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I, Eugene Napoleon
Flandin, was born on the fifteenth of August, 1803 in the
city of Naples, in a French family. And today, in 1876, they
buried my body in this cemetery, with great ceremony. Beside
me, there'll be many renowned artists and companions; Emil
Zola, Dante, Victor Hugo, Moullierre, and hundreds and
hundreds of other great poets, writers, and philosophers
whose works have made them immortal them. As the Persian
poet, Khayyam, Says:
when we pass this ancient monastery
We'll be travel companions
to 7000 year olds!
Travel teaches one many things, I crossed the Mediterranean
in a steam ship, reached the ancient monuments of the
Mesopotamians, and visited forgotten civilizations such as
the Naniwa Asyrian , Kaldians where the dust of Time had
covered the faces of their stone heroes. And I left behind
many sketches for future generations. I passed the Shaamaat,
Beirut, the Ottoman Empire, the black sea, and the port of
Trabzun, and reached Baghdad. And on the banks of the
Euphrates, in the ruins of Teesfune and the Arch of Kasraa,
in the Palace of Anuhshirvaan, I heard the frozen hum of the
centuries and set off for the legendary land of Persia. On
This trip, I only relied on my eyes, my pen and ink, and my
measuring tools. My heart was in the sketches I drew of the
architectural glory of the Persian civilization. A
Civilization which has been forgotten, and only some clues
to its existence may be glimpsed from under the dust of
history. I spent some two-and-half years researching and
drawing sketches of the great Islamic Civilization, and even
as I lay in the Paris cemetery, the dust of this grave will
never be able to mar the sweet fragrance of my trip to
Persia.
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