Do Not Be Discouraged Poem by gershon hepner

Beloved, do not let me be discouraged.
From sweetness of your lips let me be nourished,
while we together lie more close than rhymes
that drain into this poem like the dreams
that you evoke in me with all your kisses:
come make a perfect rhyme with me and be my missus.

Beloved, how could I be in the least
discouraging since I love you the most
that I have ever loved a man, and yearn
to be with you from dusk until the dawn?
But wait, before I let you be my mister,
I have to introduce you to my sister.

Inspired by Zak’s engagement to Rikki today, and a review by Vivien Schweitzer of a new disc, “Silent City, ” in which Kayhan Kalhor, a virtuoso kamancheh player, recorded with the young string quartet Brooklyn Rider (“A Master Iranian Musician Plays Cultural Ambassador, ” NYT, August 27,2008) :
Traditional Persian melodies inspire much of “Silent City, ” a recording, whose pieces are composed and arranged by Mr. Kalhor, Colin Jacobsen, the violist Ljova and the Iranian santur player Siamak Aghaei. The bassist Jeffrey Beecher, the percussionist Mark Suter and Mr. Aghaei also perform. The disc opens with “Ascending Bird, ” based on a melody (inspired by a mythical tale of a bird trying to fly to the sun) that Mr. Cords and Mr. Jacobsen heard while visiting Iran. It begins with melancholy whispers of melody before exploding into an ecstatic frenzy. “Parvaz” (Persian for flight) , which also explores the soaring-bird theme, features Mr. Kalhor playing the setar (a four-stringed, long-necked wooden Iranian lute) , whose bright, jangly line dances with restless fervor above the other strings. The disc closes with “Beloved, do not let me be discouraged, ” whose title is taken from a poem by a 16th-century Turkish writer about ill-fated lovers — an evocative blend of courtly medieval Italian music filtered through a Middle Eastern prism.


8/27/08