poets-from-iran

"The Shāhnāmeh is the greatest epic in history. It is a treasure trove of ideas, wisdom, advice, help, guidance, and rites. With this immense work, Ferdowsi revived the spirit of serenity, magnanimity, and pride in the Iranian nation, which had lost itself under the weight of the Arab conquest of Iran. It empowered divided Iranian peoples to unite. Most of our poets, even those who worked as tyrannical kings’ eulogists, have used their poems to remind rulers of the right way to run the state, practice justice, and uphold the welfare of the people…In any age, writers have produced works which were in keeping with their society’s needs and which helped and guided the nation."

"Being iconoclastic is only acceptable and desirable if the public—or at least a specific segment of society—is open to it. A literature that the public cannot relate to in any form will not endure. I have been iconoclastic, but I’ve never broken my ties with Iran’s past literature. No one can create a noteworthy work without knowing the tenets of their own language and literature. Language is renewed but it never changes its essence, because the contracts that have come about over time for communication cannot be rescinded so easily. It takes a thousand years before a word, among the thousands of words, dies away in a language or changes its meaning. Literature rests on language. It is a linguistic art. So it cannot sever its relationship with the past. But it can create new methods and styles that differ in structure, form, and content from the past."

"Despite my age, I can almost say that I have never put pen to paper without worrying about censorship. The nightmare of censorship has always cast a shadow over my thoughts. Both under the previous state and under the Islamic state, I have said again and again that, when there is an apparatus for censorship that filters all writing, an apparatus comes into being in every writer’s mind that says: “Don’t write this, they won’t allow it to be published.” But the true writer must ignore these murmurings. The true writer must write. In the end, it will be published one day, on the condition that the writer writes the truth and does not dissemble. Of course, whenever censorship is stringent, most writers resort to metaphor and figurative and symbolic language. And this can help stimulate the imagination. But taking comfort from this fact doesn’t lessen the writer’s dream of attaining freedom."

"the more sincere and intimate the relationship between a work and its reader, the better. So the countries that don’t have walls don’t need windows either, because the entire world is their field of vision and they can establish an unmediated relationship with their readers. I, in turn, envy them their free world."

"ترا میخواهم و دانم که هرگز"

"...هوس در دیدگانش شعله افروخت"

"دلم گرفته است"

"…I was talking to myself when suddenly I saw that we entered the police station."

"Many times Hajji (pilgrim) goes to a distant city but does not see his God"

"My brothers migrated to distant cities."

"With one light, many lights can be lit"

"If you have enemies, don't be upset; Anyone who has no enemies is worthless."

""Oh Beloved, I cast out your love from my heart,"

"If you don't know the right way to drink wine, it is poison. And if you know, it is an antidote."

"The snake should be caught by others"

"I do repent of wine and talk of wine, Of idols fair with charms like silver fine: A lip-repentance and a lustful heart— O God, forgive this penitence of mine!"

"The greatest activity is the remembrance and recollection of the Lord and after that come, in order of preference, purity of life, charity and austerity."

"When people seek the Lord with earnestness and are lost to themselves, God is met."

"He who sacrifices his honor for the sake of the Lord, the Lord thereafter cloaks him with the garment of His honor."

"Continue spiritual practices till the spiritual practices themselves abandon you."

"When the Lord leads one to the Path, he dwells in the Plane of Unity with Him (Tawḥīd) and none expect God knows about his state."

"It is veils that wrap past, present and future time from your view. When the veils are withdrawn one can see all."

"There are some devotees of the Lord who are His beloveds. When they call Him by name, all the birds of air and beasts of the forest stand in silence whilst the angels in heaven shudder and the earth and the heaven and illuminated. Such is the majesty of the utterance of the Name by them that the earth stans quaking."

"Everybody wants to take something to eternity from this world, but there is nothing in this that can find a passage there except egolessness."

"If in any community a person gains enlightenment and nearness of God, God in His grace for his sake forgives the whole community its transgressions."

"A Sufi does not need the light of the sun or the moon, for the Effulgence of the Lord is with him and it is brighter than that of all satellites."

"None could tread one step successfully in the Path without the help of the Lord. One could never succeed by one's personal effort and perseverance."

"O seeker, never think ya hath gained illumination, until for seventy years successively you experience that whilst standing in prayers in Khurasan, you are offering obeisances and bowing in Makkah, and all the treasures of heaven and earth lie bare before your eyes and in spite of all that remain humble and ever in fear lest the Lord many not accept your worship."

"Whosoever by God's grace sees Him sees not creatures. He who attains to the vision of the Lord is lost to himself."

"That Muslim is not praiseworthy who worships and keeps fasts, but he is to be praised in whose scroll of destiny no sin is recorded during the course of a lifetime. And when that stage is reached he fears God and maintains humility."

"Some of the friends of the Lord seated in the world can read the scroll of destiny."

"Whom the Lord guides, the Path is shortened for him."

"God bestows His anguish (Pain) on the enlightened one."

"Dwell in the company of the Lord and forsake the company of the world because one should associate oneself with a friend and there is no friend superior to the Lord."

"God's love claims him whose heart is reduced to ashes for Him."

"Waft, gentle gale, oh waft to Samercand, When next thou visitest that blissful land, The plaint of Khorassania plung'd in woe: Bear to Turania's King our piteous scroll, Whose opening breathes forth all the anguish'd soul, And close denotes whate'er the tortur'd know."

"O mighty Prince, whose majesty sublime Scarce deigns to mount the piebald steed of Time; Whose judgment hits the mark of empire high, As 'twere an arrow quivered in the Sky– To-day hath Heav'n arrayed his cloudy throne, The wind shoots keener shafts than Arish's own; On every mountain-angle snowflakes star The landscape, like a jewelled scimitar. And I have graced my song, as well I may, With the sweet prelude of another's lay. For whose'er of such a day hath sight, (Now chiefly when the tangled locks of Night Fall thickliest) to his mind will come the line, "To-day's the day for tent and fire and wine." The Nine Spheres' influence keep thee safe and fast, While the Four Elements and Six Directions last!"

"The fragrant rose blossoms in the garden; It seems to me, this is the face of my Fairest. The tulip in the green meadow appears to the eye As the face of the Beloved sitting beside me. From afar, the intoxicated narcissus Is my Sweetheart's eye looking out for me. When I see the violets, I say to myself: 'These are his locks, or else my emaculated body.'"

"I am fallen person in a thousand sorrows In each breath my life's looking in end with no sin I am prisoner with no reason fallen in trouble stars have sworn to hurt me the sky has come to fight with me today in pains I'm higher than the yesterday this year my soul's lesser than last year I had many selected friends what has become no one's remain every night the sky's made sad with my painful sadness cryings I fell in jail, why? I don't know I just know: I'm not still nor wicked to much desires I had before oh alas! where is my lost desires"

"The buildings of Nishapur Time had striven to displace And ruin wide from every side had thither its face God willed that men should once again its buildings strive to rise In the reign of Just Abaqa, The Nushirvan of our days Of all the world the lord is he, of all the earth the king Foe-binder, world subduer he, all kingdoms conquering"

"گردوں بہ رنج و درد مارا کشتہ بود اگر پیوند و عمر من نہ شدے نظم جان فضائے"

"Don't be like axe and don't offend anyone Don't be useless like a plane Just be like a saw in your life Do something for yourself and something for others"

"از هر طرفی چهره گشایی که منم در هر صفتی جلوه‌گر آیی که منم با اینهمه گهگاه غلط می‌افتم‎ نادان کس و بله روستایی که منم‎"

"O would that in the world there were no night, That I might ne'er be parted from her lips! No scorpion-sting would sink deep in my heart But for her scorpion coils of darkest hair. If' neath her lip no starry dimple shone, I would not linger with the stars till day; And if she were not cast in beauty's mould, My soul would not be moulded of her love. If I must live without my Well-beloved, O God! I would there were no life for me."

"To ward the kingdom, Fortune took thy sword, And beauty chose thy hand, herself to word. In Heaven for thy decree Fate listening stands, The dinar from its ore sets out to win thy hands."

"Before my lay the riches Of lordly Samarkand, I looked o'er grove and garden, O'er vale and meadow-land. But since my purse was empty, My pocket bare as thread, The rug of joy I folded, From the hall of hope I fled. I had heard in every city Famed scholars oft declare, "Eight are the Paradises, And but one Kawthar there." Here bloom a thousand Edens, A thousand Kawthars foam, But ah me! what avail they, Since I go thirsty home? When hand a dirham lacketh Whilst eye sees all its wish, 'Tis like a head dissevered Within a golden dish."

"Choice wine, whose bitter strength can sweeten best The embittered mind, and flood The air with colour, as when goshawk's breast Is dyed with pheasant's blood"

"A composite whose body is of light, But all its soul and spirit of fiery strain; A star that hath its setting in the mouth, But ever rises on the cheeks again"

"چو کهنه بود و قدیمی بنای نیشابور نهاد روی سوی او خرابی از هر جا خدای خواست که بازش ز نو بنا سازند بعهد دولت نوشیروان عهد ابقا خدایگان جهان پادشاه روی زمین جهانگشای عدوبند، شاه شهرگشا"

"A scene like Paradise! 'Tis not Farkhar Yet all the splendour of Farkhar is there. Kisses of loyal kings imprint the earth, Faces of fair youths fill with light the air. Then look how gold and silver pleiades Bestud the rolling sky of scimitars, And how, like dagger's peral-encrusted haft, Each baldrick shows its blazonry of stars!"