A Goftegu Public Debate entitled “A night with poetry and music” with the queen of Afghanistan traditionnal music, Master Mahvash, was held at the meetings hall of Culture and Civil Society Foundation on 8th of April 2010.
Guests appeared one after another at the meeting which began with some delay as usual. Initially, verses from Bidel Dehlavi were recited under the dimmed lighting of the hall.
Shahir Daryoush, Javid Farhad, Vahid Varasteh, Mina Hosseini, Jamghobad Sholeh, Mojib Mehrdad, Dr. Abdolghafoor Arezu, Yasin Negah, Fereshteh Sadeghpour, Aman Puyamak, Matin Azaryuon, Ruhollah Teshneh and Seyed Fereydoun Ebrahimi were the poets who recited their poems. Every now and then, poems from Hafiz, Rumi, Bidel Dehlavi, Vahshi Bafeghi, Forughi Bastami and others were also recited. It was then Master Mahvash’s turn to sing with all might and heart:
Pay heed to the grievances of the reed
Of what divisive separations breed
From the reedbed cut away just like a weed
My music people curse, warn and heed
Sliced to pieces my bosom and heart bleed
While I tell this tale of desire and need.
It was as though the master’s divine voice was cutting its way though to Balkh to kneel before the Great Rumi. There were times when you might feel Rumi sitting next to you, smiling and nodding in admiration.
The song was a work of the late Master Naynavaz, who composed many masterful songs in his lifetime. Master Mahvash had not come alone, but was carrying in her song the great Masters Naynavaz, Ahmad Zahir, Olmir and others.
The audience was fully excited and this heartened and fired up the master whose voice kept rising and rising to the sky. The audience paid its respect by several standing ovations.
The night came to a conclusion with several stanzas from Hafiz of Shiraz:
At the break of dawn from sorrows I was saved In the dark night of the Soul, drank the elixir I craved.
Ecstatic, my soul was radiant, bright, Sanctified cup of my life, drunk I behaved.
O, what exalted sunrise, what glorious night That holy night, to the New Life was enslaved.
Invitation
