Finding Good In The Axis Of Evil

What's the only country that officially celebrates World Poetry Day? I'm betting you would never guess Iran. I admit I was surprised to learn that the Iranian city of Shiraz just wrapped up its week long celebration of the art (World Poetry Day is officially designated March 21 by the United Nations). It featured poetry conferences and events, and the province's aspiring writers were invited to attend and read their work.

The week of cultural celebration contrasts, sadly, with Iran's general climate of cultural inquisition. The British newspaper The Independent recently reported a laundry list of acts of artistic suppression by the Iranian Government. Editors, they note, must heed Islamic guidelines they receive, weekly, from the National Security Council, and works of literature can only be published with approval from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Abiding by these measures, however, doesn't guarantee freedom from persecution. A young novelist who won the country's highest literary award for his approved book was jailed for the behavior of his fictional characters, and a prominent TV personality just got in trouble with authorities for publishing a poem with the line "In my dreams I think of you in the middle of the night."

Ironically, the same religion fueling the suppression of art in Iran once helped it flourish. And Shiraz--still considered Iran's cultural capital --was once a cultural capital of the world. The city is particularly famous for its poetry, having birthed Sa'di and Hafez, two great poets of the Persian Empire (and the middle ages for that matter). Their work (featured below) has influenced and earned the admiration of everyone from Emerson to Goethe to Aleksandr Pushkin.

Though born in Shiraz, Sa'di (1184-1283) traveled widely throughout the Middle East. He was an ardent believer in Islam and an equally strong believer in unity and peace. One of his poems on the subjects is inscribed at the entrance to the UN building in New York. Here's a translation:

Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.

The city's other favorite son, Hafez (14th Century), has been so heavily mythologized that very little is known about his actual life. He is said to have memorized the Koran by heart at a young age and to have sat for forty days contemplating his love for a woman. Here is Hafez's poem "The Woman I Love" (translated by Daniel Ladinsky). It's still moving today.

Because the Woman I love lives
Inside of you,
I lean as close to your body with my words
As I can--
And I think of you all the time, dear pilgrim.
Because the One I love goes with you
Wherever you go,
Hafiz will always be near.
If you sat before me, wayfarer,
With your aura bright from your many
Charms,
My lips could resist rushing to you and needing
To befriend your blushed cheek,
But my eyes can no longer hide
The wondrous fact of who
You Really are.
The Beautiful One whom I adore
Has pitched His royal tent inside of you,
So I will always lean my heart
As close to your soul
As I can.

My favorite Persian poet was a man named Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, or simply Rumi (13th Century). His name literally translates to "Majesty of Religion," and in addition to being celebrated for his writing, he was a renowned theologian. His importance, even today, is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. Here is a terrific poem translated by Stephen Mitchell:

When grapes turn
To wine, they long for our ability to change.
When stars wheel
Around the North Pole,
They are longing for our growing consciousness.
Wine got drunk with us,
Not the other way.
The body developed out of us, not we from it.
We are bees,
And our body is a honeycomb.
We made
The body, cell by cell we made it.

Many people in Iran today are certainly longing for more freedom. Iran's great poets help us to remember this can be achieved with the help of Islam and not despite it.

Comments

[1will]

Poetry...yawn.

[mamacat]

One of my greatest fears is that the McCains and Liebermans of this world will spread Bush's war into Iran.
Without giving any proof, their 24/7 assertion that Iran is already killing Americans and trying to bomb us with nuclear weapons may eventually be accepted by the MSM as "truth", in the way the way the right-wing got most people believing in the need to go to war with Iraq over the "truth" of WMDs.
While there is little doubt that things are not perfect in Iran, that can also be said about the United States. Is the best way to improve conditions in either country to give in to the war mongerers? If both country's leaders vowed not to interfere in domestic issues of the other country, what would it cost to try to have diplomatic relations again?

Regarding references to the islamic nature of Persian society, why do we condemn Iran, while we defend Saudi Arabia with our armed forces? While not advocating interferring in the internal affairs of Saudi Arabia, is not that country far, far more repressive and fundamentalist than Iran?

The lack of common sense and integrity in American foreign and domestic affairs is shocking.

[keemia]

Oh, and no word about Khayyam?!

[fussygorilla]

Unreasonable thought: Your first sentence demonstrates your complete submission to the anti-Iran propaganda, perpetuated by those Iranians who are hostile to Iranian regime. People! Iran has had a REVOLUTION.....and those who had been the beneficiaries of the old corrupt and suppressive regime continue to spread anti-iran stuff. Your Iranian co-worker may have been of Bahai faith, which is regarded as illegitimate cult by Muslims all over the world therefore, confiscation of their property is believed to be legitimate(i personally disagree with this). Obviously, your friend has made it here because Bahais all support their own clan members.
Iran has one of the very few great cultures of the world. Ask your coworker to visit Iran and find out form himself how drastic change has taken place, mostly for good although there are, as in any post-revolutionary society, problems to be resolved.

[Daniel8168]

Thanks for this blog. The Persian culture and other arabic cultures have contributed not only incredible beauty to many schools of art, but they've contributed to and founded important disciplines of science as well. The problems with Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other arabic (and some non-arabic)countries are largely due to the theocratic ideologies of their governments, and not to any general sentiment of their peoples.

[fussygorilla]

Daniel: Persian is not Arab. The contribution to art has been mostly Islamic ( where Iranians were key contributors). You say, " theocratic ideology of the government"/ Jesus, america with only 200 some years history and no culutre, is one of the most theocratic and anti-democratic governments under the rule of the Neocons and Bushy boys.

[Shantee]

Actually I'm not surprised. After watching 'No Country for Old Men' yesterday which I thought was awful and senseless, because of its gratuitous violence, I realized how much I loathe most American films. They're mostly based on fantasy, violence and sleazy sex and just plain boring. Over the years I've been renting DVD's of films from Iran and they're quite exquisite; very simple stories of the human condition, but powerful and well done. I finally decided to go back to reading, which I find more exciting and where i get to use more of my imagination.

[barrista]

I enjoyed No Country for Old Men. It may have been violent, but I was intrigued throughout.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

You have to be able to separate the people of a country from their leadership to get a realistic perspective. The WWII Germans were not mini-Hitlers nor the Russians little replicas of "Uncle Joe". The Iranians are no more like the Mullahs than we are all clones of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, although both Bush and the Mullahs would like their constituents to believe the opposite.

The Iranians overall are an extremely tolerant people who love American culture. They are no more the fanatics we see in photos whipped up into an anti-Western frenzy than we are all born again looney tunes blathering that all Gays are bound for Hell. The whole is not represented by its most extreme elements in any society. The sooner we all learn this, the sooner there will be international cooperation and world peace.

[Purple Girl]

The people We 'hired' and the Irans 'hired' are intentionally theMost Unreliable Interpeters in History. I would love to see a Open Blog for No tonly Iranian Citizens , bu t Iraqi Citizens be ablr to really converse. We are all shoveled so much Crap. I worked with a Gal in the late'80's early '90's who first merely said she was 'Persian' later clarifying Iranian. Once she Realized I did not hold the Iran Hostage Crisis against her- nor did I think she was 'infiltrating' our society, She Felt Proud to state her nationality. We had a great time wrking together.."Oh Sherry" I'd say with her accent as best I could and she would laugh and say "Black Coffee?" in her impression of my nasal Michigan accent - great Fun, great Co worker! We have Far more in Common then WE are allowed to discuss. the Rhetoric of US & tHEM is a crime against Humanity for the Benefit of OIL PROFITEERS. I fear those who refuse to really work out issues (not difference..Issues)

[ChandraSF]

One of my favorite inspirational Rumi poems:

"You are an ocean in a drop of dew,
all the universes in a thin sack,
of blood! What are these pleasures,
then, these joys, these worlds,
that you keep reaching for, hoping,
they will make you more alive?"

[Merlin7]

Extremism is a dogmatic idea -- such as religion -- taken to its logical conclusion. For instance, Christian fundamentalists are perhaps the purest Christians because they take the Bible literally. That's crazy, but religion itself is crazy: Irrational belief is a prerequisite for the true believer.

Oddly, the most dogmatic Westerners -- conservative Republicans -- are the ones quickest to label Islamic extremists as evil, although our Bible-thumpers are in the same intellectual camp as Muslim book-burners and burka-measurers. This black/white view of the world seriously undermines our domestic and foreign policies and seriously threatens our status as a world power. Europe and parts of Asia are quickly outpacing us in many areas, especially economically, and at this rate in a few decades the U.S. will become largely irrelevant -- a second-rate nation with an uneducated, unproductive population and a sluggish, unimaginative federal government. Come to think of it, we have achieved the latter already.

[mommadona]

Great post to start the week off reading.

Thank you.

[GOP4MoreTears]

Imagine that, well said indeed. Kudos.