edgardavidboshart
Feb 23, 20181 min
Shiraz’s air has the smell of money and the fragrance of spices. Like the bazaars in Tehran and other Iranian cities, merchants stuff the caverns of Vakil, constructed in the Middle Ages, with condiments, copper, rugs, cloth and every other imaginable object.
The Ghavam Garden, built during the rule of Naser-ed-din shah by the order of Ali-mohammad khan Ghavam (1257-1267) includes a combined office and museum complex plus the Zinat-ol-molk house — all linked by a tunnel. Decorations include mirror works, paintings, carvings, brick works, fretworks, stone cuttings, plastering and vaulted ceilings. The fixtures and plasters and mirrors reflect back to oneself as daylight fades but casts rays and shadows through porticos and windows. Moonlight turns the garden and house into a poem, the reflections from silver into gold.
"Change rooms in your mind for a day,” Hafez said.
"Oh Cup-bearer, set my glass afire with the light of wine!”
"It seemed that love was an easy thing
But my feet have fallen on difficult ways.”
Hafez
From: 'The Subject Tonight is Love'
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky
Evening: Silver turns to Gold
I
Have
Learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call
Myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
a Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even a pure
Soul.
Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed
Me
Of every concept and image
my mind has ever known.
From: 'The Gift' by Hafez
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky
#mosques #structure #worldhistory #Islam #Iran #Persia #travel #photography