Steppin' Out

Story

Photograph by Ivan Quijano

The intermediary (Nazanin Shenasa) passes poems between Layla (Azin Arefi) and her banished lover, Majnun.

SExhibit explores a love story for the centuries

By Heather Zimmerman

Romeo and Juliet aren't the world's only famous tragic sweethearts, nor is their tale the oldest: The legend of thwarted lovers Layla and Majnun goes back to the seventh-century Middle East.

Textile artist and art historian Nazanin Shenasa explores ideas related to Layla and Majnun's story in Permanent Madness, an ongoing series of programs, and in Permanent Madness II, an art installation that will be on display Nov. 21-Jan. 22 at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, 520 S. First St., San Jose.

Shenasa got the idea for the project as part of her master's thesis in Islamic art, as she was studying 17th-century Iranian textiles depicting Layla and Majnun. In fact, Permanent Madness II features costumes that Shenasa created based on designs from those textiles. "I've done all of this research into figurative cloth and the ideas behind identifying with characters, and how important poetry and characters are in terms of finding the prototypes for Iranian society," Shenasa says. "And this is still true. If a man is really in love with a woman, they still say he is Majnun and she is like Layla. So this story, for being as old as it is, is still very much in the public consciousness."

The legend tells of young lovers, Qays and Layla, separated by their families, never to see each other again. Such is Qays' undying passion that people call him Majnun ("crazy one"). He tears his clothes, doesn't eat or sleep and disappears into the desert, where he writes beautiful poems and sends them to Layla. But Layla is expected to remain silent about her love, so she writes poems in secret and gives them to messengers, hoping they that will reach Majnun.

"I think the reason this story has endured is because it's so timeless," Shenasa says. "I was really interested in the character of Layla, because I saw her as suffering in silence, with society expecting so much of her--to hold her feelings in--whereas Majnun could get away with running around naked in the desert and spewing out this poetry, and writhing and screaming."

Layla and Majnun are thought to have been real people who lived in the seventh century. Majnun's love poems, written to a woman named Layla, do exist, and their eloquence has helped sustain the legend. For five centuries, the story was an Arab folk tale passed along in the oral tradition. But when 12th-century poet Nizami Ganjavi wrote a Farsi version of the tale, his poems did for Layla and Majnun what Shakespeare did for the well-worn tale of Romeo and Juliet. The story has been translated into many languages and is known all over the Middle East, and throughout the world. Modern Western audiences may know it best as the subject of a pop song by Eric Clapton.

Earlier this month, Shenasa and writer Azin Arefi presented a performance at the quilt museum using imagery and verses from Nizami's telling, as well as excerpts from Majnun's own poems. Recordings of Nizami's writings were read in Farsi and English, and Majnun's poems were read in Arabic. A film of the performance will be featured as part of the Permanent Madness II installation, alongside an interactive display of the set pieces and costumes handmade by Shenasa.

The performance and the installation focus on the period after the lovers' separation, when they relied on messengers to pass along their poems. During the performance, though his poems were read, the character of Majnun remained unseen while Layla (played by Arefi) sent her intermediary (Shenasa), to post messages to Majnun on a fabric screen symbolizing the desert. Audience members could ask Layla to send a message of their own to the "desert."

"The whole reason that the story and these ideas are still alive is because everybody can relate to them," Shenasa says. "So I thought everybody should have a chance to go tell Layla how they feel about their beloved because she is almost like the patron saint of the silent lover, if there is such a thing. She would be the one that people would sort of pray to, if she was a saint, in order to find peace if they were lovelorn or without their loved one."

Shenasa also incorporates this interactive element in the installation, with visitors invited to use items on Layla's writing desk to post a message on the "desert."

"I hope that people will have a contemplative moment," she says. "I think everyone can partake of it whether they know Farsi or Arabic or English, or whether they know the story or not. The message is universal."

As part of Permanent Madness, Shenasa will present a lecture, "Costume and Character in Safavid Persia," followed by a discussion, on Dec. 10, 1 p.m., at the quilt museum.

Museum admission is $5-$6.50. For more information, call 408.971.0323 or www. sjquiltmuseum.org.