Blessed are the Wolves

 

Aksh, My Magic Mountain, Mahmud Kianush

 

 

Blessed Are the Wolves

 

Who art Thou?

Only Thou mayest know,

                                  no one else!

                  

 

 

The wolves are perfect

                                 and sincere

                                             in what they are;

and what they are

is what Thou wantedest them to be.

 

 

 

Yes,

          I know:

Their state of existence is,

                                       in essence,

                                                        almost,

the same as those of Thy other living things:

a struggle for survival,

with,

          perhaps,

                        only one goal:

passing their selfish genes

to their next generations,

                                 with glorious success,

and they themselves

having to be vanished

                                into thy eternal mystery.

 

 

 

The wolves,

like all the rest of Thy living things,

have never been,

                        for a good and proper life,

 in need of any guidance

 through a fellow species

                                      appointed by Thee

as Thy messenger,

to propagate the words of Thy mouth.

 

 

 

What is wrong with us human beings,

proud of being created in Thy likeness,

Oh Thou,

              who remainest unknown forever?

 

 

Mahmud Kianush

1 May 2015

یک گل ده گل صدها گل One Flower, Ten Flowers, Hundreds of Flowers

یک گل ده گل صدها گل

 “One Flower, Ten Flowers, Hundreds of Flowers”

Another beloved poem by Mahmud for children, 

which is sung by Iranian children everywhere, 

specially in Springtime. 

image source: Mahmud Kianush (background art)

video source:

BBC Persian

باد آمد The Wind Came

 موسیقی: فریبرز لاچینی

شعر: ژیلا مساعد، محمود کیانوش، فرهاد شیبانی آواز: سیمین قدیری ----------------------------------------------- باد آمد باد آمد از دریا ابر آورد گلها را با خود برد آنها را پرپر كرد برگ افتاد از شاخه سبزی را زردی برد پروانه رفت از باغ گرما را سردی برد گنجشكان بی آواز در لانه می مانند بچه ها آواز خوشبختی می خوانند

Music: Fariborz Lachini

Lyrics: Mahmoud Kianoosh

Vocals: Simin Qadiri

----------

The wind came, the wind came,

it brought clouds from the sea,

it took the flowers with it and filled them

The leaf fell from the branch,

yellowness took the green,

the butterfly left the garden,

the heat was taken by the cold,

the songless sparrows stay in the nest,

the children sing the song of happiness.

poem by Mahmud Kianush

(The attributions are not clear, there are a few names listed as writers who had some other role, undefined)

video source:

polarisfgh

Atash (Fire) | آتش

آتش

سراینده: محمود کیانوش

موسیقی: کمال طراوتی

Atash (Fire) Lyrics by Mahmud Kianush Composed by Kamal Taravati Performed by Nava Children Choir Pianist: Mahnaz Shadipour From Tuti Sabze Hendi Album Sound technician: Mani Hashemian Fire movie made by Eghbal Taravati Video editing by Mark William Pezzelato Copyright Nava Music Center. All Rights Reserved.

Published on Youtube 15 January 2022

Mahmud Kianush, Nothing is Eternal

  

"To be recited at my departure"

Giles Goodland and i recite Mahmud's poem, "Nothing is Eternal," to fulfill his wish (quoted above). Originally recorded 13 February 2021. Cover image by Katy Kianush.

Link to poem as text: https://mahmudkianushtribute.blogspot.com/p/nothing-is-eternal.html

2023 update

 

دو سال از مرگ محمود کیانوش گذشت

اطلاعات مقاله

• نویسنده,عنایت فانی
• شغل,بی‌بی‌سی
• ۲۲ دی ۱۴۰۱ - ۱۲ ژانویه ۲۰۲۳
• 
  
  
  
• Excerpt in translation:

• The 23rd of January coincides with the second anniversary of the death of Mahmoud Kianoosh, poet, writer, translator, literary critic and radio producer.

  Mahmoud Kianoosh started writing poetry and writing stories from his high school years, and when he was in the fourth grade of high school, he sent his first story to the weekly Nirvi Som, which was a very prestigious publication at that time, and most of its editors, from Khalil Maliki to Jalal Al Ahmad, were branches of the Tudeh party. They were. That short story under the title "Hasan Kakel and his dog" with the pseudonym M. Shabahang was printed. He says:

  "I couldn't believe that my story was published in the same pages that Jalal Al Ahmad's story was published the week before."

  After the fourth grade of high school, Kianoush went to a preparatory school and then became a teacher in a village near Tehran. During his time as a teacher, he also published four other stories in the third force magazine. During this period, with the publication of the weekly magazine Khushe, in which the poems of poets such as Ahmad Shamlou, Nader Naderpour, Mohammad Zohri and others were published, Kianoush, who had previously started writing ghazal and other styles of classical poetry, was drawn to writing new poetry and the first poem In his own words, he sent his "comprehensive" to Kusheh magazine and it was published. He says: "At this time, I started the second period of my literary activity."

  He was translating at the same time, and his first translated book was published under the title "To an Unknown God" by John Steinbeck.

• ...

• Mahmoud Kianoosh produced brilliant programs from 1360, first under the pseudonym of Ustad Moslehuddin Zashki in the "Oral Magazine" program and then under the name of Alizadeh Toosi in the Farsi Radio of the BBC; Including the five hundred and twenty "Letter from London" programs that were broadcast every week on the radio for ten years.

  One of my honors during my years as an editor in the non-news programs of BBC Farsi radio is the very valuable works that Mahmoud Kianoosh produced and performed in that department, including seventy programs "On Stories and Complaints of the Persian Language" and fourteen twenty-minute programs "A Thousand Years of Ghazal" Farsi".

  One of the good qualities of Kianoosh was his continuous research and his great pain was the stupidity of people who accepted common beliefs without question and, as he said, had become accustomed to their own ignorance. But he was not willing to accept this infamous habit of people and he used to argue with people in shops, alleys and streets, in taxis and buses and planted questions in the minds of his audience and made them think. The result of these controversies finally became a book under the title "Besheki, Biswaali".

  In the second year of the absence of this thoughtful and creative person, his place is very empty both in the literary space and in my personal life as a friend of Shafiq, as he says, "sympathetic, sympathetic, and sympathetic".

  • Article in full and additional links: https://www.bbc.com/persian/articles/ckr3y01ngg7o

2022 update

 

My thanks to Katy for these beautiful images of Mahmud's gravesite. 

The family was able to gather this year to honour the memory of Mahmud and Pari.

"On the left is my father’s epitaph in his own words and on the right, our dedication and tribute to him.

You can just see my mother’s memorial in the distance on the right, behind and above my father’s; 

It is very similar in appearance. Unfortunately, they could not be buried side by side 

due to the horrific number of deaths during the first two years of COVID."

Mahmud Kianush

Pari Mansouri