Poetry at Chateau Kefraya

We reached the Chateau Kefraya domain, one of the renown vineyards in Lebanon, and as most my cycling-mates rushed to stock up on dry fruits, gracefully offered by our winemaker host in pretty baskets, I obviously skipped (hate dry fruits!) and went straight to the wine tasting tent, where I enjoyed a quite substantive aperitif :-)

Back to the Chateau’s main tent, I met with the Iranian team and as soon as I pronounced my family name - Khachani (which means “from the city of Khashan” in both Arabic and Farsi) - I got an official and unanimous approval on my Persian origins and an extremely interesting lecture on Kashan’s history and architecture:

Located in the province of Isfahan, Kashan was one of the primary centres of civilization, more than 7000 years back. It is famous worldwide for its silk and carpet factories, its rubies’ shops and its architectural masterpieces, such as the Tabatabei house and the Aga Bozorg Mosque. It is also known as one of the most traditional and conservative cities in Iran. The contrary would have surprised me…Apparently, conservatism in my father’s family has far reaching origins! :-)

“Do you like poetry? asked one of the Iranian girls. You MUST like poetry! Kashan is home to one of Iran’s foremost modern poets! His name is Sohrab Sepehri.”

You got me there lady… How can I not like when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found its most subtle wording? Poetry is thoughts that breathe and words that burn. It is not a thing we see - it is a light by which we may see - and what we see is Life.
Poetry is just the evidence of Immaterial Life...Life in its most beautiful expression...How can I not like it?

And if Kashan is home to poetry, then it is definitely our hometown!

The Iranian mate started telling me some of Sepehri’s verses, trying somehow or other to translate from Farsi to English but even though I couldn’t grasp much of it, I could capture a bit of the beauty of Sepehri’s poetry. After all, Alfred Houseman was right when he said that it may be inadvisable to draw out the meaning of poetry…Perfect understanding sometimes almost extinguishes pleasure. As Sepehri said:

We are not to comprehend;
The secret of roses, but maybe
Swimming in the incantation of roses