Persian Quotes

“Woman is the light of God.”
― Rumi

“Wake! For the Sun, who scatter'd into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav'n,
and strikes
The Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light”
― Omar Khayyám, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

“I died a lot
to live a little
with you”
― Yaghma Golroei

“I belong to no religion. My religion is love. Every heart is my temple.”
― Rumi

“صبا زان لولی شنگول سرمست
چه داری اگهی؟ چونست حالش؟”
― حافظ شيرازي

“...it was if another planet were calling. The call, embodied, issued in liquid syllables from the mouth of the Arab sailor who, on the prow of the Vestra each sun-up, looked toward the East and sang the Persian song:
Hearken unto dawn, oh, my soul...
Let good come unto the world.”
― Robert Edison Fulton Jr., One Man Caravan

“I have a complicated relationship with airports. A space that once held promise, the gateway to summer vacations and adventure, now makes my heart race a little faster, beat a little harder. A seemingly random red strip of tape on the ground, a dated stamp and ink pad, a place of birth forever etched on a passport, and a somber uniformed officer determine our future, our lives.... I wonder what new family is anxiously pacing back there, sleep-deprived and confused, hoping for that stamp to hit the ink, hoping to step into a new life.”
― Naz Deravian, Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories

“این که مدام به سینه ات میکوبد قلب نیست ماهی کوچکی است که دارد نهنگ میشود. ماهی کوچکی که طعم تنگ آزارش میدهد و بوی دریا هوایی اش کرده است.قلب ها همه نهنگانند در اشتیاق اقیانوس. امام کیست که باور کند در سینه اش نهنگی میتپد؟
آدم ها ماهی ها را در تنگ دوست دارند و قلب ها را در سینه. اما ماهی وقتی در دریا شناور شد ماهی است و قلب وقتی در خدا غوطه ور خورد قلب است.
هیچکس نمیتواند نهنگی را در تنگی نگه دارد تو چطور میخواهی قلبت را در سینه نگه داری؟ و چه دردناک است وقتی نهنگی مچاله میشود و وقتی دریا مختصر میشود و وقتی قلب خلاصه میشود و آدم قانع.
این ماهی کوچک اما بزرگ خواهد شد و این تنگ تنگ خواهد شدو این آب ته خواهد کشید.
تو اما کاش کمی دریا مینوشیدی و کاش نقبی میزدی از تنگ سینه به اقیانوس. کاش راه آبی به نامنتها میکشیدی و کاش این قطره را به بینهایت گره میزدی. کاش... بگذریم
دریا و اقیانوس به کنار نامنتها و بینهایت پیشکش
کاش لااقل آب این تنگ را گاهی عوض میکردی، این آب مانده است و بو گرفته است. و تو میدانی آب هم که بماند میگندد، آب هم که بماند لجن میبندد و حیف از این ماهی که در گل و لای بلولد و حیف از این قلب که در غلط بغلتد”
― عرفان نظرآهاری, در سینه‌ات نهنگی می‌تپد

“Naan (the Persian word for "bread") at the table is not only a constant companion but a revered guest. Wheat is considered sacred, a symbol of life and the beginnings of civilization. Not a single crumb is ever to be wasted and should always be repurposed.”
― Naz Deravian, Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories

“There's something that happens to the newly displaced. Whatever power or choice that was stripped away in the process of reluctantly leaving one's homeland is fervently reclaimed in other situations, and honing in on the best spot to sit and enjoy a meal, be it at a restaurant or a lakeside, takes on the utmost importance. . . . If nothing else, we were always prepared for any and all circumstances and with plenty of provisions to see us through.”
― Naz Deravian, Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories

“As for being a Sufi, I think every Iranian by birth is born one. It is in our blood.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“The white butterly
slowly sinks
into the wine of your age.”
― Bijan Elahi, High Tide of the Eyes

“نیک‌بختی هیچ میرایی پایدار نیست. اگر بخت یار باشد، شاید که دارایی تو از همسایه‌ات بیشتر باشد، اما هرگز از او نیک‌بخت‌تر نیستی.”
― Euripides, Medea

“Iranians love nothing more than an excuse to gather outdoors, preferably next to a body of water, be it a fountain, river, lake, or sea, with plenty of food, drink, and slices of kookoo--Iranian-style frittatas--nestled in warm pieces of bread.”
― Naz Deravian, Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories

“. . . as much as I missed the warmth of my family left behind in Iran, every inch of my being needed to settle and stay put. . . . Even talk of changing apartments was too much to bear. They say children adapt and adjust to change much easier than adults do. Like a soft ray of light settling on a pool of water, children bend and go with the flow. I was done bending and flowing. I was ready to stake my flag. . . .”
― Naz Deravian, Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories

“According to a medival Turkic saying, "a Turk is never without a Persian [Tat, a sedentary Iranian], just as a cap is never without a head. The relationship was mutually beneficial.”
― Peter B. Golden, Central Asia in World History

“According to a medival Turkic saying, "a Turk is never without a Persian [Tat, a sedentary Iranian], just as a cap is never without a head." The relationship was mutually beneficial.”
― Peter B. Golden, Central Asia in World History

“A far cry now that she is in Tajrish. This is District One. The posh end of town. Snuggled deep in between the streets of this bustling roundabout are where the rich live. She looks up, a huge billboard with a blue-eyed model sits there with a phone in his hand. Some brand she’s never heard of. She has never quite understood the infatuation Iranians have with celebrities and colored eyes. To her, it seems like any Iranian with green or blue eyes makes their way either on the big screen or on a billboard. The old traditional concept of Persian beauty, black eyes with a unibrow now replaced with Hollywood-inspired looks. The Leo DiCaprios, Brad Pitts of this world. Still a cheap knock-off of them as well.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Everything is made in China nowadays,” the old man replies with a sigh. “They even make carpets better than we do.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Amoo meaning uncle, a colloquial abbreviation of “bro” for Farsi speakers.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“The Persian vizier had outsmarted the British politician.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“A rosy apple rests in the hands of a crippled man.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“But revenge and honor are as old as the pillars in Persepolis. The father, the brother or some man from her family will come looking for him.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“He slits his throat with cotton, a common Persian expression. The slow, methodical way of getting your way.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“This is the difference when we hear:
you hear the door closing, I hear it opening.

(translated by Kayvan Tahmasebian and Rebecca Ruth Gould)”
― Saeb Tabrizi, Koliat Saeb Tabrizi

“Hey you, feasting at the table on the shore,with bread on your plate, clothes on your body. Someone from the water beckons you, beating the heavy tide with his exhausted hands...
--translated by Kayvan Tahmasebian and Rebecca Ruth Gould”
― Nima Yushij, مجموعه آثار نيما يوشيج، دفتر اول شعر

“Wine should be pale like the lover’s face. Yellow, the color of suffering:
it should be mature and clear, bitter but sweetened with sugar.

-- Translated by Kayvan Tahmasebian and Rebecca Ruth Gould”
― Khaqani, Divan of Khaqani

“زندگی را باور به امید های کوچک رهایی بخش و ناکامی های بزرگ ویران کننده پیش میبرند. روزی که دریابی ناکامی هایت چندان هم بزرگ نیست و امیدهایت واهی و بی ارزشند، مردنت آغاز میشود.”
― آتوسا افشین نوید, بازگشت ماهی‌های پرنده

“But there is so much more to our country – from the legacy of the Persian cultural and linguistic sphere to the acclaimed lattice Jali woodwork…Istalifi pottery and ceramiccs and calligraphy, even our beautiful carpets .”
― Sima Samar, Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan

“If a man leaves behind him a noble reputation, he should not despair when he has to depart.”
― Abolqasem Ferdowsi, FIRDAUSI... SHAHNAMA (Book of Kings) & Other Poems: New Humanity Books