Heavenly books by ‘men of letters’

Formidable members of the local writing community met with cultural counsellor M.J. Sabeti Sanat and cultural researcher Dr. Bahman Samadi of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran last Thursday evening.

The invitation was extended by Dr. Samadi through UP University professor Dr. Gemino H. Abad, who took along Chancellor of UP in Mindanao Ricardo M. de Ungria, recently installed Likhaan: UP Creative Writing Center Director Virgilio "Rio Alma" Almario, and this writer (a UP college dropout), as chair of UMPIL (Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas or Writers Union of the Philippines).

Dr. Samadi has been around for several years, pursuing cultural and archaeological interests by travelling to various parts of our archipelago, including the Tabon Caves off the Palawan mainland.

Through much of the evening, he served as a translator for counsellor Sanat. The latter had insisted on proceeding with the dinner meeting despite medical instructions to engage in nothing but bed rest after catching a cold in the wake of the recent storm.

"My eagerness to see you," Dr. Samadi translated from counsellor Sanat’s flowing Farsi, "has made it impossible to follow this medical judgment."

Suppressing a slight cough, the intensely genial cultural counsellor welcomed the Filipino poets with an elegant, extended peroration on how it was necessary to build a bridge to serve as a link between the cultural communities of Iran and the Philippines.

"The first thing we do is to meet with the poets and scholars of a country. It is the men of letters who can best serve as the strongest link between cultures and peoples. Together they can be a very strong bridge, that no flood will cause to collapse. That is why this first step in meeting you, the universally known poets of your country, is very important."

Counsellor Sanat took pains however to dissociate any efforts at initiating and establishing cultural relations from current political affairs and attendant impressions or perceptions.

"Cultural representatives should act as a bridge to other nations, not more than that. The obligation of men of the pen is just to communicate with each other. Sad to say, we’re living in a multi-media age, and we continue to receive the poison of multi-media. We receive this very often from television, without the benefit of managing to think any deeper. We change stations and programs just like that, not thinking at all."

Then he proceeded to praise what he called our "open society."

"Fortunately, your press has freedom. Your people can protest even against the president, or the judiciary. It is the same in our country, and that is good to have common views and viewpoints, especially since the people of our country want to extend a hand for international cooperation."

Counsellor Sanat and Dr. Samadi recounted how last May the Iranian community in Manila had held a day in honor of the great Persian poet Sadi at the UP campus. An Iranian scholar had been sent to deliver a lecture and oversee a seminar for the observance of Sadi Day. They hoped to follow up on this effort in October, when a similar activity would be conducted to further awareness on the works of yet another poet, Hafez.

Dr. Abad in turn recalled that previous to Sadi Day last May, an Iranian lady scholar had also visited UP Diliman, conducted a lecture on her country’s contemporary literature, and met with campus writers and scholars.

Discussion followed on our group’s collective level of awareness of the Persian poetic tradition, from Rumi and the mystical Sufi poets to Omar Khayyam. Dr. Samadi clued us in on more of what he constantly referred to as "heavenly books."

For his part, counsellor Sanats stressed: "You should introduce more of your universally known poets to us."

His previous posting had been in China, where he spent six years, and became successful in spearheading the establishment of the Center of Study on Iran in Beijing. Reciprocally, a Center of Chinese Studies was established in Tehran. More than a hundred instances of cultural exchange were also conducted during his China term.

And now, counsellor Sanat repeated as our Pinoy Gang of Four nodded while helping ourselves to a heavenly bowl of fried pistachio nuts, he hoped he could also achieve a similar promotion of cultural exchange between Manila and Tehran.

Chancellor De Ungria would not let the opportunity pass to put in a good word for Davao City as well. The UP in Mindanao would be most interested in hosting lectures and demonstrations on Persian music and calligraphy, he said.

"Your guidance will be of great help to us," the counsellor replied.

When the premier poet De Ungria recounted how Davao television had a daily Koran hour, with a pair of Muslim scholars interpreting passages from the Holy Book, we were informed in turn that in February 2003, part of the Iranian Cultural Week activities in Manila would be a Koran exhibition.

"Not too many Christians know this," Dr. Samadi offered, "but in the Koran, after Allah, the name that is mentioned most often is that of Mary the Mother, a total of 34 mentions."

The embassy’s cultural office also hoped to bring in a group of contemporary poets in February, to initiate the "Dialogue of Men of Letters." In return, they would invite a group of Filipino poets to Tehran, no later than the following year, that is, by 2004.

This writer heaved a sigh of relief while easily cracking open yet another pistachio. George W.’s plans to take out Saddam at neighboring Iraq next year might get in the way of an earlier visit to Iran by Filipino men of letters.

Counsellor Sanat, who studied psychology and kept humbly stressing that his kind of writing never went as deep as that of poets, waxed poetic at this point.

"Our poet Sadi once wrote that ‘All of humanity is of the same race.’ That is very true. Universally known poets have a common language, and that is the pain inflicted by society. An old proverb in Iran has it that ‘Whoever has a broken hand can understand the pain of someone who also has a broken hand’."

In appreciation of the proverb, this poet flicked the empty nut shell into a small plate, and surreptitiously felt for a limp wrist. Thankfully, before he could arrive at any confirmation, dinner was announced, and we moved from the lounge area to the dining room.

Over a vegetable salad, roasted tomatoes, Iranian kebab, a sumptuous beef dish with lentils and potatoes, and fluffy white rice, counsellor Sanat expressed the wish to have a room at UP Diliman to serve as the initial step in establishing an Office of Dialogue of Men of Letters, eventually to become a Center such as what he had helped establish in Beijing.

That can be arranged, said Dr. Abad and director Almario in burping unison.

UP-CWC director Almario recalled that a memorandum of understanding on cultural exchange with Iran had been signed while he served as executive director of the NCCA or National Commission for Culture and the Arts. In fact there had been an exhibit of Iranian calligraphy and paintings last year at the NCCA gallery. He had also once served as a judge in Tokyo where an Iranian artist had won the top prize for children’s book illustration. Book illustrators from Iran commanded great respect, the poet Rio Alma said. Certainly this can be another avenue of cooperation between our countries: the exchange and/or co-production of illustrated children’s literature.

Yes, yes, counsellor Sanat and Dr. Samedi agreed. Many things can be done. Like what you had conducted recently in fine cultural interchange with Singapore, which led to that anthology of love poetry (Love Gathers All: A Philippines-Singapore Anthology of Love Poetry), Dr. Samedi recalled, a similar bilateral anthology of poetry can be worked on between yourselves and our men of letters.

Everyone concurred with the proposition: the broken hands of both societies, er, the men of letters and scholars from Iran and the Philippines, could produce a heavenly book together. We all looked forward to the furtherance of this cultural exchange with our dinner hosts.

To cap off the evening, each of us was presented gift copies of the double volume titled The Gulistan or Rose Garden by Shaikh Muslehu’d Din Sa’di of Shiraz, translated from the original by Francis Gladwin, with introduction and editing by Dr. S.H.S. Kamal Haj Sayyed Javadi.

We promised to reciprocate by sending over copies of our own poetry books. We said we were filled with eagerness to meet our own kind, the universal poets of Iran. And if we had remembered wondrous lines from Rumi that evening, we should have thanked our kind hosts thus:

"... We shall be saying finally,/ With tremendous eloquence, Lead us./ When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,/ We shall have a mighty kindness." ("Zero Circle" by Rumi; version by Coleman Barks).