Month

Archives: poetry

Garden Party, 1640: Iranian Lady entertains European Gentleman

Metropolitian Museum of Art | Isfahan Tile | - - "At the center of this scene, a lady leans on a bolster pillow and languidly holds out a filled cup. Making somewhat…

Image of the Day: “Jonah and the Whale” (Persian Miniature)

Metropolitan Museum of Art | (Persian Miniature Painting) | - - "Jonah and the Whale", Folio from a Jami al-Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles [A medieval World History]) Inscription: In Persian, on the…

Understanding Islam means understanding its and our Multiculturalism

Kishwar Rizvi | (The Conversation) | - - There has been much misinformation about Islam. Reports in Western media tend to perpetuate stereotypes that Islam is a violent religion and Muslim women…

Dylan, the American Left, and What We have Lost

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Bob Dylan would no doubt be as distressed as the American corporate media to see an ideological interpretation of his 1960s anthems that…

Love and Wine (Poem of the Day: Abu Nuwas of Baghdad)

Abū Nuwas al-Hasan ibn Hanī al-Hakamī (756–814) | Love and Wine | - - Ho! a cup, and fill it up, and tell me it is wine, For never will I drink…

Saadi on Impatient Love (Poem of the Day)

By Muslih al-Din "Saadi" Mushrif ibn Abdullah Shirazi | Trans. Reynold A. Nicholson | - - The heart that loves with patience — a stone 'tis, not a heart; Nay, love and…

Walt Whitman: Purpose of the US to found Friendship between East and West

Walt Whitman | Leaves of Grass | - - To the East and to the West To the East and to the West, To the man of the Seaside State and of…

Spirit and Sensuality in the mystical Sufi poetry of Rumi

By Nesreen Akhtarkhavari and Anthony A. Lee, Translators | (Informed Comment) | - - The poems of Rumi, the thirteenth-century teacher, scholar, and poet known simply as Mowlana in the Muslim world,…

Iran: Poet of Gender Discrimination flees Lashes, 11.5 Year Sentence

By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/RL ) | - - To get her first book of poetry past the Iranian censor, Fatemeh Ekhtesari did what other Iranian writers often have to do:…

How Persian Literature shaped the culture of Iran and India

Sunil Sharma interviewed by Maryam Kamali | ( Iranian Medieval History) Sunil Sharma is the Associate Professor of Persianate and Comparative Literature at Boston University’s Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature…

Hip-Hop Hijabis: Spitting Rhymes About Being Muslim And Female

AJ+ | - "Hip-hop is a male-dominated arena. In California, a hip-hop collective of Muslim women are challenging stereotypes about being Muslim, and women, through their lyrics." AJ+: "Hip-Hop Hijabis: Spitting Rhymes…

Fearing NSA, Writers in USA and Worldwide Avoiding controversy, keyword Searches

PEN America | "Global Chilling" PEN America writes: "Global Chilling: The Impact of Mass Surveillance on International Writers is a new report demonstrating the damaging impact of surveillance by the United States…

Halloween Poetry: W. B. Yeats, “All Souls’ Night”

All Souls' Night By W.B. Yeats Midnight has come and the great Christ Church bell And many a lesser bell sound through the room; And it is All Souls' Night. And two…

“In your Wild Dreams, what are you Looking for?” Rubaiyat of Jalalu’d-Din Rumi

Courtesy Anthony A. Lee, here are four poems from his and the late Amin Banani's translation of the quatrains of the great Sufi mystic Mevlana Jalalu'd-Din Rumi: Jalalu'd-Din Rumi, 53 Secrets from…

Maya Angelou: ‘Still I Rise’ (video)

Poet Maya Angelou dies at 86. Maya Angelou reads 'Still I Rise'

The Romantics and the Orient: What English Poetry owes to the Middle East

(By Samar Attar) Many times I have asked myself how can I concentrate on the British Romantic Poets when people in Syria, the country of my birth, have been killing each other…

Pakistani Sufi Anthem: Jhule Lal Dam Mast Qalandar by Nusrat Fateh Ali

Qawwali is the South Asian Muslim equivalent of African-American Gospel music. This particular song celebrates the thirteenth-century Sindhi mystic, Sayyid `Uthman Marwandi, known as Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (1177 – 1274 AD), a…

False Dawn: The 35th Anniversary of Iranian Revolution

(By Farhang Jahanpour) The Iranian revolution succeeded exactly 35 years ago this week. After 37 years of rule, Mohammad Reza Shah left Iran on 16 January 1979, never to return. His nemesis,…

Omar Khayyam (497): “You’re beast and demon, angel, human being”

You who distill within you the whole world, attend to this voice from the realm beyond: You're beast, and demon, angel, human being; whatever you show forth, you are that thing. Translated…

Bringing medieval Persian verse to the West: Dick Davis Interview

PBS Newshour's Jeff Brown interviews Dick Davis, among the foremost Persian scholars and translators of our time, on the delights and glories of Persian poetry. Davis is the translator of Faces of…