Tie your destiny to a star. Even if you fall, people will look up to you!

-F

Salar Aghili / Hafez Poem : Magic Eyes

Until your hair falls through the fingers of the breeze
My yearning heart lies torn apart with grief
Black as sorcery, your magic eyes
Render this existence an illusion
The dusky mole encircled by your curls
Is like the ink-drop falling in the curve of the jeem (ج)
And wafting tresses in the perfect garden of your face,
Drop like a peacock falling into paradise
My soul searches for the comfort of a glance
Light as the dust arising from your path
Unlike the dust, this earthly body stumbles,
Falling at your threshold, falling fast
Your shadow falls across my frame
Like the breath of Jesus over withered bones
And those who turn to the Ka’aba as their sanctuary
Now with the knowledge of your lips, tumble at the tavern door
O precious love, the suffering of your absence and lost Hafez
Fell and fused together with the ancient past

"Grandiosity" by Robert Bly!

Poems in Three Parts

1

Oh on an early morning I think I shall live forever!
I am wrapped in my joyful flesh
As the grass is wrapped in its clouds of green.

2

Rising from a bed where I dreamt
Of long rides past castles and hot coals
The sun lies happily on my knees;
I have suffered and survived the night
Bathed in dark water like any blade of grass.

3

The strong leaves of the box-elder tree
Plunging in the wind call us to disappear
Into the wilds of the universe
Where we shall sit at the foot of a plant
And live forever like the dust.

Salar Aghili- Hazaran sal ba fitrat nishastam(Farsi Kalam-e-Iqbal with U...

Armand Amar Poem Of The Atoms

ای روز برا که ذره ها رقص کنند
آن کس که از او چرخ و هوا رقص کنند
جانها ز خوشی بی سر و پا رقص کنند
در گوش تو گویم که کجا رقص کنند
هر ذره که در هوا یا در هامون است
نیکو نگرش که همچو ما مفتون است
هر ذره اگر خوش است اگر محذون است
سرگشته خورشید خوش بی چون است

O’ day, arise!

Shine your light, the atoms are dancing.

Thanks to Him the universe is dancing.

overcome with ecstasy,



Free from body and mind

I’ll whisper in your ear where their dance is leading them.

All the atoms in the air and in the desert are dancing,

puzzled and drunken to the ray of light,

they seem insane.



All these atoms are not so different than we are,

happy or miserable,

perplexed and bewildered,

we are all beings in the ray of light from the beloved,

nothing can be said!

Iqbal

فطرت کو خرد کے روبرو کر
تسخیر مقام ِ رنگ بو کر
بے ذوق نہیں اگرچہ فطرت
جو اس سے نہ ہو سکا وہ تو کر

یہ کائنات ابھی نا تمام ہے شائد
کہ آرہی ہے دمادم صدائے کن فیکون

خون رگ معمار کی گرمی سے ہے تعمیر

میخانہ حافظ ہو کہ بت خانہ بہزاد

بے محنت پیہم کوئی جوہر نہیں کھلتا

روشن شرر تیشہ سے ہے خانہ فرہاد

رنگ ہو یا خشت و سنگ ، چنگ ہو یا حرف و صوت

معجزہ فن کی ہے خون جگر سے نمود

نقش ہیں سب ناتمام خونِ جگر کے بغیر

نغمہ ہے سودائے خام خونِ جگر کے بغیر

Kalam-e-Iqbal (مسجد قرطبہ) - Ghulam Ali

Come!

بازآ بازآ هر آنچه هستی بازآ

گر کافر و گبر و بت‌پرستیبازآ

این درگه ما درگه نومیدینیست

صد بار اگر توبه شکستیبازآ

Muhammad Ali Shehki & Mehjabeen Qazalbash(PTV live) -- nawa-i-waqt(Song ...

I think therefore I am?

صورت نپرستم من بتخانہ شکستم من 

آن سیل سبک سیرم ہر بند گسستم من 

در بود و نبود من اندیشہ گمانہا داشت 

از عشق ہویدا شد این نکتہ کہ ہستم من 

در دیر نیاز من در کعبہ نماز من 

زنار بدوشم من تسبیح بدستم من 

سرمایہ درد تو غارت نتوان کردن 

اشکی کہ ز دل خیزد در دیدہ شکستم من 

فرزانہ بہ گفتارم دیوانہ بہ کردارم 

از بادہ شوق تو ہشیارم و مستم من 

Googoosh - Bi Manoto / گوگوش - بی‌ من و تو

خنک آن دم که نشینیم در ایوان من و تو

به دو نقش و به دو صورت به یکی جان من و تو

داد باغ و دم مرغان بدهد آب حیات

آن زمانی که درآییم به بستان من و تو

اختران فلک آیند به نظاره ما

مه خود را بنماییم بدیشان من و تو

من و تو بی‌من و تو جمع شویم از سر ذوق

خوش و فارغ ز خرافات پریشان من و تو

طوطیان فلکی جمله شکرخوار شوند

در مقامی که بخندیم بدان سان من و تو

این عجبتر که من و تو به یکی کنج این جا

هم در این دم به عراقیم و خراسان من و تو

به یکی نقش بر این خاک و بر آن نقش دگر

در بهشت ابدی و شکرستان من و تو

 

Interdisciplinary Research

http://www.nature.com/news/interdisciplinary-research-by-the-numbers-1.18349

شعر از رازق فانی

همه جا دکان رنگ است همه رنگ ميفروشد
دل من به شيشه سوزد همه سنگ ميفروشد
به کرشمه يی نگاهش دل ساده لوح ما را
چه به ناز ميربايد چه قشنگ ميفروشد
شرری بگير و آتش به جهان بزن تو ای آه
ز شراره يی که هر شب دل تنگ ميفروشد
به دکان بخت مردم کی نشسته است يارب
گل خنده ميستاند غم جنگ ميفروشد
دل کس به کس نسوزد به محيط ما به حدی
که غزال چوچه اش را به پلنگ ميفروشد
مدتيست کس نديده گهری به قلزم ما
که صدف هر آنچه دارد به نهنگ ميفروشد
ز تنور طبع فانی تو مجو سرود آرام
مطلب گل از دکانی که تفنگ ميفروشد

در آن نفس که بمیرم در آرزوی تو باشم

http://www.ytpak.com/watch?v=NKD7aCdIMlQ

در آن نفس که بمیرم در آرزوی تو باشم
بدان امید دهم جان که خاک کوی تو باشم
به وقت صبح قیامت که سر ز خاک برآرم
به گفت و گوی تو خیزم به جست و جوی تو باشم
به مجمعی که درآیند شاهدان دو عالم
نظر به سوی تو دارم غلام روی تو باشم
به خوابگاه عدم گر هزار سال بخسبم
ز خواب عاقبت آگه به بوی موی تو باشم
حدیث روضه نگویم گل بهشت نبویم
جمال حور نجویم دوان به سوی تو باشم
می بهشت ننوشم ز دست ساقی رضوان
مرا به باده چه حاجت که مست روی تو باشم

(Saadi)

With my dying breath, I’m wishing for you.

I give my life in hopes I may be dirt on your doorstep.

Dawn of Judgment Day, when I lift my head from dust,

I rise at your word, I go searching for you.

When the beauties of both worlds convene,

I gaze only at you, enslaved to your face.

If I sleep a thousand years in the abode of nothingness,

I will awaken from timeless slumber, alert, at the smell of your hair.

I speak not words of sermon; I smell not the rose of Paradise;

I seek not the beauty of the nymph; I rush towards you alone.

I drink not heaven’s wine from the cupbearer’s hand.

What need have I of wine when intoxicated by your face?


translation by: Michelle Quay

My life

The battles I won
The ones I lost
Those that I did not fight
And that one too!
I died a little in all of them.

Last night, I saw my pain
Looking into my eyes
From that dark corner of the room
It was looking at me
I smiled back
And it smiled a little too!

Avoid Boring People

Let's be strangers again...

What are PIEAS BS(CIS) graduates doing?

I recently did a survey (http://goo.gl/forms/KEj4nPYnMN) of how our PIEAS BS(CIS) alumni were doing. Below is a summary of the results from this survey.

Survey Participation was pretty good. Thanks!

Current Employment Status of BS(CIS) Alumni (shown below) tells us that a good number are self employed. This makes me very happy.

A large proportion of our graduates have gone on to get higher degrees as shown below.

And a good chunk of them are outside Pakistan. Hopefully Pakistan will benefit from their experiences.

Bittersweet - Rumi and Madonna

http://www.ytpak.com/?component=video&task=view&id=EPzryPkHSZQ

In my hallucination
I saw my beloved's flower garden
In my vertigo, in my dizziness
In my drunken haze
Whirling and dancing like a spinning wheel

I saw myself as the source of existence
I was there in the beginning
And I was the spirit of love
Now I am sober
There is only the hangover
And the memory of love
And only the sorrow

I yearn for happiness
I ask for help
I want mercy
And my love says:

Look at me and hear me
Because I am here
Just for that

I am your moon and your moonlight too
I am your flower garden and your water too
I have come all this way, eager for you
Without shoes or shawl

I want you to laugh
To kill all your worries
To love you
To nourish you

Oh sweet bitterness
I will soothe you and heal you
I will bring you roses
I, too, have been covered with thorns

Scientific method Explained by R. P. Feynman

Khayyam

می نوش که عمر جاودانی اینست

خود حاصلت از دور جوانی اینست

هنگام گل و باده و یاران سرمست

http://www.ytpak.com/?component=video&task=view&id=TvbCOd3Yhwk

خوش باش دمی که زندگانی اینست

Rumi

Listen to The Poetry of Rumi in Persian and English by On Being #np on #SoundCloud http://soundcloud.com/onbeing/sets/the-poetry-of-rumi-in-persian-and-english

Rumi's Like that

If anyone asks you about the houris, 
show your face, say: like this. 

If anyone asks you about the moon, 
climb up on the roof, say: "Like this." 

If anyone seeks a fairy, 
let them see your countenance. 

If anyone talks about the aroma of musk, 
untie your hair and say: "Like this." 

If anyone asks: "How do the clouds uncover the moon?" 
untie the front of your robe, knot by knot, say: "Like this." 

If anyone asks: "How did Jesus raise the dead?' 
kiss me on the lips, say: "Like this."

If anyone asks: "What are those killed by love like?" 
direct him to me, say: "Like this." 

If anyone kindly asks you how tall I am, 
show him your arched eyebrows, say: "Like this."

هر کی ز حور پرسدت رخ بنما که همچنین

هر کی ز ماه گویدت بام برآ که همچنین

هر کی پری طلب کند چهره خود بدو نما

هر کی ز مشک دم زند زلف گشا که همچنین

هر کی بگویدت ز مه ابر چگونه وا شود

باز گشا گره گره بند قبا که همچنین

گر ز مسیح پرسدت مرده چگونه زنده کرد

بوسه بده به پیش او جان مرا که همچنین

هر کی بگویدت بگو کشته عشق چون بود

عرضه بده به پیش او جان مرا که همچنین

هر کی ز روی مرحمت از قد من بپرسدت

ابروی خویش عرضه ده گشته دوتا که همچنین

جان ز بدن جدا شود باز درآید اندرون

هین بنما به منکران خانه درآ که همچنین

هر طرفی که بشنوی ناله عاشقانه‌ای

قصه ماست آن همه حق خدا که همچنین

خانه هر فرشته‌ام سینه کبود گشته‌ام

چشم برآر و خوش نگر سوی سما که همچنین

سر وصال دوست را جز به صبا نگفته‌ام

تا به صفای سر خود گفت صبا که همچنین

کوری آنک گوید او بنده به حق کجا رسد

در کف هر یکی بنه شمع صفا که همچنین

گفتم بوی یوسفی شهر به شهر کی رود

بوی حق از جهان هو داد هوا که همچنین

گفتم بوی یوسفی چشم چگونه وادهد

چشم مرا نسیم تو داد ضیا که همچنین

از تبریز شمس دین بوک مگر کرم کند

وز سر لطف برزند سر ز وفا که همچنین

ی ظہور تو شباب زندگی
جلوہ ات تعبیر خواب زندگی
ای زمین از بارگاہت ارجمند
آسمان از بوسۂ بامت بلند
شش جہت روشن ز تاب روی تو
ترک و تاجیک و عرب ہندوی تو
از تو بالا پایۂ این کائنات
فقر تو سرمایۂ این کائنات
در جہان شمع حیات افروختی
بندگان را خواجگی آموختی
بی تو از نابودمندیہا خجل
پیکران این سرای آب و گل
تا دم تو آتشے از گل گشود
تودہ ہای خاک را آدم نمود
ذرہ دامن گیر مہر و ماہ شد
یعنی از نیروی خویش آگاہ شد
تا مرا افتاد بر رویت نظر
از اب و ام گشتۂ ئی محبوب تر
عشق در من آتشی افروخت است
فرصتش بادا کہ جانم سوخت است
نالہ ئی مانند نی سامان من
آن چراغ خانۂ ویران من

Misfit by Parveen Shakir

مس فٹ

کبھی کبھی میں سوچتی ہوں 
مجھ میں لوگوں کو خوش رکھنے کا ملکہ
اتنا کم کیوں ہے
۔کچھ لفظوں سے۔کچھ میرے لہجے سے خفا ہیں 
پہلے میری ماں میری مصروفیت سے
نالاں رہتی تھی
اب یہی گلہ مجھ سے میرے بیٹے کو ہے
رزق کی اندھی دوڑ میں رشتے کتنے پیچھے رہ جاتے ہیں 
جبکہ صورتِ حال تو یہ ہے
میرا گھر میرے عورت ہونے کی 
مجبوری کا پورا لطف اٹھاتا ہے
ہر صبح میرے شانوں پر زمہ داری کا بوجھا لیکن
پہلے سے بھاری ہوتا ہے
پھر بھی میری پشت پہ نا اہلی کا کوب
روز بروز نمایاں ہوتا جاتا ہے
پھر میرا دفتر ہے
جہاں تقرر کی پہلی ہی شرط کے طور پہ
خود داری کا استعفی دائر کرنا تھا
میں پتھر بنجر زمینوں میں پھول اگانے کی کوشش کرتی ہوں 
کبھی ہریالی دکھ جاتی ہے
ورنہ
پتھر
بارش سے اکثر ناراض ہی رہتے ہیں 
مرا قبیلہ
میرے حرف میں روشنی ڈھونڈ نکالتا ہے
لیکن مجھ کو
اچھی طرح معلوم ہے
کس کی نظریں لفظ پہ ہیں 
اور کس کی خالق پر
سارے دائرے میرے پاووءں سے چھوٹے ہیں 
لیکن وقت کا وحشی ناچ
کسی مقام نہیں رکتا
رقص کی لے ہر لمحہ تیز ہوئی جاتی ہے
یا تو میں کچھ اور ہوں 
یا پھر یہ میرا سیارہ نہیں ہے۔۔۔

Of death

عجب نیست در خاک اگر گُل شگف

کہ چندیں گُل اندام در خاک خُفت

شیخ سعدی شیرازی

سب کہاں؟ کچھ لالہ و گل میں نمایاں ہو گئیں

خاک میں کیا صورتیں ہوں گی کہ پنہاں ہو گئیں

غالب۔

جیون جیون جھوٹا ناواں ـــــ موت کھلی سر اتے

 لکھ کروڑ تیرے تھیں سوہنے خاک اندر رل ستے 

حضرت میاں محمد

T.S. Eliot's “Genuine poetry [that] can communicate before it is understood.” 

“To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.” 

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” 

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.” 

“Do I dare 
Disturb the universe? 
In a minute there is time 
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.” 

“Sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough.” 


“For I have known them all already, known them all—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.” 

“Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.” 

“If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?” 

“Humankind cannot bear very much reality.” 
“Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.” 

“If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you.” 

“For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."

“Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity” 

“Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these.” 

“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” 

“The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.” 

“Success is relative. It is what we make of the mess we have made of things.” 

“I learn a great deal by merely observing you, and letting you talk as long as you please, and taking note of what you do not say.” 

“There is one who remembers the way to your door: Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.” 

"We don't actually fear death, we fear that no one will notice our absence, that we will disappear without a trace.” 

“An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. ” 

“Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” 

“The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.” 

“We read many books, because we cannot know enough people.” 

“music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but
you are the music
While the music lasts.”

“Men dislike being awakened from their death in life.” 

“Where is the Life we lost in living?” 

“To believe in the supernatural is not simply to believe that after living a successful, material, and fairly virtuous life here one will continue to exist in the best-possible substitute for this world, or that after living a starved and stunted life here one will be compensated with all the good things one has gone without: it is to believe that the supernatural is the greatest reality here and now.” 

“People to whom nothing has ever happened cannot understand the unimportance of events.” 

“Of lovers whose bodies smell of each other 
Who think the same thoughts without need of speech” 

“The journey, Not the destination matters...” 

“We know too much, and are convinced of too little. Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.” 

“All cases are unique, and very similar to others.” 

“I learn a good deal by merely observing you,
And letting you talk as long as you please,
And taking note of what you do not say.” 

“I've been born, and once is enough.” 

Come to the orchard in Spring

گفتی که: بیا که باغ خندید و بهار

شمعست و شراب و شاهدان چو نگار

آنجا که تو نیستی از اینهام چه سود؟

Come to the orchard in Spring.

There is light and wine, and sweethearts

In the pomegranate flowers.

If you do not come, these do not matter.

If you do come, these do not matter.

و آنجا که تو هستی خود از اینها بچه کار؟

Deep male mysteries

Listen to Into the Deep Male Mysteries - Robert Bly Interview by bladesofgrass #np on #SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/bladesofgrass/into-the-deep-male-mysteries-robert-bly-interview

The white cow by Rumi

There is a small green island where one white cow lives alone, a meadow of an island. The cow grazes till nightfull, full and fat, but during the night she panics and grows thin as a single hair. What shall I eat tomorrow? There is nothing left. By dawn the grass has grown up again, waist-high. The cow starts eating and by dark the meadow is clipped short. She is full of strength and energy, but she panics in the dark as before and grows abnormally thin overnight. The cow does this over and over, and this is all she does. She never thinks, This meadow has never failed to grow back. Why should I be afraid every night that it won't. The cow is the bodily soul. The island field is this world where that grows lean with fear and fat with blessing, lean and fat. White cow, don't make yourself miserable with what's to come, or not to come.