View source for Sohrab1
From RoyalWeb
Jump to:
navigation
,
search
<-- Back to [[Ahmad Sohrab]] This item is NOT YET completely loaded. I hope to finish it in the next few days. Syracuse Herald (Syracuse, NY), 20 Jun 1920, Magazine Section, Page Two (To the right there is a quarter-page oval photo of Juanita Storch with the caption: "Miss Juanita Storch, of Oakland, Cal., Now the Bride of Mirza Ahmad Sohrab." and also includes a small pen drawing of an man in Oriental-dress reading a book to a young girl.) (Below the headline is a quarter-page photo with the caption: "The Persian Lover and His Bride Surrounded by the Picturesque Wedding Guests.") (At the bottom of the page is a smaller photo with the caption: "Mirza Ahmad Sohrab" showing a mustachioed man in a turban wearing an open-necked coat or smock over another garment like a shirt, but hard to see. Looks rather like the old "Turkish" style of clothing to me.) "Did An American Lover Ever Write Letters Like These?" "Who But a Countryman of Omar Khayyam Would Ever Address a California Girl as 'My Ever Beautiful Blue Sky' and 'My Isle of the Golden Dreams' — and in Five Hundred Letters" "By H.H. Hoffman "Who makes the ideal lover? The American man? No. He conducts his wooing as he conducts his business; direct, without the beautiful poetic version of love expressed by the lover of the East. "Reasoning thus in the outdoor beauty of her California home, Miss Juanita Storch, for more than seven years compared the American youth and his love-making to the poetic letters, filled with soul admiration, from her dark-eyed admirer on the far-off shores of Haifa, the sacred city of Palestine. "The Persian lover, Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, thus laid siege to her heart in a volley of notes and letters, describing his love for the blue-eyed young American girl he had met only for a few moments on two occasions in Oakland, Calif. "The romance began seven years ago when the Persian lover traveled to California with Abdul Baha, leader of the Bahai movement, who was making a lecture tour of the country at that time. "Mirza Sohrab was secretary of the Persian legation at Washington when he was called upon to act as interpreter for Abdul Baha in his lecture work here. Sohrab speaks English perfectly, and in addition to his education received at Beirut university he has studied at American institutions of learning. But in spite of an intimate familiarity with American mannerisms he has never lost the poetic oriental habit of thinking in terms of classic sentiment when the heart has been stirred by the object of his love. "Letters to His 'Beautiful Mermaid'" "Sohrab journed back to Palestine with Abdul Baha and only a short while later the world war broke, holding the young interpreter practically a prisoner so far as traveling was concerned, in the Pilgrims' Home, the residence of the Baha, at Haifa. "Sohrab wrote as only an oriental, whose feelings are deeply moved, can write. His letters traveled slowly half round the world, and gradually Miss Storch looked forward with interest to receiving them. "At first she laughed at this peculiar friendship. She was only 18 and filled with the love of the American outdoor girl for athletics and all the amusements that healthy, young women indulge in. She had admirers galore. One of them became peeved because she beat him in a swimming race. No, he would never marry a girl who laughed at his inferiority. So that youthful friendship ended. "Then there was another who objected to her leadership in out-of-door sports. It was all right when she reclined like a beautiful doll on the canoe cushions, while her partner paddled, but this did not satisfy tihs athletic young woman, for she found more pleasure in doing some of the paddling herself and she told him so. "And all this time the letters of Sohrab kept arriving, and when it suited her mood, which was not often in these days, Miss Storch answered them. She wrote one to his twenty. But he persisted, and they kept coming at intervals until this country declared war on Germany. Then to his despair one day the young Persian received several of the letters he had written to the California girl. They had been returned to him from Constantinople. "The curtain was rung down temporarily on that romance. Word was passed that the Turks would search the homes of all the people in Palestine. So on a dark night, Sohrab gathered together his precious papers, among them the letters of Miss Storch, and buried them in an old trunk at the foot of Mount Carmel. "And then after this long silence, the sun shone again in Sohrab's life with the arrival of General Allenby and his tropps in the Holy City. 'I shall never forget it,' said Sohrab. 'This meant my freedom to travel to my beloved Juanita.' "After some parley with the British officials, permission was obtained for Sohrab to travel to the United States. He wired her when he reached New York that he would travel West to see her. His letters had paved the way for a happy reunion. "'He is the only man I would marry; the only man I could be happy with, for his letters breathe love, not dictation and a superior sense of ownership which spirited women dislike so much in a certain type of man,' said she. "They became engaged before Sohrab left Oakland. Every day following until their marriage in New York, April 28, Sohrab wrote to his bride-to-be. All his letters, numbering upward of 500, have been treasured by the young woman, who calls them her rosary. "And any young woman would want to treasure love letters in which she was addressed as 'My Isle of the Golden Dreams' or 'My Ever Wakeful Blue Sky' and 'My Divine Mystery of Love.' "Even such expressive terms as 'Dearest' and 'Darling' and 'Baby' and 'Snookums' sound prosaic and colorless when compared with 'Beautiful Mermaid of the Ocean of Beauty.' The Ideal Lover's Christmas Salutation "I walk by the shoreless sea of time (so reads one of the love letters received by Miss Storch last Christmas) and wait for argosies of magic sail, when lo in the far distant horizon a light appears and the angels of Heaven sing out: 'She comes, she comes, comes.' "I gather courage and enter the labyrinthic caves of the Eternal and from all parts I hear the echoes reverberating through my mind — 'she comes, she comes, comes.' "Thus many a road I walked, many a song have I sung with many a company did I mingle and many a garland of thought did I weave, but every one of them proclaimed, 'she comes, she comes, comes.' With the Lord of my heart I spoke, with the angels of Heaven I conversed, with the saints of God I walked, with the messengers of the Most High I sat and they all gave me the glad tidings — 'she comes, she comes, comes.' "In a letter signed 'Thy faithful pilgrim at the shrine of love' and dated a few weeks before the wedding day Ahmad wrote thus to his 'Beautiful Mermaid' The Pilgrim's Song of Acceptance "The sea of my love for thee has been waving tumultuously at all times, casting on the shore of existence pearls and jewels of priceless value.
Return to
Sohrab1
.
Views
Page
Discussion
View source
History
Personal tools
Log in
Navigation
Main page
Community portal
Current events
Recent changes
Random page
Help
Search
Toolbox
What links here
Related changes
Special pages
MOOCOW
Google AdSense