Words, Icons and Music from Near and Middle East,Iran,Lebanon,Egypt,Armenia and Turkey

         by ARIS MOSKOV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Lovers find secret places
inside this violent world
where they make transactions 
with beauty.” 

“Sorrow prepares you for joy.

It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter.” 

Rumi

 

 

My ambition is greater than my effort. My effort is greater than my talent. And my talent is a hostage of my temper. But I persist

Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm 

 

The beauty that fulfils you is beauty that reveals to you the image of your own soul without the distortions of the murky waters of life

Musṭafā Ṣadiq al-Rāfiʿī 

 

 

 

 

''I love your dark and wicked eyes, as deep
as the mysterious evening is deep, and dark
as the spell that dusk casts. I love the vast
seascape of your eyes where sin
hesitates like twilight before flickering past
where luck and chance have been...''

Vahan Teryan

 

 

 

 

''I will build for you each night
A palace luminous
With whole blocks of emerald
And diamond stones.
Shall it be skyblue as your eyes,
Or green as your wishes:
Be, and the palace too shall be.
Sing softly, and obedient it will take you..''

Said Akl

 

 

 

 

''Trees are getting ready for autumn 
this city is that old Istanbul? 
clouds are torn aparts in darkness 
street lights are immediately flashing 
over sidewalks, the smell of rain 
you are a must for me, you are absent ..''

Atila Ilhan