Iran

Quatrain no. 12 in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám concerns the imperative to live in the moment and take our pleasures where we can, disregarding visions of future power or the afterlife, which we may never achieve. XII. “How sweet is mortal Sovranty!”-think some: Others” How blest the Paradise to […]

Iran

“A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse, and Thou:” Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:11

Juan Cole

The eleventh quatrain in the first edition Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám became one of the more famed poems in the English language. It epitomized romance for people in the late 19th and through the 20 century. Nervous young men brought it along on dates to read out as an ice […]

Iran

“With me along some Strip of Herbage Strown:” Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:10

Juan Cole

The tenth quatrain in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám continues the theme of the irrelevance of political power to happiness, which lies instead in love. The Persian originals make clear the meaning here, which is a little cryptic in FitzGerald’s rendering. X. With me along some Strip of Herbage strown […]

Featured

A Reluctant (Iranian) Exile: Minister without Portfolio

Joseph Richard Preville

A Review of Minister Without Portfolio: Memoir of a Reluctant Exile by Hooman Majd. Detroit (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Everybody needs a home. For Iranian-American writer Hooman Majd, finding a home was an elusive pursuit. He lays out his lifelong struggle for identity and belonging in his wonderful new book, Minister Without Portfolio: […]

Featured

Russia, China, reject attempt of E3 to Reimpose Sanctions on Iran over Nuclear Program

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – France, the United Kingdom and Germany (the “E3”) on Thursday sent a formal letter to the UN Security Council asking for snap back sanctions on Iran over its nuclear enrichment activities, which they maintain breach the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or nuclear deal. The joint letter of […]

Fiction

Hossein Asgari’s Desolation speaks powerfully of the Destructiveness of War and the Hope that lies in Fiction

The Conversation

By Michelle Hamadache, Macquarie University (The Conversation) Hossein Asgari’s Desolation tells the story of Amin, an Iranian man whose life and family are shattered when the USS Vincennes shoots down an Iranian passenger plane in 1988. The plane was carrying 290 passengers as well as crew, all of whom were killed. Among the dead was […]

Climate Crisis

Iran’s Water Crisis Opens A New Front With Israel

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

( RFE/ RL ) – Amid soaring temperatures, power blackouts, and widespread water rationing, Pezeshkian painted a grim picture of the nation’s water woes. He warned that “there won’t be any water in the dams by September or October.” Pezeshkian described the situation as “a serious and unimaginable crisis,” pointing to depleted reservoirs and underground […]

Archaeology

Ancient Nomadic Scythians Found to be Ethnically Diverse

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The more genetic history that is done, the more it is clear that ancient ethnonyms, the names given supposed ethnicities, put a variety of peoples under a single rubric. I talked recently about how the Phoenicians, long thought to be what we would now call Lebanese, were actually a multi-ethnic […]

Iran

Ancient Iran’s Paradise Pleasure Gardens: Unimaginable Beauty and Opulence

The Conversation

By Peter Edwell, Macquarie University (The Conversation) – Some of the most enduring ancient myths in the Persian world were centred around gardens of almost unimaginable beauty and opulence. The biblical Garden of Eden and the Epic of Gilgamesh’s Garden of the Gods are prominent examples. In these myths, paradise was an opulent garden of […]