About thirty years ago I painted a picture of a lavender hyacinth with a muted ghost-like figure behind it. Only recently in making my final move from one state to another did I realize that an ancient Persian poem (in what is now Iran) had been the inspiration for my watercolor that I had forgotten and was not uncovered. Sa'adi Shirazi's poem, extolling Muslim virtues and written in the 1300s, was vicariously the inspiration.
Dear Ones,
James Terry White had written his poem, in part quoted on my painting, with the same theme in 1907. It's opening line goes like this:
"If thy of mortal goods are bereft and in thy store there are but left two loaves,
sell one and with the dole, buy hyacinths to feed thy soul."
Sa'di himself wrote:
All human beings in truth are akin,
When fate allots a member pangs and pains,
If, unperturbed, another's grief canst scan,
All in creation share one origin,
No case for other members then remains,
That are not worthy of the name of man.
In this world of beauty shot with terrorism and violence, perhaps our past can inspire militant devastation to metamorphose into harmony inspired by nature.
All through history women have sought means to sooth their souls from the anguish of their lost sons and daughters in endless bloody warrior decapitation either from humans or bombs–all done in revenge. In grief and sorrow women have stuffed cannons the world over with flowers instead of gun powder and swords.
Mame
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