Mysterious Flowers and Poem
1- On April 19, 1909, at only 24 years of age, he was shot in a battle close to Tabriz between the Salvation Army group he led and the besiegers. He was killed by a bullet to the chest.
A young American teacher who came to Iran to teach history had made history. He soon joined Iranian revolutionaries and fought for freedom alongside the people of Tabriz and his students.
No one knows who regularly puts beautiful, yellow flowers on his grave after more than 100 years of death.
Who knows the secret of the flowers?
Even during the revolution in 1979, when the streets were full of people chanting “Death to America”, you could find a bunch of yellow flowers on his grave, fresh and alive.
Who brought the mysterious flowers? Does anybody change followers, or are they the same ones who put them on his tomb more than 100 years ago?
They didn't die, and he didn't die, either.
Was yellow his favorite color?
Did he say something to someone about the secret of the future, generation after generation? The mysteries of love and life?
What is the story behind the flowers?
Everlasting flowers!
2- In our ritual of Khayyam Khani, which I wrote about in previous posts, one poem does not belong to Khayyam, but people read it in all Khayyam readings. The Farsi version is:
سیصد گل سرخ، یک گل نصرانی
ما را ز سر بریده می ترسانی
گر ما ز سر بریده می ترسیدیم
در مجلس عاشقان نمی رقصیدیم
Translation:
Three hundred roses, one of which is a Christian rose.
Are you trying to frighten us by chopping off our heads?
If we were afraid that our heads would be chopped off,
We would not be dancing in the circle of lovers.
The people sing this poem to honor and remember the memory of Howard Conklin Baskerville, the only American citizen to die fighting for democracy in Iran. Born in Nebraska and educated at Princeton, he traveled to Iran as a Presbyterian missionary in Fall, 1907. He preached the Gospel and taught English, History, and Geometry at American Memorial School in Tabriz. He also selflessly fought alongside his students against the Shah, ultimately giving his life in Iran's battle for freedom.
Let's look at his first sentence again:
Three hundred roses, one of which is a Christian rose.
Three hundred roses were his students.
After 11 months of siege and a lack of medicine and food, a unit was formed in Tabriz called Fuj e Nejaat, led by Baskerville, to break the blockade. He had been militarily trained in the United States and decided to teach army drills to young men instead of, as he said, reciting the history of the dead. In those days, the death of Seyed Hasan Sharifzadeh, Baskerville's close friend and companion, greatly upset him. In response to the wife of the American consul in Tabriz, who asked him to leave the ranks of the constitutionalists, he said while returning his passport:
“The only difference between these people and me is my hometown, and that's not a big difference”.
His funeral ceremony was held in the American cemetery in Tabriz. According to Albert Charles Ratislav, British consul in Tabriz, it was very impressive. Soon after, Sattar Khan, the leader of the movement, wrapped Baskerville’s gun with his name and date of death engraved on it, and sent it to Baskerville’s family in America.
Nobody knows who wrote the poem, but we all know it belongs to him, our American friend who came and helped our nation in that dark era. We sing this poem and dance for a young, handsome human who loved people and freedom.
Perhaps the poet’s ghost places flowers on the tomb every week, or the poet has become immortal like his poem.
Source: Substack