mr. Sepanlou has written about MirDamad, he may have lived there. Being a poet and living so close to Mr. Sameei; a translator and writer, I wonder if the two families knew each other.

MPD, Thanks for beautiful translation.


hadi khojinian

تهران گم شده در غبار

hadi khojinian


Just beautiful !!!


Soosan Khanoom

MPD

by Soosan Khanoom on

My parents built a nice house there .. I think the year was 1351  or 1352 ... We had a beautiful swimming pool, a fig tree , and a garden with lots of flowers ... at that time most of the houses in Mirdamad were like that ..... now , sadly , they have been replaced by ugly tall buildings  .....  it was a nice residential neighborhood but it has now turned to a commercial place with many boutiques and stores .... 

There were also lots of Americans living in the neighborhood  ... some of my best chidhood friends were American kids...... Then , of course,  revolution came and they all left the country ....  I am still in touch with one of them but I have lost track of the rest .....

The School that I attended is one of the oldest schools in Tehran .... It probably had been there long before all the houses being built in Mirdamad .... These days, only Christians are allowed to enroll while before revolution it was open to everyone ... This restriction is imposed on the school by IRI .. 

The street itself was gorgeous  ..... They designed it having " Char Bagheh" Esfahan in mind ... hoping that one day when the trees grow tall it would look like Char Bagh .... But today I do not see any resembles between these two ... again because of all those unnecessary constructions or destructions actually and the fact that trees have been through too many shocks and owes that they have not really grown to be as tall as the trees in Char Bagh .....

Anyway,  still after all these years when I think of Mirdamad .... I think of home ...

 

 

 

 

 

 


ramintork

Hi MPD

by ramintork on

It is my favourite song from Sharzad's songs.

It has the same effect on me too, you are not alone!

Good translation by the way.

 

 


Multiple Personality Disorder

Wow! I am honored to see you here, Red Wine

by Multiple Personality Disorder on

Yes, Shahrzad's voice is very beautiful indeed.  I particularly enjoy the way she sings Persian lyrics in a jazzy style.

Do you have any memories of Mirdamad that you could share with us.  I, myself, didn't live in Tehran that long to have any specific memories of the Boulevard,,, 


Multiple Personality Disorder

I am glad you like the song, Soosan Khanoom,,,

by Multiple Personality Disorder on

I hope you would tell us more about what you remember from the days you lived and grew in Mirdamad,,,


Red Wine

...

by Red Wine on

When I hear this song I feel so close to Iran, Shahrzad has a sweet and powerful voice, is seen to have worked a lot in her songs and she knows very well contemporary Persian music.

Thank you my dear friend MPD for posting this .I feel so good now.


Multiple Personality Disorder

Thank you Yolanda,

by Multiple Personality Disorder on

Yes, it is a jazzy song.  Very emotional.

Ahvaz is not in Abadan, it is outside of it.  Abadan and Ahvaz are two different cities in Khozestan Province, Ahvaz being the provincial capital.

Abadan is located at the mouth of Arvand Rood (Arvand River) to the Persain Gulf, and as such it has many many large and dangerous sharks in the murky waters, but the sharks do not travel all the way upstream of Karoun River to Ahvaz, a distance of about 100 miles or so.

So, here is an Abadani joke; an Abadani guy goes to visit his friend in Ahvad.  His friend tells him, let's go swimming under the Karoun Bridge.  The Abadani guy says, no, I refuse to swim in a river that does not have any sharks in it.  You see, Abadani guys boast a lot, and that's the difference between Abadan and Ahvaz, otherwise they are almost the same.  That's why you were confused, my dear Yolanda.  


Soosan Khanoom

Beautiful ....

by Soosan Khanoom on

First time hearing this song ... it is beautiful ...

especially for me ... I used to live in Mirdamad.  I grew up there ...

My school was there too ...." Mary Institute " ...  A french Catholic school ... 

Mirdamad Street is not as beautiful as it used to be .....  

 Thanks for posting this .... It brought back lots of memories ...

: ) 


yolanda

.........

by yolanda on

Hi MPD,

    Very pretty song.....it sounds jazzy to me 'cause of the saxophone....

Is Ahvaz in Abadan? Or it is a different one?

The 360 view of Mirdamad BLVD is cool.....I played with it and rotated 360....it was fun.......Be back tomorrow!