Shahin's Eclectic Weblog

My first landscape painting

هوا بارانی است و فصل پاییز توسط هیلا صدیقی، ترجمه شاهین موزون، 19 آوریل 2011 _ Translation by Shahin Mowzoon of Hila Sedighi's poem in honor of Neda

 

هوا بارانی است و فصل پاییز
گلوی آسمان از بغض لبریز
به سجده آمده ابری که انگار
شده از داغ تابستانه سرریز

It is Autumn and the air is filled with rain

The mouth of the sky is overflowing with rage

A cloud has cast itself in submission

As if beaten down by the summer heat

هوای مدرسه، بوی الفبا

صدای زنگ اوّل محکم و تیز
جزای خنده‌های بی‌مجوّز
و شادی‌ها و تفریحات ناچیز
برای نوجوانی‌های ما بود

فرود خشم و تهمت‌های یکریز

In the school air lingers the scent of ABC

And the first bell sounds a resonating ring

In answer to unpermitted laughter

And simple playful things.

For thus was our youthful days

Subjected to anger and accusations

رسیده اوّل مهر و درون
پُر است از لحضه‌های خاطرانگیز
کلاسِ درس خالی‌مانده از تو
من و گل‌های پژمرده سر میز

The beginning of Fall is here and inside

I am filled with memories of those moments

The classroom is empty without you

Now there is only me and those withering blooms

!هوا پاییزی و بارانی‌ام من
!درونِ خشم خود زندانی‌ام من

That Autumn air, that rain is me!

Encaged in anger that rage is me!

چه فردایِ خوشی را خواب دیدیم
تمام نقشه‌ها بر آب دیدیم
چه دورانی چه رویای عبوری
چه جُستن‌ ها به‌ دنبال ظهوری
من و تو نسل بی‌پرواز بودیم
اسیرِ پنجه‌هایِ باز بودیم
همان بازی که با تیغِ سرانگشت
!به پیش چشم‌های من تورا کشت

What joyous tomorrows we dreamt of
Such designs we saw "writ on water"¹

What times, what dreams of reaching across

Of escape in search of a revelation

You and I were a generation, without wings

Enslaved in the claws of a bloodthirsty beast

That same beast that with a razor knife

In front of my eyes, it took your life!

تمامِ آرزوها را فنا کرد
دودست دوستی‌مان را جدا کرد
تو جام شوکران را سرکشیدی
به ناگه از کنارم پرکشیدی

All our dreams it cast away and shattered

Your hand of friendship in mine it severed

You drank the poison cup with gratitude

And of a sudden from my side took flight

به دانه‌ دانه اشکِ مادرانه
به آن اندیشه‌های جاودانه
به قطره‌ قطره خونِ عشق سوگند
به سوز سینه‌های مانده در بند

For one by one of those motherly tears

For every one of those undying dreams

For every drop of love-spelt blood, I swear

For every bit of heart-felt pain of those enchained

دلم صدپاره شد بر خاک افتاد
به قلبم از غمت صد چاک افتاد

My heart was torn a hundred times

And in a hundred pieces fell upon the dust

بگو آنجا که رفتی، شاد هستی؟

در آن‌ سوی حیات، آزاد هستی؟
هوای نوجوانی خاطرت هست؟
هنوزم عشق میهن در سرت هست؟

Tell me, where you are now are you happy?

On the other side of life are you free?

Do you remember still our youthful days?

Does the love of your land still dwell in your thoughts?

بگو آنجا که رفتی هرزه‌ای نیست؟
تبر تقدیر سرو و سبزه‌ای نیست؟
کسی دزد شعورت نیست آنجا؟

تجاوز به غرورت نیست آنجا؟
خبر از گورهای بی‌نشان هست؟

صدای ضجّه‌های مادران هست؟

Tell me, where you are, are the trees green?

Or have they also been turned in to axes?

There do they brainwash the masses?

Do they also rape the peoples pride there?

Do they have news of unmarked graves?

Can you hear the grief-filled cries of mothers there?

بخوان هم‌درد من، هم‌نسل و هم‌راه

بخوان شعر مرا با حسرت و آه
دوباره اوّل مهر است و پاییز
گلوی آسمان از بغض لبریز
من و میزی که خالی مانده از تو
و گلهایی که پژمرده سر میز

Read on my companions in pain

For we are the same generation

You and I

Tread the same path

 
Autumn arrives again

And the air is filled with rain

The classroom is empty without you

Now there is only me and those withering blooms

1. Reference added by translator to the poet John Keats gravestone who also died at a young age, reference was added since the poet uses the same symbols as are written on Keats gravestone.

 

Guitar Improvisations

I was trying to replicate the Reggaeton rythm on the guitar using spanish-style chord variations.. Click on Play ShahinExperimentalRythm.MPG  to view the video.

Zayn's B-day

Paper based on some of my research

This paper is about analysing the data from the probes orbiting the planet Mars.  To read the paper click here:  Download Engineering_Masters_Research_Paper.pdf

 

A road through the ocean

I took this photo while in the island of Funafuti in the country of Tuvalu.  This is a narrow portion of the island where one side is the ocean and the other the lagoon.

A Translation of Sepehri

من در اين آبادی، پی چيزی می گشتم :
پی خوابی شايد،
پي نوری، ريگی، لبخندی 

In this land, I am seeking something, to find:
A dream maybe,
A sparkle of light, a stone, or a smile

Mountain of Light

Click on photo to load the fullscreen version of the picture

Click here to load the music

Photos of Riaz

For more photos of my nephew Riaz you can click on: http://mowzoon.typepad.com/photos/riaz/

Sea of Light

Translated from the great Varqa

Click here to load the background music (courtesy of amazon clipserver)

It’s morn and the morning breeze
brings,
that spring scented wind
and I taste the fragrance of life
from my beloved's locks of hair

Sample Music Clips

These are some sample clips from my favorite music. You are hearing the music here from the amazon clipserver--you can buy all these CD's at amazon.com.

Debussy 1 2 3
Offenbach 1
Wagner 1
Orff 1 2 3 4 5
Puccini 1 2
Andrew Lloyd Weber 1

Dolce Pontes 1 2
Ofra Haza 1 2 3 4 5 6

Coltrain 1
Nat King Cole 1

Zorba 1

UB40 1 2 3 4

T.S. Eliot's Waste Land

T.S. Eliot’s work “The Waste Land” is a powerful depiction of a world. It is a place that has everything but is devoid of life and so everything becomes nothing. This is a fragmented poem where he writes in a shattered style so the poem itself speaks through its contrasting accents. Here he also introduces timeless dialog that reflects much of what we see today. His prophetic words “I can connect nothing with nothing” show a connected world were meaning is lost. Here the land is a reflection of the people. T.S. Eliot received the Noble Prize for Literature for his work.

This work is a great example of how literature can transcend the bounds of culture and language. This poem is an opposite mirror of Sepehri’s work. Where Sepehri shows life, Eliot shows its non-existence.

Click on the links below to view most of my translation of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land into Persian:

The Waste Land سرزمين لم يزرع

Sample extract:

Rumi's "Dialog With The Soul"

Drowned I the sea of self in itself
Wonder what boundless sea that I am

This is the first poem I translated from Rumi.
Read full translation by clicking here.

Rumi - Death In Love

Embrace death, embrace death,
in this love, death embrace
in this love as death's embraced
all shall live receiving life
Accept death, accepting
Not fearing
Arise above the dust
And rise unto heaven
In death severe the self
That binds your self to yourself
Yourself enslaved, enchained
Take the axe and unchain
Shatter the cell, free that King
Beauteous king, that in death lives
in us all, as kings live
To die then is to descend
And cast away the cloud
From that luminous moon
Be silent, in silence
Does death descend and we
Embrace life, in silence.

This poem from Rumi has been translated by
several others. Persian text is online here.

Hafiz

Come let us spread the roses bed
and in the wine cup cast love's wine
and the heavens let us tear asunder
and roll out anew in its stead
if sorrow does legions send
bent on lover's blood be shed
you and I who hold the cup
will conspire and roll it up

Tahirih (Qurratu'l-'Ayn)

When first I gazed upon your face
our eyes did lock your face to mine
Your sorrow hence I shall recount
each thought each strand of hair entwined
to see your face I then set out
as zephyr wind to cross to find
From house to house and door to door
each way each street, each path each place

MIT Open CourseWare

MIT, one of the world's top universities, has placed all the material for 500 courses on the Internet. They have placed everything on their web site in a move to provide a free educational resource to everyone around the world. Visit the web site at: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

Is there an ocean in space?

I became interested in whether Jupiter's moon Europa has a sub-surface ocean. I wanted to compare the surface on Europa to frozen ice on Earth's oceans. You can get to the research paper if you click on the image of Europa below:

After this research I wanted to understand the mathematics behind combining two fractals so I took a fractal's class and the results are also posted under "super-imposing fractals" in this weblog.

Super-imposing Fractals

If two distinct processes create two differing fractal dimensions (i.e. geological processes--breaking of ice and shifting of icy surfaces) then what happens if the processes get super-imposed? What is the mathematics involved in this? The math attached is perhaps one way to try to answer this. I used both empirical (Mathematica tm) and theoretical approaches yielding similar results.