velocity in Fatih Mosque

a child is running into Fatih Mosque’s door

Ask those who know, what’s this soul within the flesh?

yellow-red tulips, istanbul tulip festival, pentax k10d

a mystic poem  by Yunus Emre.  I like this tulip composition, flu background painted with green.

Ask those who know…

Ask those who know,
what’s this soul within the flesh?
Reality’s own power.
What blood fills these veins?

Thought is an errand boy,
fear a mine of worries.
These sighs are love’s clothing.
Who is the Khan on the throne?

Give thanks for His unity.
He created when nothing existed.
And since we are actually nothing,
what are possessions, houses, shops?

God sent us here
to come and see the world.
This world itself is not everlasting.
What are all of Solomon’s riches?

Ask Yunus and Taptuk
what the world means to them.
The world won’t last.
What are You? What am I?

Yunus Emre

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul

Silence hours in Balat Streets

Trees, cars and narrow streets. I like composition of Balat’s streets

I’ve used pentax K10 D.

Flowers : Reason says …

red flowers, istanbul, pentax k10d

Reason says …
Reason says, I will beguile him with the tongue;” Love says, “Be silent. I will beguile him with the soul.”
The soul says to the heart, “Go, do not laugh at me and yourself. What is there that is not his, that I may
beguile him thereby?”
He is not sorrowful and anxious and seeking oblivion that I may beguile him with wine and a heavy measure.
The arrow of his glance needs not a bow that I should beguile the shaft of his gaze with a bow.
He is not prisoner of the world, fettered to this world of earth, that I should beguile him with gold of the
kingdom of the world.
He is an angel, though in form he is a man; he is not lustful that I should beguile him with women.
Angels start away from the house wherein this form is, so how should I beguile him with such a form and likeness?
He does not take a flock of horses, since he flies on wings; his food is light, so how should I beguile him with bread?
He is not a merchant and trafficker in the market of the world that I should beguile him with enchantment of gain and loss.
He is not veiled that I should make myself out sick and utter sighs, to beguile him with lamentation.
I will bind my head and bow my head, for I have got out of hand; I will not beguile his compassion with sickness or fluttering.
Hair by hair he sees my crookedness and feigning; what’s hidden from him that I should beguile him with anything hidden.
He is not a seeker of fame, a prince addicted to poets, that I should beguile him with verses and lyrics and flowing poetry.
The glory of the unseen form is too great for me to beguile it with blessing or Paradise.
Shams-e Tabriz, who is his chosen and beloved – perchance I will beguile him with this same pole of the age.

I saw my sweetheart wandering about the house; he had taken a rebec and was playing a melody.
With a plectrum like fire he was playing a sweet melody, drunken and dissolute and charming from the Magian wine.
He was invoking the saqi in the air of Iraq2 The air of Iraq is a Persian tune.; the wine was his object, the saqi was his excuse.
The moonfaced saqi pitcher in his hand, entered from a corner and set it in the middle.
He filled the first cup with that flaming wine; did you ever see water sending out flames?
He set it on his hand for the sake of the lovers, then prostrated and kissed the threshold.
My sweetheart seized it from him and quaffed the wine; flames from that wine went running over his face.
He was beholding his own beauty, and saying to the evil eye, “Never has there been, nor shall there come in this age, another like me.”
Mevlana

Translation by A. J. Arberry “Mystical Poems of Rumi 2”
The University of Chicago Press, 1991

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul

To think of roses and gardens inside is bad

tulip, istanbul tulip festival, istanbul, pentax k10d

”

To think of roses and gardens inside is bad,
to think of seas and mountains is good.
Read and write without rest,
and I also advise weaving
and making mirrors.

”

(from ‘Some Advice’, 1949)

Nazim Hikmet

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul

tulips : I Do It For Your Love

purple tulip, istanbul tulip festival, istanbul, pentax k10d

I Do It For Your Love
We were married on a rainy day
The sky was yellow
And the grass was gray
We signed the papers
And we drove away
I do it for your love

The rooms were musty
And the pipes were old
All that winter we shared a cold
Drank all the orange juice
That we could hold
I do it for your love

Found a rug
In an old junk shop
And I brought it home to you
Along the way the colors ran
The orange bled the blue

The sting of reason
The splash of tears
The northern and the southern
hemisphere
Love emerges and it disappears
I do it for your love
I do it for your love

Paul Simon

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul

Besiktas, Sinanpasa Mosque

Besiktas is a pretty an important district. When you go it is a good idea to visit Sinanpasa Mosque (Sinanpaşa Camii in turkish). t was built in 1874 for Sultan Abdul Aziz.

Yeni Cami (New Mosque) in night

tulips : What does the wheat know of the bread

yellow tulips, istanbul tulip festival, istanbul, pentax k10d

What does the wheat know of the bread
For the bread is far ahead.
It once was wheat and then flour,
The rising dough but for an hour,
Baked by the heat of the fire
Purged its dross, ascended higher;
Now the bread knows its fate
To be consumed not too late.

If the bread, wheat inspire
The wheat will stay in its quagmire.
For the bread is far ahead
What does the wheat know of the bread?

© Shahriar Shahriari
Vancouver, Canada
June 11, 1997

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul

tulips : The Inner Man

red tulips, istanbul tulip festival, istanbul, pentax k10d

THE INNER MAN

The inner man knows no worries on this path.
The inner heart does not know death.

Bodies perish, but not the soul. Those who are gone don’t return.
Bodies are for dying. That’s not what a soul is for.

The heart will never find the pearl it seeks,
even in a thousand years, unless it’s given.

Be careful, your Beloved’s heart is easily broken.
Such fine crystal once shattered is never restored.

And unless you put your cup to the fountain,
even in a thousand years it won’t be filled.

Both Khidr* and Elias drank the water of life.
These days they are not dead.

The world was made for the sake of the Prophet and his friendship.
Those who come to this world do not remain.

Yunus, today while you have eyes to see, do what you must.
Those who attain do not come back.

* Khidr in Islamic tradition is an immortal who may appear
in human form to give help and guidance to those in need.

Poem 43 from Yunus Emre’s
The Drop that Became the Sea

Yunus Emre (1238-1321),
The Drop that Became the Sea: Lyric Poems of Yunus Emre
(translated from the Turkish by Kabir Helminski & Refik Algan)
Threshold Books, Putney, Vermont, pp. 28, 77

taken by Pentax K10D, at Istanbul