A swiss couple in Tehran

Swiss couple with an Iranian family, my family, in Tehran on the last day of Norooz Holiday

It took us less than 5 minutes to discover that we are friends and that we love each other. My deep belief is that we, the people of the world, the stars of this vast universe are all friends unless proved otherwise. And my belief also is that no wars raged by so many ugly monsters throughout history have ever managed to prove otherwise. This picture is a proof.

Dear Len,

I have told my dear friend, Sue from Denver, USA that you have kindly accepted to speak to her about your trip to Iran.  Sue is an American writer and a lover of literature, philosophy and other cultures. She and I have been friends for many years now.  She has been dreaming, as she says, of traveling to Iran for a long time, but the trip seems a bit difficult to her, partly due to the lack of information that exists about the true nature of my country in the west.

If you allow us she will send her possible questions to you and speak to you about her feelings towards Iran through this web log.

With kind regards,
Ali your friend from Iran

Dear Mrs. Park and Professor Berggren

I am so honored and delighted that you have accepted my invitation to join this blog.  I will try to speak more of Iran in my own writings and show part of it to you through my pictures.  A mere two-day or two-week stay in Iran is far less than necessary to visit a country who enjoys a life of several thousands years -- a country which enjoys so much diversity in its culture.

With very best regards,
Ali

Let us read Henry David Thoreau's Walden together

Leave the hustles and bustles of life in a mega city like Tehran behind and on the wings of dreams fly to Solitude with Henry David Thoreau. I have started to translate chapter "Solitude" in Thoreau's masterpiece Walden.  Sue has been with me in this wonderful journey since the beginning. 


Here in solitude Thoreau seeks more unity with nature.  In the beginning of this chapter, he says, "I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself."  In another sentence, later in the chapter, a very strange thing happens when he says, "For what reason have I this vast range and circuit, some square miles of unfrequented forest, for my privacy, abandoned to me by men?"   

What I would like to discuss is why Thoreau does not simply say "people" or more naturally "other men" here in this sentence?  He is a man after all.  My own hypothesis is that he is so dissolved in his solitude in nature that he is surprised at man's recognition of him in any form.  Perhaps that is why he is ending the sentence with a question mark and uses the word "men" instead of at least "other men".

Here is the sentence again: "For what reason have I this vast range and circuit, some square miles of unfrequented forest, for my privacy, abandoned to me by men?"   Yes, indeed! A part of nature should be dissolved and lost in nature.

Ali 

Touring Iran: Damavand

Reaching for the sky

The picture shows Damavand mountain.  Situated in the north east of Tehran, it is the highest mountain in the Alborz range, the tallest point in the Middle East and also the highest volcano in the whole Asian continent.   Despite its might and huge size, the mountain has its own place in the heart of all Iranians.  Here is the place where all the other mountains in the Alborz range pour all their spirit in a single place and do their best to rise and touch the sky.

Days have dawned both physically and symbolically on Damavand for thousands of years

And just before dawn, Damavand has its own night time stories to tell.  One of them is about Zahak the snake-shouldered.  One day I heard from my late father that Satan, in the form of a beautiful woman, put a kiss on each shoulder of the savage king where two horrible snakes emerged later. Satan then told the king that in order for him to survive he had to feed the snakes on the brains of two young men each day otherwise the snakes would eat his own brain at the time of their hunger.

Soon the kitchens of the killer king were filled with blood and the brains of so many young people which were boiling in his pots.  In the end, Fereidoon, assisted by Kave-ye Ahangar (=Kaveh the blacksmith), captured the tyrant king, trapped him inside a cave in Damavand and let snakes, which by then had grown into huge dragons, do their job. 

This is how Damavand has come to become a symbol of pride and resistance in the Persian mythology.  This is the way that Damavand keeps the memory of my father alive.

Showing the sky to the birds and reminding them to fly

Mountains are the harbingers of the day.  They are the first to receive the arriving rays of the sunlight . . . the first to salute the sun.

Have you ever thought why the sun always kisses mountains first?  Perhaps because even in total darkness, they continue to reach for the sky and look for the light which they know will arrive.

Damavand also dreams although its heart is made of stone

And these dreams swirl playfully around.

Holding the snows in its arms before the sun

This is the way the dreams come through.  Nights end and winters melt.  The picture shows Damavand in winter.  Snows always melt and flow to our blooming gardens to reach the petals in each flower.