Ajam zende kard-am bedin Parsi!

 

Which is:

 

nemiram az in pas ke man zende am,

ke tokhme sokhan ra parakande am.

 

I will not leave this world because I am alive,

because I have spread the sead of my work.

 

And indeed he is.

 

May 15 marks world Ferdowsi day Tue, 15 May 2007 08:26:21 May 15 marks the World Ferdowsi Day as designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Hakim Abol-Qassem Ferdowsi Tousi (935-1020) is one of the most revered Persian poets who authored Shahnameh (The epic of kings), the national epic of Persia. Ferdowsi was born in Khorasan province, in the village of Baj near Tous, in 935. Ferdowsi's great epic, the Shahnameh , to which he devoted more than thirty-five years, was originally composed for eventual presentation to the Samanid princes of Khorasan, who were the chief instigators of the revival of Iranian cultural traditions. During Ferdowsi's lifetime the Samanid dynasty was conquered by the Ghaznavid Empire. After 30 years of hard work, he finished the book and two or three years later, he went to Ghazneyn, the capital of Ghaznavids, to present it to the king. There are various stories describing the lack of interest shown by the new king, Sultan Mahmoud, in Ferdowsi's lifework. Mahmoud wanted to give him money as a prize for his work but Ferdowsi rejected the money and by some accounts he gave it to a poor man. Ferdowsi is said to have died around 1020 at the age of ninety and embittered by royal neglect, though fully confident of his work's ultimate success and fame that is evident in the last verses of his book. Ferdowsi was buried at his own courtyard, where lies his magnificent mausoleum now. It was not until 1925 that a mausoleum was built for the great poet. His masterpeice tells the story of the kings that had made the land of Persia into an Empire throughout the ages. This task was to take the poet some thirty years or more upon which he included the verse: “ ... I suffered during these thirty years, but I have revived the Iranians (Ajam) with the Persian language; I shall not die since I am alive again, as I have spread the seeds of this language ... ” Ferdowsi is one of the undisputed giants of Persian literature. A number of works similar in nature have surfaced over the centuries within the cultural sphere of Persian language, but none of them could compare with Ferdowsi's masterpiece. Thanks to the strides he made in reviving and regenerating the Persian language and cultural traditions, many regard him as the father of the modern Persian language. AS/BGH http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=9848&sectionid=351020105 - http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=9848&sectionid=351020105

Off topic but it was also the 1150th birth anniversary of Roudaki recently. I read that a function was held at the UN to celebrate the occassion. A friend of mine also attended a celebration at a Jewish school or something somewhere in Queens, New York of all the places,