فرار از قاهره

دولت کانادا -و خب طبعا خیلی دولت‌های دیگه مثل دولت فرانسه- کمک کرده که یه سری از کانادایی‌های مقیم مصر بتونن با هواپیما از قاهره خارج بشن و به خاک کانادا برگردن. اون عده‌ای‌شون که برگشتن تعریف کردن که صدای شلیک گلوله می‌شنیدن و ممکنه آب و برق قاهره قطع بشه و غیره.
خون‌شون که صد در صد از مصری‌ها رنگین‌تره، چون پاسپورت کانادایی دارن. اما سوالم اینه که وقتی داشتن از قاهره خارج می‌شدن و می‌دیدن که رفقا و هم‌محله‌ای‌های مصری‌شون مجبور بودن بمونن توی همون خاک و خل و با مشکلاتی که اونا به راحتی می‌تونستن ازش فرار کنن، دست و پنجه نرم کنن، چه حسی بهشون دست داده؟

Leila Baradaran Jamili on "Joyce"

"Some Persian words are used throughout the text [Finnegans Wake]. Most of these words are basic Persian words used both in daily speech and in written texts. Thus, it gives not only a jolt of pleasure but also so much exquisite joy to the Persian reader. For example, in “Anna Livia Plurabelle,” Joyce successfully used three hundred and fifty river names. In a talk with Max Eastman about this chapter, he remarked on his use of so many river names, and said that he [Joyce] “liked to think how some day, way off in Tibet or Somaliland, (or even in Persia) some boy or girl in reading that little book would be pleased to come upon the name of his or her home river.” The Anna Livia chapter includes the name of Persian river “Arras” or Rud-e Aras in the north-west of Iran."

From here

فریب زبان

چند وقته می‌خواستم راجع به این قضیه بنویسم که چطوری کلمه‌های انگلیسی برام همون مفهومی رو که کلمه‌های فارسی دارن ندارن. یک کتابی رو برمی‌داری و می‌خونی و پر از کلماتی هست که معنی‌شون رو می‌دونی اما هیچ تصویری ازشون توی ذهنت نمیاد موقع خوندن‌شون. ممکنه کتاب پر از توصیف مناظر و چهره‌ی آدمها و لباس‌هاشون باشه، و شما احتیاج دارید که بعد از خوندن هر جمله برای تصور کردن اون منظره یا اون آدمه با اون چهره و لباس خاص، چند لحظه مکث کنید و توی ذهن‌تون اون توصیف رو به تصویر در بیارید.

فرض کنید رفتید وسط یک جنگل خیلی قشنگ سرسبزی ایستادید. ناگهان یک رودخونه می‌بینید. اگر کنار دوستهای انگلیسی‌زبان‌تون باشید، اولین چیزی که به زبان میارید این هست:

What a blue river!

اما ذهن‌تون بر خلاف این فریبی که زبان‌تون می‌خواد بده شنونده رو، داره برای خودش فکر می‌کنه:
عجب رودخونه‌ی آبی‌ای!

برای ما تصاویر دنیای بیرونی همیشه به زبان مادری‌مون در دنیای درونی‌مون نمود پیدا می‌کنن.

و امشب نویسنده‌ای لهستانی رو پیدا کردم که این فکرهای من رو خیلی خوب شرح داده:

"The words I learn now don’t stand for things in the same unquestioned way they did in my native tongue. “River” in Polish was a vital sound, energized with the essence of riverhood, of my rivers, of my being immersed in rivers. “River” in English is cold--a word without an aura. It has no accumulated associations for me, and it does not give off the radiating haze of connotation. It does not evoke." (1989, p. 106)

Eva Hoffman - Lost in Translation

با خط دوم اشک ریختم.

زاینده‌رود
رود خشکید
گلنارو آب برده
توی رودخونه شنا کردیم
سنگ پرت کردیم وسط رودخونه
سفیدرود
جاجرود
رود زلال

In Praise of Redefining Oneself

I was reading this article in The Independent when I suddenly realized what's bothering me so much about America. Yes, America, not Quebec where I currently live in.

What's bothering me is that America is already so defined that everything in it is, was, will be: "Europe is a far more exciting place to live than America at this point in history. That's because while America has largely defined what it is and what it stands for, Europe is in the process of self-definition."

Meanwhile, Iran has changed so tremendously over the past decades that you never know what will become of it tomorrow. You can wake up one day and see that the whole street is in turmoil, or is turned upside down. This change is not necessarily good, but it makes living there more exciting. You open your eyes to a daily struggle every morning.

This is true about Europe too. The article makes a very good comparison:
"Now imagine I'm holding before you an American map. It's looked just that way for some time and is likely to do so for some time into the future. Imagine a European map from pre-1990, with the Soviet bloc in red. Now look forward to what this same map will look like in 2010 with the new entrants to the EU. Europe, in short, hasn't even decided yet where its borders begin and end."

The mentioned argument can be applied to Quebec too. This province has long wanted to be separated from Canada, and has been witness to Quiet Revolutions in the previous century. Its changes are not as massive as Iran's or Europe's, but it certainly has more excitement to it than the rest of Canada or America.

This can be true of human beings too, and is not limited to geographic formations. In life, I find those people more interesting that are constantly in a state of redefining themselves (this must be a concept touched upon by philosophers previously). People with strictly held beliefs, people with ideas that are so sacred that are unlikely to ever change.. they repel me.

What Could Kill You

You would not die from having no paintings
From having no statues to look at
From having no magnanimous pieces of architected edifice
From having no photographs of your memories long past

But you would certainly die without music
and poetry
and words put into melody

Inspiration would still be there too
it could arise from the views
the humans
the madmen

not the picture,
but the picturesque land.


P.S. All this does not make the other arts less worthy
but
to be honest
it kind of does.

Ivy on the Brick Wall

I thought I was a girl of a thousand lands,
vaster, a million lands.
I traveled far and deep into the winter
and found myself a girl without even one
place to call mine.

Maybe if I could buy a house
in a secluded part of town
grow plants in its garden
and water them every morning,
maybe then I could call that place mine,
and with it a whole town,
a whole city,
a whole country would rise to meet and salute me:
"Welcome foreigner! Welcome to your home!"

City

I don't see why you would leave that sonuvabitch!

نامه‌های مهم یک شاعر خیلی مهم‌تر

از خودم شرمنده هستم. این‌همه در تلاشم یه روزی آدم معروفی بشم، بعد همه‌ی آدمای معروف رو که نگاه می‌کنی می‌بینی ازشون یک عالمه نامه‌های مهم و پر از نکته‌ی مربوط به رشته‌شون -ادبیات، فیلم، نقاشی- بعد از مرگشون چاپ شده و اون نامه‌ها رو بعدها توی بیوگرافی‌شون میارن.
من اگر روزی معروف بشم، وقتی که بمیرم تنها نامه‌هایی که ازم پیدا می‌کنن مربوط به شام و ناهاری ئه که پختم و کیکی که عصر از خواب پا شدم درست کردم و خرید سبزی و شیرینی‌ و پنیری که آخر هفته رفتم.

Moins Pénible au Soleil

"Emmenez-moi au bout de la terre
Emmenez-moi au pays des merveilles
Il me semble que la misère
Serait moins pénible au soleil."

"Take me to the end of the world
Take me to the country of wonders
It seems to me that misery
Would be less painful under the sun."

Emmenez-Moi - Charles Aznavour


Surely he hasn't been to Iran.

جالبی‌ش اینه که شارل آزناوور تهران هم اجرا داشته برای فرح. فکر کنم دور و بر سال‌هایی که گلی ترقی تهران نوجوونی می‌کرده و کلاس رقص پیش مادام چی‌چی‌ها می‌رفته.

احتمالا اون زمون دردها توی آفتاب تهران محو می‌شدن.