SOAS Archive Show: Music of Iran Sat, 2009-03-28 22:38
The SOAS Archive Show celebrates Iranian new year by featuring the album Music of Iran: Vol. 1(UNESCO Collection).
Recorded by Alain Dani?lou
Side 1
1. Variation in the Chah?rgah mode
Performed on kamantch? by Ashgar Bahari
2. Poem of Saadi sung in the Segah mode
Sung by Golpayegani and accompanied on tar by Nur Ali Borumand
?Friend! Do not listen if people tell you that
I have any other friend than you, that night and day
I think of any other thing or any one than you.
I am not the only one to have fallen into the strands of your curled locks,
For there is a captive bound in each curl? of your hair
Whoever blames me or criticizes me
Because of my love for you disavows me only because
He has not yet seen you?
What can I spread before your feet which may give you joy?
None can truly say of a soul or of a life
That they have a value
If I said that I have no relation with you,
Both the door and the wall would bear witness against me?
This love of Saadi is not a story
Which may remain hidden; no! for it has spread
Already in all the bazaars.?
(Based on an unpublished French translation by Henri Mass?)
Side 2
3. The Dashti mode
Played on setar by Ebrahimi
4. Poem of Saadi, sung in the mode Bayote ?Isphahan and its variations
Sung by Golpayegani accompanied by Ashgar Bahari on kamantch?
?I have patiently endured your fire; the smoke of love has risen ?
And it was a hard trial, while you ? you have not suffered an hour to extinguish the slightest flame?
You, whose eye never re-opens from that sleep which follows drunkenness,
How could you know the trial that I endured patiently?
Do you realize my mortification, crouched from evening to dawn?
Lovers let themselves be taken in your nets spontaneously
For you save from himself every being that you capture?
O breeze! I have not the power to go toward my friend?s street;
But you, you go there! Have a good trip! Take him my greetings?
It is not forbidden me to look at young faces
For the old man knows the value of youth?s time?
Not a head, not one, Saadi escapes from your noose;
You have seized your prisoner; drag him as you know how.?