Soul of World, Soul of Word:

Persian Poets make an offering to the west

In 2003, Azarm Ghareman translated a collection of her favorite mystical Persian poems into English and accompanied the book with a CD recording of the poems in Farsi – a language unfamiliar to most Americans.

She writes:

In the absence of conceptual understanding we can
encounter these words sensuously, with a knowing that lives
not in the mind, but in the body. Indeed, it is the ability to
feel where words that live in the poetic voice come from that
returns us to an awareness that all of our knowing and naming
of the world ultimately rises and falls back into an eternal and
fathomless silence. Soul of world gives birth to itself in soul of
word.

Soul of World, Soul of Word is a personal invocation of the author with her cultural heritage.

It is also a wonderful addition to anyone’s collection who loves mystical poetry, meditation, and healing of the world through the power of language.

Sample Poems

A Tear

A tear lives but once.

It is born in the Heart.

When it is freed,
It rolls down to nurture the arid Soul.

Tears that are stillborn,
are buried in our smiles.

-azarm

Companion

Along the road, you were my companion
Seeking the path, you were my guide

No matter to whom I spoke, it was you who answered
When Sun called Moon to Sky, it was you who shined

In the Night of aloneness, you were my comforter

When I laughed, you were the smile on my lips
When I cried, you were the tears on my face

When I wrote, you were the verse
When I sang, you were the song

Rarely did my heart desire another lover
Then when it did, you came to me in the other

-Sarmad