Attar: 'The Conference of the Birds' (1187 A.D.), Part the Third

Attar, The Conference of the Birds (1187 C.E.), translated by Sholeh Wolpé. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2017. 

Sufi Bounce: some of this dovetails with Buddhism and other "Eastern" outlooks, as well as with all sorts of forms of mysticism in various corners of the globe. It also seems like common sense, if only such good sense was more common.

"Whatever you imagine you must have
lasts but for a moment . . .

If you're thrilled at a desire fulfilled,
don't boast; it's just a flash of joy.
If your mood darkens when things go wrong for you,
don't cry; this too is fleeting. . ."

(pages 177-178).

On direction (very important in a bird's life):

"Without direction, you suffer great hardship,
like a stray dog wandering the streets.
Such a dog endures many hardships, yet for what?"

(page 188).

"Do unto others as you would have done to yourself. That so-called infidel has shown fidelity and loyalty; where is yours?"

("Parable of a Dishonorable Warrior," page 206).

"A worthy seer of secrets
is never audacious from rudeness.
To the one who holds civility on his left
and respect on her right,
a moment of audacity is possible."

(page 209).

"As long as you're steeped in your own illusions,
your cries and prayers are worthless, my dear . . .

If you give in to the ego, even for an instant, arrows will shower you from all directions . . ."

(page 223). 

Today's Rune: Defense. lllustrations: Birds from the Panchatantra, Walters Museum; Islamic Medical Manuscripts, National Library of Medicine.

Attar: 'The Conference of the Birds' (1187 A.D.) , Part the Second

Attar, The Conference of the Birds (1187 C.E.), translated by Sholeh Wolpé. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2017. 

Another flight with this feathery Sufi-inspired work by Persian herbalist and poet Farīd ud-Dīn Aṭṭār of Nishapur (circa 1145-1220/21).

"The shadow and its maker are one and the same,
so get over surfaces and delve into mysteries." (page 78).

From the story of the Christian girl:

"Her eyes were agents of calamitous love; her eyebrows, twin arches of temptation. A single glance at her beauty stripped her lovers of reason."   (page 87).

"Tonight I burn in longing; I've no stamina for love's mayhem." (page 89).

"Love's labor is not superficial work. Safety is not compatible with love." (page 95).

"As empathetic as you may be, you can't understand what hasn't happened to you."  (page 99).

The Hoopoe to the Weak Bird:

"If this quest is wrong and in vain,
and if we die of distress from it right now,
then so what?
Mistakes abound in this world --
add this one to the list."

And here's one for a new Trump Tower ("Parable of the Ostentatious Merchant"):

"Out of vanity, a merchant built a golden mansion. He then invited everyone he knew to his new home with great affectation and pride, so that they could see it and be amazed. On the day of the big reception, the merchant was running around making arrangements when he came upon a Wayfarer.

That lover of the Path said to the merchant: 'Crude fellow, I would love to come this very moment to your mansion to take a shit, but I have to run; please accept my apologies.'

And with this, he took his leave."  (pages 158-159). 

Today's Rune: Partnership. 

Attar: 'The Conference of the Birds' (1187 A.D.) , Part the First

Attar, The Conference of the Birds (1187 C.E.), translated by Sholeh Wolpé. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2017. 

Such a cool Sufi-inspired work by Persian herbalist and poet Farīd ud-Dīn Aṭṭār of Nishapur (circa 1145-1220/21)!

At a global conference of the birds, a leader is chosen to guide a volunteer flock of various types to seek the Simorgh, the Great Bird (aka godhead or avatar of Paradise). Most of the the birds are either too scared to go, or find other reasons. But the vast flight journey is indeed made in a self-selecting migration. . .

The Hoopoe becomes migration leader. Addressing the conference of the birds, he addresses people of the 21st century, too:

"Cast off the shame of narcissism.
How long will you keep this faithlessness, this disgrace?
. . . Surrender your ego and step into the Path,
cross that threshhold [threshold] dancing."  (Page 43).

As various birds try to get out of the adventure, the Hoopoe responds. The Heron, for example, wants only to love water, inland or by the sea.

The Hoopoe replies:

"Heron, you know nothing of the sea.
It is full of crocodiles and fierce creatures in its deep . . .
It has smashed many a great ship.
Many have swirled into its cyclone and died . . .

Who can hope for comfort from such a faithless entity?
If you don't step away from the sea,
It will draw you in and drown you . . ." (pages 67-68).

Another message for the 21st century:

"You who are drunk on love of treasures,
suppose you come across one.
You will guard it until you are dead,
and while your life slips away, you gain nothing.
                                     . . . . .
If your heart is flawed by love of gold,
you will enter eternity with a face ugly with greed." (page 70.) 

"This Road is not for the lazy or the idle." (page 74).

(To be continued). 

Today's Rune: Growth.

The Essence of Sufism

John Baldock's Essence of Sufism (Edison, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, 2004) is a primer on Sufi mysticism that includes historical context and discussions of Sufi texts and ideas under the general umbrella of Islam. Sufism is of interest to various seekers and poets, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. 

Rather than summarize, I'll roll out examples.

"All know that the drop merges into the ocean but few know that the ocean merges into the drop" ~ (page 77) ~ Kabir of India, circa 1140-1518.

At another point, the Persian Sufi poet Attar of Nishapur (or Farīd ud-Dīn Attar, circa 1145-1220 A.D.) describes a question and answer session with Rabi'ah al-Basri (of Basra, Iraq, circa 715-800 A.D.), one of many Sufi mystics who were (and are) women. 

Rabi'ah is asked over several lines (to adopt the Joyce Carol Oates title), where are you going, where have you been?

She states that she has come from and will go to "the other world."

'"Then what are you doing in this world?'

'I am making a game of it.'" (page 94). 

Pictured Here: the cover of a version of Farīd ud-Dīn Attar's The Conference of the Birds (1177 A.D.). I love the images and have often imagined a "Court of the Birds." Baldock notes that Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1342-1400 A.D.) wrote a somewhat comparable, if much shorter, poem sometimes named "The Parliament of Birds" and "The Parlement of Foules," circa 1382.

Later, Baldock gives us these lines: "[T]hey have become a mirror in which nothing is seen but the reflection of another . . . They are a mirror in which all we see is an image of ourselves" (page 110). 

Paraphrasing the Persian Sufi Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273 A.D.):

"If you are a traveller, it's best to take counsel with fellow travellers rather than stay-at-homes" (page 190).

This barely touches the surface of The Essence of Sufism, let alone the full range of the mystical Sufi worldview. But it's better than a stick in the eye, I hope! 

Later, perhaps, something about Fatima of Nishapur and Nunah Fatima bint ibn al-Muthanna, i.e. Fátima de Córdoba, among others ~ ranging from India to Persia to Iraq to North Africa to Spain ~ and more in between ~ and without ~ and within. 

Today's Rune: Fertility. 

In Praise of Limes and Lemons

If you were to compare lemons and limes, limes and lemons, what would you say?

Limes are lime green, lemons are lemon yellow.

Lemons have seeds, limes don't (with exceptions like the Key lime variety).

Lemons and limes can be mixed, combined together to juice up a gin and tonic, for example.

The lime (lima in Spanish, like the capital of Peru) originates from Persia (Iran) and Iraq, but is now grown in various places around the world, including Mexico and the USA.

The lemon (limone in Spanish) originates from China, India and in between, and is also now grown in various other places, including North America.

Lemons tend to be larger than limes -- though such is not the case in the ones I recently purchased (pictured above), thanks in part to drought.

If something is a dud, it's sometimes called a lemon, but not a lime. Why? I don't know and am too lazy to look it up at this juncture. Do you know?

Personally, I like lemons and limes, with a tilt to the lime for its zestier pop to the taste buds.

Sometimes on a hot night, I love to squeeze lime juice into a tall mug or glass filled with Cerveza Modelo Especial, the rather sharp, thirst-quenching Mexican lager. (A bottle's worth delivers about 145 calories, by the way).

If the limes run out, lemon juice alone or even a little lemonade can be mixed with just about any lager to make a shandy or panache, though for me, a little added lemon juice goes a long way. Limes are better. 

Today's Rune: Wholeness. 

Asghar Farhadi: Jodái-e Náder az Simin / A Separation

Asghar Farhadi's Jodái-e Náder az Simin / A Separation (2011) takes place entirely in Tehran while delving into intricate social interactions among contemporary Iranians. On the one hand, it's excruciating, and on the other, absorbing and amazing. Certainly it's engaging. One comes away from Farhadi's work with some kind of better insight into how Iranian society functions, how men and women and children relate, how ethics, morality and the law relate, and how familiar yet distinctive modern Tehran feels. The characters are like people in many other places in the world as they deal with adult care, education, jobs, cars, mobile phones, food and drink, movement, contemplation and choices to make.

I'm not often a fan of kids in films, but in A Separation, the two main ones are excellent and provide important points of view regarding everything else that's going on around them. Their expressions speak volumes, and when they speak, what they say is particularly meaningful. 

The closest thing that I can think of among American films is Tamara Jenkins' The Savages (starring Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, 2007), which I also liked a great deal.

Made on a relatively shoestring budget of less than the equivalent of one million US dollars, A Separation has done exceedingly well with critics and at the international box office. It even made over seven million bucks in the USA -- and won an Academy Award, too.

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.      

The Devil's Double

Lee Tamahori's The Devil's Double (2011) spotlights Dominic Cooper in the twin roles of Saddam Hussein's deranged son Uday and his double, Latif Yahia (on whose memoir the movie is based). It's good, violent in the way mobster movies usually are, with the spectacle of Uday Hussein standing in for all Caligula-type psychopaths thrust into positions of power in various places down through the ages. Caligula (or "Bootsy," 12-41 AD), the Roman Emperor, has a particularly bad reputation due to his excessive cruelty and flippant decision-making (such as appointing a favorite horse to be Proconsul). 

On the one hand, Uday Hussein (1965-2003) represents a universal archetype of unchecked abuse of power vested in individual people. On the other, the moviewatcher may learn more specifically about modern Iraq, the Iran-Iraq War and the Persian Gulf War -- the historical backdrop to the story of Uday and his decoy-double.

The idea of doubles is not new, and Saddam Hussein is said to have had several. In one memorable scene (due to its surreal imagery) in The Devil's Double, two Saddams are seen playing each other in a game of tennis. Creepy, man -- the stuff of doppelgänger nightmares.

Today's Rune: Defense.

Argo

Ben Affleck's Argo (2012) does great work in conveying the sense of dread and volatility surrounding the Iranian Revolution (1979-present) and American and Canadian diplomatic staff trapped in country in late 1979 and early 1980. Beyond this scary milieu, the added excitement is seeing plans conceived and then attempted to extricate six of the Americans without them being killed or imprisoned. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Added bonus: learning a little more about the situation then as backdrop to events in 2012 and right on down the pike through 2013 and beyond.

Argo stars Affleck (as CIA operative Tony Mendez), Alan Arkin, John Goodman and Bryan Cranston, among a solid ensemble cast. As additional dramatic backdrop to the events shown in the film, there's Senator Teddy Kennedy's democratic primary challenge to President Jimmy Carter, blamed by Carter himself for his ultimate defeat in the 1980 general election. Kennedy later went on to defeat challenger Mitt Romney in the Massachusetts senatorial race in 1994. Indeed, the ghost of Ted Kennedy (1932-2009) hovers over both Argo and the 2012 presidential election.  

Here's an image of a stamp depicting the original Argo, the mythical ship that transported Jason and the Argonauts during their search for the Golden Fleece. Orpheus went along and saved the crew from the deadly song of the Sirens by playing his own music over them. Orpheus again?  Oh, yes. Argo/argos is derived in its Greek origins from something like "shining," last I checked.

Today's Rune: Joy. 

Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud: Poulet aux prunes / Chicken with Plums

Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Poulet aux prunes /  Chicken with Plums (2011), set mostly in Iran in the 1950s, is a movie I can get behind 100%. It's cool and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing it on the big screen. It's an eclectic mix that feels as if steeped in Persian traditions that are thousands of years old, dosed up with surrealism and magical realism. It seems a little like Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843), flavored with a cupful of Thomas Mann's Der Tod in Venedig / A Death in Venice (1912) and a strong added dash of Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu / In Search of Lost Time / Remembrance of Things Past (1913-1931). Oh, yeah, this too: Poulet aux prunes features special appearances by Azraël, the Angel of Death and it's also quite funny in parts. What's not to love? On top of this, it can be seen as an allegory about Iran and its exiles, Iran and its artists. Impressive.                                                                                                                                                           

The actors in Poulet aux prunes are fantastic. Mathieu Amalric -- undoubtedly known best by millions across the globe as a Bond villain -- plays the often comically passionate artiste Nasser-Ali Khan. Maria de Medeiros (Anaïs Nin in Henry and June; also appeared in Pulp Fiction, among many other films) plays Nasser-Ali's arranged wife. The whole cast is a joy, but for now, let's add Isabella Rossellini (Parvine, Nasser-Ali's mother), Édouard Baer (an impish Azraël, reminding me a lot of Peter Sellers) and Golshifteh Farahani (Irâne, or Iran -- Nasser-Ali's absurdly beautiful muse). 

      

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Women Without Men: Behind the Scenes

I keep musing about Shiran Neshat's Women Without Men (2009), made in collaboration with Shoja Azari, based on the 1990 novella by Shahrnush Parsipur and set in Iran in 1953. All the stranger because 1953 is the exact same time frame for the movie discussed in yesterday's post, Next Stop, Greenwich Village. In both films, things are happening against the global backdrop of the Cold War. This is manifested by the Rosenberg executions on June 19, 1953 in the one and in the other, the 28 Mordad coup d'état  (aka "Operation Boot") of August 19, 1953.

The DVD version of Women Without Men (at least the one I saw) includes extras, all interesting. There are samples of other work by Shiran Neshat and Azari, there's a "Behind the Scenes" mini-documentary, and also a Q & A at the Walker Art Center (in Minneapolis) taped on April 16, 2010, featuring Neshat and Azari, both of whom are sharply articulate.  

Here's my jumble of additional notes -- many phrases are direct quotations or paraphrases from Shiran Neshat and Shoja Azari that I jotted down while watching the DVD "extras."

Magic-realism (magical realism)

Parallels, cinematographer Martin Gschlacht

Naturalistic, power of the image

Tableaus -- while keeping the thread of the story

Tracking shots, blocking shots, resurrection shot, from the earth into a pool –

She is a ghost going into the water

Archival footage to recreate the iconic look of the time -- 1953

She could see everyone but they couldn’t see her

Highly stylized film

Party convergence at end

Displacement and exile

Two realistic characters and two unworldly characters

Jesus-Mary Magdalene evocation

Three classes of society

Lower, middle (traditional) and upper

Encompasses worldly and unworldly, political and spiritual

Struggle for survival

Universal connections

A study of the anatomy of a patriarchy

Burden, “patriarchy is at the core of despotism in Iranian society”

The dilemma of freedom

Changes to novella

Munis conceptual -- novella more as stories

A world – inner and outer worlds

Space

Timeless

Tehran 1953 / timeless garden/orchard  Eden / sanctuary, could be life after death

Orchard/garden exile/refuge, uncanny/otherworldly

1953 coup and installation of the Shah by UK and US --- Pivotal moment laying groundwork for Islamic Revolution of 1979

A remembrance of pre-coup Iran

Politicians live by discontinuity

“if you don’t have any location in history you wouldn’t know” the context – the present situation anywhere seems eternal but it is not, it's based in history and subject to change, differing perceptions

Iran was more cosmopolitan, connected to the world culture -- this has been decimated by the '79 Revolution and its aftermath

Film shot in Morocco

Nomadic artists (Shiran Neshat, Shoja Azari, Shahrnush Parsipur, and many others) because denied basic human rights in Iran

Command and clarity, closer to truth – artists still living in country

Hybrid artists – memory, removed from source

Exodus 

Iran in 1953, a nation struggling for egalitarian democracy

Balanced approach

Radio as symbol

Farsi language

Imagery rooted in Persian Islamic literature, art -- and Western (such as Ophelia)

Divided between two worlds

Nomads – a state of in between

An otherworldly place is the orchard garden

Next project may include The Palace of Dreams (Albanian setting)

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.   

Shirin Neshat: Women Without Men, Take II

Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men (2009) reminds me in a good way of the work of several other favorite filmmakers, including Luis Buñuel, Costa-Gavras, Deepa Mehta and Gillo Pontecorvo. Intentionally or not, it seems as if Women Without Men is paying homage to, having a dialogue with and picking up from where these others left off in past films, while adding additional concerns.  

 This scene could be captioned Men Without Women. Here, uniformed men with guns chase men in white shirts with knives and a flag. "What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" It's a scene very reminscent of something from a Costa-Gavras or Pontecorvo film, with detailed emphasis on composition and contrast. Comparative examples: La battaglia di Algeri / The Battle of Algiers (1966), Z (1969), Queimada / Burn! (1969) and Missing (1982).      

Here, Faezeh (Pegah Ferydoni) walks alone down a deserted road, a scene that's repeated in variations during the course of the movie. Anyone familiar with Luis Buñuel's 1972 Academy Award-winning surrealist masterpiece Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie / The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie would recognize very similar imagery in that film. But there is a key difference, and the clue is in the titles: Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men emphasizes women and gender roles while Buñuel's is emphasizing socio-economic class. Also, Buñuel employs humor and satire whereas Neshat employs forlorn beauty and stark tragedy. The sensual feel of Neshat's film is more akin to Deepa Mehta's Fire (1996) Earth (1998) and Water (2005).  

Today's Rune: Initiation.