Prince and Qajar Prince

One of the greatest musicians of our generation, Prince would have been 62 today.

Keshit Look-alike

It’s very windy today in London. I’ve just spotted this broken branch which reminded me of the aerial view of Keshit Village in Kerman Province, Iran.

Zip in the Sky

May Day

>> Click here for more look-alikes

Open-air

"In one hand holding
A cup of wine
In the other caressing your hair
What I really yearn for
Is dancing with you in the open-air!"

My free translation of this beautiful fragment from a poem by Rumi:

یک دست جام باده و یک دست زلف یار
رقصی چنین میانه میدانم آرزوست

Khayyam

The cup created masterfully for you to take
Even a drunk consider impertinent to break

So many beautiful heads and feet, from top to toe
Created by whose love, shattered by whose woe

My translation of one of my favourite quatrains by Khayyam:

ترکیب پیاله‌ای که درهم پیوست
بشکستن آن روا نمیدارد مست

چندین سر و پای نازنین از سر و دست
از مهر که پیوست و به کین که شکست

Hafez in time of pandemic

How sweet the flowers are!
Enjoy them now, for they
As quickly as they bloomed
Will fall and fade away.

We're all friends here my dear,
Sing love songs! Why should you
Sing yet again? As that
Has gone, so this must too!

~ Hafez Shirazi

گل عزیز است غنیمت شمریدش صحبت
که به باغ آمد از این راه و از آن خواهد شد

مطربا مجلس انس است غزل خوان و سرود
چند گویی که چنین رفت و چنان خواهد شد

Tree of life

I can see a Persian cypress in my Turkish coffee reading

Fire and Water

A police water cannon spraying disinfectant against the coronavirus in the street in Tehran & a scene from Mad Max.

Early 20th century musicians in Iran

Early 20th century musicians in Iran; retouched and colourised by @arefadib

Spring and all its flowers by Hafez

Spring and all its flowers
now joyously break their vow of silence.
It is time for celebration, not for lying low;
You too — weed out those roots of sadness from your heart.

The Sabaa wind arrives;
and in deep resonance, the flower
passionately rips open its garments,
thrusting itself from itself.

The Way of Truth, learn from the clarity of water,
Learn freedom from the spreading grass.

Pay close attention to the artistry of the Sabaa wind,
that wafts in pollen from afar,
And ripples the beautiful tresses
of the fields of hyacinth flowers.

From the privacy of the harem, the virgin bud slips out,
revealing herself under the morning star,
branding your heart and your faith
with beauty.

And frenzied bulbul flies madly out of the House of Sadness
to unite with the flowers;
its love-crazed cry like a thousand-trumpet blast.

Hafez says, and the experienced old ones concur:

All you really need
is to tell those Stories
of the Fair Ones and the Goblet of Wine.

Hafez (1315-1390) - English version by Homayun Taba & Marguerite Theophil

بهار و گل طرب انگیز گشت و توبه شکن
به شادی رخ گل بیخ غم ز دل برکن

رسید باد صبا غنچه در هواداری
ز خود برون شد و بر خود درید پیراهن

طریق صدق بیاموز از آب صافی دل
به راستی طلب آزادگی ز سرو چمن

ز دستبرد صبا گرد گل کلاله نگر
شکنج گیسوی سنبل ببین به روی سمن

عروس غنچه رسید از حرم به طالع سعد
بعینه دل و دین می‌برد به وجه حسن

صفیر بلبل شوریده و نفیر هزار
برای وصل گل آمد برون ز بیت حزن

حدیث صحبت خوبان و جام باده بگو
به قول حافظ و فتوی پیر صاحب فن

Pinner

Pinner House

Pinner High Street

St John the Baptist, Pinner