“Prayer fragment”, features my grandmother, Homa Khalilian, chanting a fragment of a tablet by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Farsi. I set her voice to music through a process of listening and improvisation– interacting with the sensation of tone in her voice while trying to use as little material as possible to present one possibility or path in the endless sea of possibilities for transformation in her voice. 

This recording is dedicated to my late father, Ramin Khalilian (1960-2021).

Text:

هوالابهی 
ای جانفشان یار بی نشان ! هزار عارفان در جستجوی او ولی محروم و مهجور از روی او اما تو یافتی و شناختی تو نرد خدمت باختی و کار خود ساختی و علم فوز و صلاح افراختی .
طرفه حکا یتی است و غریب بشارتی  آنان که جستند ،نیافتند . آنان که نشستند یافتند . استغفرالله! جستجویشان ،جستجوی سیراب بود نه تشنگان و طلبشان ، طلب عاقلان بود ، نه عاشقان،
عاقلان خوشه چین از سر لیلی غافلند این کرامت نیست جز مجنون خرمن سوز را عاشق نشسته به از عاقل متحرک
والبهاء علیک. ع ع

Unofficial Translation:

هوالبهی
O friend who selflessly gives his life! A thousand mystics are looking for him, but deprived and separated from him, but you found and came to know him and climbed the ladder of service and did your work, and achieved the knowledge of victory and goodness. 
It is an interesting tale, and a strange epic– those who sought it did not reach it, those who sat down found it, God forbidden! In their search they were quenched, not thirsty, their search was for the prudent and not the lovers. 
The wise men of good character are unaware of the secrets of Leyla, the only one that knows is Majnun, whose heart is burning. The lover sitting is better than the prudent moving.   
والبهاء علیک. ع ع

Prayer Fragment (fixed media)

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