This line of poetry from Rumi has been translated as “Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” I prefer “Sell your cleverness and buy be-wonderment.” The Persian says: buy the art of wonder. Calligraphy by Stewart J. Thomas, www.palmstone.com
“Dance when you are perfectly free” Persian (Farsi) calligraphy by S.J. Thomas. No Ruz Pirooz!
Ayat al-Kursi (āyatu-l-kursī), the 255th verse (ayah) of the second chapter (sura) of the Qur’an, Al-Baqara. To listen to a recitation of this Ayat, along with translation into English, view here. For a description of the symmetry of the language … Read More
Persian names in calligraphy by Stewart J. Thomas, calligrapher. www.palmstone.com
A poem of Mawlana Rumi, “Nah man beehodeh gerde koocheh.” If you would like to hear this song sung in the Sufi ecstatic style, here is a link to a rendering by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The accent is definitely … Read More
From Rumi:
Seek the science that unties for you this knot.
Seek it as long as there’s life in you still to be sought.
Leave that nothing that looks like it is something;
Seek that something that looks like nothing; … Read More
Wedding Monogram created by Stewart J. Thomas combines two names inside of a floral teardrop. www.palmstone.com
“if you want light, you must light a fire” Persian poetry by Jalaluddin Maulana Rumi. Persian (Farsi) calligraphy by Stewart J. Thomas www.palmstone.com.
Poetry by Jalaluddin Rumi, calligraphy by Stewart J. Thomas, palmstone.com. A popular translation of this passage reads:
“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t … Read More
Earlier I posted the draft design for this commission. This is a photograph of the completed painting featuring the last lines of Khalil Gibran’s poem on marriage. Original calligraphic painting in Arabic by calligrapher Stewart J. Thomas.
The light within guides me and protects me. Original Arabic calligraphy by Stewart J. Thomas.
All who wander are not lost, Arabic calligraphy by Stewart J. Thomas
Persian (Farsi) calligraphy by Stewart J. Thomas, selection from the poem of Jalaludin Rumi, known in English as “Oh Soul, you worry too much”
Salaam Aleikum – Peace be with you. Original calligraphy design by Stewart J. Thomas.
3 lines of poetry from Mahmoud Darwish:
between two countries never belonging in one no longer belonging in the other
Calligraphy, ink and watercolour on mulberry paper by Stewart J. Thomas.
This rondel features original calligraphy and translation into Persian (Farsi) by Stewart J. Thomas of the Buddhist prayer:
May I be free from fear. May I be free from suffering. May I be happy. May I be filled with loving … Read More
“The sons of Adam are limbs of each other, Having been created of one essence.When the calamity of time affects one limbThe other limbs cannot remain at rest.If you have no sympathy for the troubles of others,You are unworthy to … Read More
Persian (Farsi) translation of “I am the fire that lives only in the rain.” Original Persian (Farsi) calligraphy by Stewart J. Thomas on marbled paper.
“Yeki bood, Yeki nabood” is the traditional beginning of Iranian stories: “Once there was, once there wasn’t … ” and so the tale begins. Persian (Farsi) calligraphy by Stewart Thomas.
