Dear Siyavash: I have not read Mr. Jahan baghlu but as you have said if he is not a good lecturer and a good teacher, it says a lot about the person. A competent and knowledgeable person is able to express the thought more clearly. Darwin, Freud, Vernadsky and Einstein were all genius and even a high school student can understand their idea perfectly. They were like an architect, which have the full pattern of the structure in the head and know very well the relation between the components. The architect later sub contracts the project to others and subcontractors better be a competent people. Sub contractor does not care if the building does not match the surrounding or aesthetically is poor. He operates in small scale. A person calling himself a philosopher cannot act like a sub contractor, their mind should make commonsense. You can visit www.fallosafah.org and read Mr. Kashani to see how his saying makes sense. From poetry to literature, to religion and philosophy his diverse interest are linked like bead in a string. He has thought, contemplated and digested every word, which he says. Which we call “ vahdat dar kesrat”
Mr. Mehdi: Also I do agree with your post, after all “ think globally and act locally “ is the fact and slogan of our current “ post modernity” Gone all those all encompassing universal master plans and grand scheme. But at the same time, I have realized that we Iranian have a very complicated culture, which makes too hard the others to understand it. From our poetry to our cuisine and from our music to our architecture it seems to me we are sort of curved in ourselves so that only ourselves (mahrams) could understand it.. Unlike most cultures that look like a flat land, ours is like a curved cave under the cave. In introduction to “ Haiku”, jointly written by Shamlu and Ali Pashae, Shamlu tells the story of how an American wanted to translate Hafiz into English and how they wanted to prevent him because they thought that was almost impossible. He goes on explaining its why and finally says “ “ bayad bi ghonah tarin sakeneh douzakh bashi ta zakhmeh na sor vehan ve bi adalati ra hess koni. In faryadi nist keh ba ghoosh-e sarat beshnavi, bayad drooneh janat taniin afkanad.”
Actually this did happen to myself. At my work a lady had organized a “ poetry reading “ nights and asked the people if they want to join. I did not join but talked about it with a professor of English, which was hired as an Executive Secretary. We talked about Iranian poetry and she asked me if I had any books on them. I gave her a very well written book on Forugh Farrokhzad. Written by an American scholar Michael C. Hillmann and is titled “ Forugh Farrokhzad and her Poetry; A Lonely Women.” and two audiocassettes of Shamlu’s poetry translated into English. When she returned the book—she had lost the cassettes--- she told me that she liked the story of Forogh’s life but not her poetry because she could not understand what she was talking about. About Shamlu's poem, she said the more she tried to understand the more she got confused. It did not surprise me. As I said before she have a PHD in English and had taught in University. She could not understand Forugh because the issues, which Forugh is talking, were almost absent from her life. She just could not relate to Forugh.
I think it is a two way street. Except very few Western songs, I cannot stand it for most of them. I have listened more than ten times to the Tajik’ s songs which you posted in this site but cannot listen to most of American songs.
I am not sure why our culture is sort of self contained and won’t let to be more open. Under “ Rooz nameh ha” dated 10 Teer 1382. Mr. Kashani has a very good article on “ security and Iranian Architecture ’ which makes sense and I do believe the same applies for our poetry and other aspect of our culture.
PS: By the way I really thank you for song of Tajik. I also have heard them for first time back in Esfahan while I was in Army doing my duty but I had forgotten them completely. Anyhow I owe you a bottle of Ramy Martin for that.
