Middle Eastern Poetry

Are you familiar with Francoise Atlan and the work she did with Constantinople?

I am loving the Enrico Macias - perfect for improv practice

Tinariwen is the Tuareg version of a larger style, Malian Blues:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6V3q-djJD8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRYi89cvr3w

The Malians says that they invented the blues, that it moved to the US with the slave trade... and that's why they play it so well... ?

the album this is in also contains Isabel Bayrakdarian - will be going to see her again in a week ... already over-excited

Cavalli's Giasone tomorrow, George Sawa on k'noun Saturday, Isabel Bayrakdarian next week - it's a good week musically (with dance classes in the middle)

No. She recorded bands?

I have a number of Malian classics (can we say Ali Farka Toure?) in my cd stack - and never forget Amadou & Mariam.

(funny seeing my comment from 6 years ago there)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKaZc2p1aDg

Nice, thanks!

I see that she now lives in Morocco, perhaps the only place on earth where this judeo-arabic culture has survived. There are still quite a few Morroccan Jews who haven't left for Israel, France or Canada.

Vieux Farka Touré - one of the links I gave for Malian Blues - is the son of Ali Farka Touré.

Souad Massi - Faya Layla



Souad Massi is an Algerian singer and composer. The lyrics are about the pre-Islamic tale of the love between Majnoun and Layla (Leila), a sort of Arabic Romeo and Juliet. I don't know which particular poem she is singing but it seems to be in classic Arabic.

Qays and Layla fall in love with each other when they are young, but when they grow up Layla’s father doesn't allow them to be together. Qays becomes obsessed with her and writes poem after poem about his love. People call him "Majnun" ("mad"). He wanders in the desert while Leila is married to another man. His body is found one day lying in a cave, next to his last poem engraved in a nearby stone. The story, possibly based on real facts, was popularized in Persian by Nizami Ganjavi in the 12th century.

The music is jazz/bossa nova. It does work.

The clip shows artist Nadia Amlou's drawings on sand.

Hello everybody.
I've been searching for the original version of a phrase for a while now, but I can't find it. It's a wonderful phrase attributed to iranian poet Jalaluddin Rumi, which has been translated to english as follows: "We were born with wings ; why prefer to crawl through life?" If anybody finds the original in persian, I'd be grateful!

Hi. I've been looking into this, trying to find the original verse but was unsuccesful so far. Perhaps it's a summary of a more elaborate verse?

Wikipedia attributes the quote to Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang. I checked the book on Google Books but it only gives names of authors, not the book or poem whence the quotes come.

Translating back into Persian, it would be something like:
"شما با بال متولد شد، به همین دلیل ترجیح می دهند از طریق زندگی خزیدن؟"


I also found a longer version:

You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust.
You were born with ideals and dreams.
You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.

Thanks a lot! It's really wonderful this longer version. If you have found it also in farsi I'd like to have it!!

Salam Leila. Agar farsi-zabon asti, khodet tarjumani kada metowani, ne? Wo agar nesti, ba kalam e farsi chi kar dari? :-)

Sorry but I learnt farsi with farmers. I'm far too weak to write or translate poetry. The translation I gave in the post above was from a native speaker, not from me.

You could always try google translate...

hehehe . actually ! i know poetry in "urdu" language only

Oi Va Voi is a British Jewish band who does a lot of interesting stuff. This piece mixes Arabic and Hebrew lyrics, and klezmer and Al Andalouz music.

Oi Va Voi - Salaam Shalom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfTRGJC--0w