‘Esfahan nesf-e jahan’ (‘Isfahan is half the world’)
- Old Persian saying
Top: Jameh Mosque. Isfahan, Iran.
Bottom: Rutledge Lane. Melbourne, Australia.
‘Ever do ye tell her nay;
Still ye wander - ‘where, O say,
Lies our vision’d loveliness?’’
- ‘On a Hill’, Sonnets from Hafez and Other Verses, translated by Elizabeth Bridges
Top: Amir Chaqmaq Complex. Yazd, Iran.
Bottom: St Kilda Beach, Australia.
‘The tavern step shall be thy hostelry,
For Love’s diviner breath comes but to those
That suppliant on the dusty threshold lie.’
- Poems from the Divan of Hafiz, translated by Gertrude Lowthian Bell, 1897
Top: Under a bridge at night, where people sing the works of the great Iranian poets. Isfahan, Iran.
Bottom: Laneway next to the Magic Mountain Saloon. Melbourne, Australia.
‘In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people.’
- Edward Hopper
Top: Windsor, Australia.
Bottom: Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
‘Fair maid of Shiraz, would’st thou take
My heart, and love it for my sake,
For that dark mole my thoughts now trace
On that sweet cheek of that sweet face,
I would Bokhara, as I live,
And Samarcand too, freely give.’
- Gazel IV, from Persian Lyrics or, scattered poems from the Diwan of Hafiz, translated by John Haddon Hindley.
Top: The Registan. Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Bottom: Night market. Srinakarin, Thailand.
‘It was bitterly cold, and in one blizzard five inches of snow fell, obliterating what few landmarks there were. Their guides proved to be hopeless, moreover, constantly losing the way, until, on the eleventh day, in the very middle of the desert, they admitted to Bailey that they were completely lost…but then later that day, by a miracle, they came upon a small shepherds’ encampment where they bought three sheep…without this chance encounter, he wrote afterwards, they would all undoubtedly have perished.’
- Peter Hopkirk (2006), Setting the East Ablaze, recounting the flight of Col. F.M. Bailey from Khiva to Mashhad, across the Karakum desert.
Top: Gas drilling crater. Karakum Desert, Turkmenistan.
Bottom: Qashqais clean their sheep. Southwest of Shiraz, Iran.
‘Through ecumenical dialogue Christian communities in many regions have been able to put into effect a common pastoral practice for mixed marriages. Its task is to help such couples live out their particular situation in the light of faith, overcome the tensions between the couple's obligations to each other and towards their ecclesial communities, and encourage the flowering of what is common to them in faith and respect for what separates them.’
- Catechism of the Catholic Church #1637, dealing with interfaith marriages.
Top: St Paul’s Cathedral. Melbourne, Australia.
Bottom: Dress shop. Isfahan, Iran.
‘Usually, bridges are designed in a straight line. And that straight line will produce a one point perspective that will tell you to just go. But we want to keep people on the bridge … the bridge is not just a structure to connect from one point to another, but also a place to stay and enjoy.’
- Leila Araghian, designer of the Tabiat Bridge in Tehran, completed in 2014.
Top: Tabiat Bridge, Tehran.
Bottom: Beachside boulevard, St Kilda.