The whole world fell in love with Obama. A collective smile, a collective tear of joy…Women dream about him and men want to be his best friend, but will it last? We are all keeping our fingers crossed.
Everybody needs a little bit of love in these dark days of uncertainties.
“Cut me a rose, make my tea with the petals…”—from Diana Krall’s very hot “Peel me a grape”—was my inspiration for this next photo. Watch her sing it here and for a better rendition (just sound) go here.
I have to confess that my love of the moment is this guy and not somebody with a glass of champagne in his hand; he has the gift of bringing clarity to obscure, chaotic subjects.
I learned today that Sepandarmaz may be the precursor to Valentine’s Day.
بخوان به نام گل سرخ و عاشقانه بخوان
حدیث عشق بیان کن بدان زبان که تو دانی
My Valentine 2008 post was one of the most visited ones of my entire blog—we are all romantics after all.
Here is another part of Tagore‘s beautiful love poem to tie Valentine, Frank Rich, and his version of the slumdog millionaires…
“Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you,
the love of all man’s days both past and forever:
universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life,
the memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours–
and the songs of every poet past and forever.”
I’d fly
by: Ricardo Concciante
the telephone that never rings,
the letter that the mail won’t bring
could I have had you in my life,
for just a moment in the light?
I want to kiss you night and day,
and watch the sunlight fade away,
the evening twilight on your face,
so beautiful I can’t erase,
I’d fly…
Like an oasis in my life,
a dream that fades into the light,
and now you’re slipped away from me
I live each day so restlessly
mountains and oceans I would cross,
without your love I will be lost
Oh, to the corners of the earth
better or worse,
I’d fly…
I’d fly to bring you back to me
across the mountains and the sea
we’ll find a place forever more
where you are mine and I am yours
I’ll kiss your lips and make you free
for you there is no stopping me
another night I cannot sleep
I toss and turn beneath the sheets
an empty bed where once you slept
a promise only if it’s kept
I’d fly…
I’d fly to bring you back to me
across the mountains and the sea
we’ll find a place forever more
where you are mine and I am yours
I’ll kiss your lips and make you free
for you there is no stopping me
I’d fly
without your love I will be lost
Oh, to the corners of the earth
better or worse
I’d fly…
It’s today: all of yesterday dropped away
among the fingers of the light and the sleeping eyes.
Tomorrow will come on its green footsteps;
no one can stop the river of the dawn.
No one can stop the river of your hands,
your eyes and their sleepiness, my dearest.
You are the trembeling of time, which passes
between the vertical light and the darkening sky.
The sky folds its wings over you,
lifting you, carrying you to my arms with its punctual, mysterious courtesy.
That’s why I sing to the day and to the moon,
to the sea, to time, to all the planets,
to your daily voice, to your nocturnal skin.
Pablo Neruda
…and for the original version of I’d fly (per lei) by Riccardo Cocciante go to utube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGY6pRu6_po
….and for Mon amie la rose, by Francoise Hardy
go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQGNpRnFNgM
…and one of my favorites between Mina e Riccardo Cocciante Amore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OTfEw7qnhs
…and for a twist to Francoise’s, try Natacha Atlas’s version – Mon Amie La Rose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtNnhXxHr7A
Dordaneh jan
So beautiful. This post reminded me of those old good days that we were singing “peal me a grape” together with glasses of veuve Cliquot in our hands!!!”Champagne me”!!
You made my Monday with your blog.
I saw Diana Krall live 7 years ago. She is one of the most amazing preformers. Plus she is so beautiful.
Keep up the good work, you make this world a better place to live on, by your hope and inspiration.
Une rose d’un jour dit à une rose d’une heure : “De mémoire de rose, on n’a jamais vu mourir un jardinier”- Fontenelle
“je ne me lasse pas de cette fable, je ne laisse jamais passer l’occasion de l’écrire ou de la dire ; c’est un des plus parfaits chefs d’oeuvre de la poésie universelle. Elle a dû fleurir en Perse avant le passage de Tamerlan le valeureux guerrier qui dressa dans les plus beaux jardins du monde des pyramides de têtes coupées.
Cela se nomme aujourd’hui l’Iran. Après des siècles, sur les sables gorgés de sang pousse la moisson rouge et noir du fanatisme. Mais la fable exquise demeure. Répétez-la à voix basse, doucement, en fermant les yeux, pour voir les jardins. Et les sentir…Une rose d’un jour dit à une rose d’une heure….
Et voilà exprimé en quelques mots, en une seule image, tout ce qui peut être dit sur les mystères du temps.
René Barjavel dans “Demain le Paradis”
ahhhhhh!!!! absolument délicieuse cette page du cahier de l’écolière. C’est une perle. Quel bonheur de revoir des pages comme celle-ci. Ces lettres que les maîtres/maîtresses préparaient pour nous apprendre à écrire.. Je suis nostalgique de cet apprentissage, et c’est de ce temps-là que jai l’amour des belles lettres au propre comme au figuré, et de l’odeur de l’encre.
Et c’est pour cela que je n’écris qu’au stylo à plume, encre de couleur violette comme à l’école..
Vous écriviez en noir.. ??
Beautiful images as always. I got a Rumi Calendar this Christmas that contains a favorite verse:
With life as short as a half taken breath,
don’t plant anything but love.
Kind of ironic, but I have the Calendar on my office wall …
Acts of Love
If endear is earned
and is meant to identify
two halves
then it composes
one meaning
which means
a token
a knot
a note
a noting in the head
of how it feels
to have your heart
be the dear one
-By Pam Rehm
Love is metaphysical gravity
~R. Buckminster Fuller
J’ai aussi écrit avec une plume et de l’encre. L’encrier était inséré dans un trou pratiqué dans le pupitre de la table d’écolier. Il ya vait deux plumes à l’époque : les “gauloises” et les “sergent-major”.Les “gauloises” devaient être plus souples, of course, que les “sergent-major”.
Obama ne peut qu’être décevant si l’on attend trop de lui, que les doigts soient croisés ou non. J’ai toujours été surpris par cette espérance presque messianique qui pèse sur les hommes politiques “nouveaux”. Cela me fait venir à l’esprit une phrase de John Kennedy : ne vous demandez pas ce que votre pays peut faire pour vous mais ce que vous pouvez faire pour votre pays. Le titre du livre était :” To seek a newer world”, sauf erreur de ma part. Il semble qu’Obama doive prendre la place d’Hercule dans la mythologie contemporaine.On attend de lui qu’il redonne une “virginité” à l’Amérique, de manière à ce qu’elle puisse à nouveau se vivre comme un modèle démocratique censé rendre envieux les autres Etats de la planète; un nouvel “american way of life”, en quelque sorte.
je me souviens des plumes “gauloise” et “sergent-major” pour les avoir utilisées aussi..avec un bonheur sans égal… j’en ai encore dans mon plumier.. et aussi l’encre violette…que je continue d’acheter et utiliser pour le plaisir d’écrire..
Pour le Président Obama, il ne faut pas demander à cet homme de faire des miracles quand on voit l’ampleur de la tâche.Mais, tout ce qu’il entreprendra, et qu’il a, d’ores et déjà entrepris, ne peut qu’être bénéfique à son pays et à tous les autres.
Il a le courage de dépoussiérer les institutions, et faire des appels d’air en ouvrant portes et fenêtres. Un ciel bleu étoilé surplombera l’Amérique, même si des grains subsistent .. pour laver le restant de poussière.
Oui, un nouvel “american way of life”, mais aussi un “worldwide way of life” too..
Lorsque je travaillais, je disais souvent la phrase suivante :
“l’urgent est déjà parti, pour les miracles attendez 24 heures…”.
I believe that the man choosing progress can find a new unity through the full
development of all his human forces, which are produced in three
orientations. These can be presented separately or together: biophifia, love
for humanity and nature, and independence and freedom.
• I believe that love is the main key to open the doors to the „growth“ of man.
Love and union with someone or something outside of oneself, union that
allows one to put oneself into relationship with others, to feel one with others,
without {102} limiting the sense of integrity and independence. Love is a
productive orientation for which it is essential that there be present at the
same time: concern, responsibility, and respect for and knowledge of the
object of the union.
• I believe that the experience of love is the most human and humanizing act
that it is given to man to enjoy and that it, like reason, makes no sense if
conceived in a partial way.
• I believe in the need for „liberty from“ internal and/or external ties, as a
preliminary condition for being able to have „liberty to“ create, build, want to
know, etc., to be able to become a free, active, responsible individual.
• I believe that freedom is the capacity to follow the voice of reason and
knowledge, against the voices of irrational passions; that it is the
emancipation that renders man free and puts him on the way to using his
own rational faculties and to understanding objectively the world and his own
part in it.
• I believe that „struggling for freedom“ has in general had the sole meaning of
struggling against the authority which is imposed, overcoming individual will.
Today, „struggling for freedom“ should mean freeing ourselves individually
and collectively from the „authority“ to which we have submitted „willingly“;
freeing ourselves from the inner forces that necessitate this subjection
because we are incapable of bearing freedom.
• I believe that freedom is not a constant attribute that „we have“ or „we don’t
have“; perhaps there is only one reality: the act of liberating ourselves in the
process of using choices. Every step in life that heightens the maturity of man
heightens his ability to choose the freeing alternative.
• I believe that „freedom of choice“ is not always equal for all men at every
moment. The man with an exclusively necrophilic orientation; who is
narcissistic; or who is symbiotic-incestuous, can only make a regressive
choice. The free man, freed from irrational ties, can no longer make a
regressive choice.
• I believe that the problem of freedom of choice exists only for the man with
contrasting orientations, and also this freedom {103} is always strongly
conditioned by unconscious desires and by placating rationalizations.
• I believe that none can „save“ his fellow man by making a choice for him. To
help him, he can indicate the possible alternatives, with sincerity and love,
I believe that one can and must hope for a sane society that furthers man’s
capacity to love his fellow men, to work and {104} create, to develop his
reason and his objectivity of a sense of himself that is based on the
experience of his productive energy.
• I believe that one can and must hope for the collective regaining of a mental
health that is characterized by the capacity to love and to create; by the
liberation of man from incestuous ties with the clan and the soil; by a sense
of identity based on the experience that the individual has of himself as the
subject and agent of his powers; by the capacity to affect reality inside and
outside of himself and bring about the development of objectivity and reason.
• I believe that inasmuch as this world of ours seems to become mad and
dehumanized, an ever greater number of individuals will feel the need to
associate and work with men who share their worries.
• I believe that these men of good intention should not only arrive at a human
interpretation of the world, but must point the way and work for a possible
transformation. An interpretation without wish for change is useless; a
change without preliminary interpretation is blind.
• I believe in the possible realization of a world in which man can be much,
even if he has little; a world in which the dominant motivation of existence is
not consumption; a world in which „man“ is the end, first and last; a world in
which man can find the way of giving a purpose to his life as well as the
strength to live free and without illusions.
1965 By Erich Fromm
“Grace of Love”
A Poem by : Ibrahim Fakhr-od-Din Iraqi
“My Beloved’s Face”
0 Sweetheart,
of spirit your body is created,
With the black disbelief of your hair
faith is created.
Have you ever heard
about the beauty of Joseph of Egypt?
Your beauty
with twice more grace is created.
From the garden of your cheeks
one rose was picked;
With that rose
the eternal paradise was created.
A cloud of dust rose
in the road to your abode;
With that dust
the spring of eternal life was created.
The anguish of your love
shed the blood of men of heart and mind;
With that blood
ruby and coral were created.
May my body and my soul
be sacrificed for you,
Because your body
with pure soul is created.
I wonder how can I succeed
to be one moment with you,
For, to watch you,
a hundred demons are created.
How long should I drink
the wine of the anguish of your love?
Intoxicated and unconscious
I am created.
By the grace of your love
Iraqi has a wondrous breath
With which
the image of man was created.
Dordaneh joon,
Happy Valentine to you too and loved your photo of two roses in the cup…beautiful!! Very creative and romantic…whoooouuu…!!! you always take us to better places and distract us at least for a short while…hahaha!! keep up the good job…
Love, Soheila
Happy Valentine’s Day to you Dordaneh joon! Thank you for enriching our days with beautiful art, great litterature, and thoughtful conversations.
Here is a poem by Maya Angelou that I like a lot:
Touched by an Angel
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.