11/01/2007

Sohrab's Irony

A few years ago, the Emamzadeh in Mashad Ardehal near Kashan, where Sohrab Sepehri is buried was going through a renovation. As a part of the renovation, the plan was to move Sohrab’s grave from where it was to another spot in the graveyard. In Iran and amongst Moslems, exhuming a dead body from the grave is considered a deep insult to the dead. There was a huge social uproar and the plans were changed to exclude the removal. The reconstruction and renovation efforts went on at the Emamzadeh. One day a truck backed onto Sohrab’s grave, and broke the tombstone. This was so ironic, considering on his tombstone, verses of one of his poems say:

If you come to visit me, Come softly and quietly, Lest the thin china of my solitude Is cracked.

I saw this picture today. A crack through the words "the thin china of my solitude" is visible. I wonder whether that tombstone was replaced and the new one is now also cracked, or this is the original tombstone. Either way, I think Sohrab would not be insulted by the irony. I think he is smiling about it, the optimistic, happy poet of our times. Photo by Behrang Barzin. See more pictures of his trip to Iran here.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am always wondering what path Sepehri would have taken and where he would have been today, if he would have lived after revolution.

Anyway, there are several ways to include a piece of music in your post. One way is to upload your desired music on a server in WMA format and use a code like the following in your post inside an ~embed~ tag:

pluginspage="http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/MediaPlayer/" src="http://www.sharemation.com/2bareh/Eres-Cafetacvba.wma" type="application/x-mplayer2" showcontrols="1" autostart="1" loop="0" height="26" width="70"

(with appropriate change of address and ..)

And of course there is always the youtube.com site to which you can give link too.

I hope this helps.

Anonymous said...

wow...the only thing i can say...

Nazy said...

Once Again Jan: Thank you for coming and thank you for the audio tip. I'll try it.

Yes, I wonder about that, too. Though I think the man who was once hired to exterminate locusts but couldn't bring himself to kill them and had to quit his job, would have suffered immensely witnessing some of the misery plaguing our people these days. I think he died when he was happy and that is a relieving thought for me. Thanks again and be good.

Nazy said...

Nima Jan. I hope you are well and thanks for coming.

Daisy said...

Wow, I always learn something new, when I read your blog.

Nazy said...

Thank you Daisy Jan! And, likewise, I always learn something new when I read your blog! Sparkle and shine Daisy Jan.