Arash Zeini

Bahman Farmanara’s (بهمن فرمان‌آرا) movie A House Built on Water (خانه‌ای روی آب) begins with a dark screen, or shall we say darkness, and Ahmad Shamlou’s (احمد شاملو) voice reciting a very beautiful poem by Mawlānā Jalāl-ad Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (مولانا جلال الدین محمد رومی). I know Mawlānā’s poetry mostly via Iranian music, and the little that I know about his life I have read in anthologies of his poetry. So, I am no Rūmī expert but consider من غلام قمرم to be one of his most beautiful poems. It is probably not a coincidence that Shamlou’s collection begins with this poem. Even though this one is all over the Internet, I wanted to have it on my blog, so here it goes:

من غلام قمرم غیر قمر هیچ مگو
پیش من جز سخن شمع و شکر هیچ مگو

سخن رنج مگو جز سخن گنج مگو
ور از این بی خبری رنج مبر هیچ مگو

دوش دیوانه شدم عشق مرا دید و بگفت
آمدم نعره مزن جامه مدر هیچ مگو

گفتم ای عشق من از چیز دگر می ترسم
گفت آن چیز دگر نیست دگر هیچ مگو

من به گوش تو سخن های نهان خواهم گفت
سر بجنبان که بلی جز که به سر هیچ مگو

گفتم این روی فرشته‌ست عجب یا بشر است
گفت این غیر فرشته‌ست و بشر هیچ مگو

گفتم این چیست بگو زیر و زبر خواهم شد
گفت می‌باش چنین زیر و زبر هیچ مگو

ای نشسته تو در این خانۀ پر نقش و خیال
خیز از این خانه برو رخت ببر هیچ مگو

If you ever find a chance to see that movie, don’t miss it! It is worth it, even if you happen to dislike its symbolism.

I found this beautiful oral poem from the Gilbert Islands, Southern Pacific, while I was working on orality:

How deep are my thoughts as I sit on the point of land
Thinking of her tonight,
Her feet are luminous over dark ways,
Even as the moon stepping between clouds,
Her shoulders shine like Kaama in the South
Her hands, in the sitting dance,
Trouble my eyes as the flicker of stars;
And at the lifting of her eyes to mine I am abashed,
I, who have looked undaunted into the sun.

Arthur Grimble describes these poems as `clear-cut gems of diction, polished and repolished with loving care, according to the canons of a technique as exciting as it is beautiful’.