Boone High School - Boone Legend Yearbook (Orlando, FL)

Page 5 text:

A jx xx !X IX A l 4 4 ? 4 9 4 D 4 5 4 P 4 5 4 a 4 5 4 I , Nui 'Nf Xt' V V V

Page 4 text:

BQONE LEGEND 195 8 f?N William R. Boone High School Orlando, Florida Volume 6

Page 6 text:

FOREWORD K S 9 EARCHING for something truly unique for the 1958 BOONE LEGEND, we discovered fifty paintings by Iran's foremost living artist, Hossein Behzad, that illus- trate the immortal Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. We chose five of these miniatures as a backdrop for this year's annual for several reasons. Since most seniors read parts of the Rubaiyat -the most widely-known, quoted and treasured piece of foreign literature in the English language with the single exception of the Bible-we believe that Behzad's illustrations of several of the better- known quatrains will give life to these philosophical lines. We are also striving toward the goal of modern education to encourage self-development and to widen appreciations. We are aiding our nation in world understanding by acquainting our high school and the community with some of the art and the literature of a country that is currently prominent in the news. Finally, the combination of the pictures and the quatrains gives our annual a singular originality and the privilege of being a first because the paint- ings have been viewed by only a select few in Washington and New York and have never before been published. We have the distinct honor of offering these prints to you for the centennial of Edward Fitzgeralds English translation of the Rubaiyat which is being celebrated this year. Before this dream of using the paintings could become a reality, we had to secure permission to use them from Dr. Hossein A. N. Esfandiary, Cultural Counselor of the Iranian Embassy and owner of the paintings. He shared our enthusiasm and volunteered to help in any way possible. Soon the correspondence was flying between Washington, D. C., and Orlando as arrangements were being made to secure photographs of the paintings. Dr. Esfandiary even wrote the quatrains in Persian so that we might produce the poetry for you in the original language. Meanwhile we pored over all the books we could find to learn more about Khayyam and his world. Fascinated by this man's poetry, we were astonished to learn that he was by profession a mathematician and an astronomer and a poet only as a diversion. We were still more amazed to find that his literary work was almost unnoticed until Edward Fitzgerald translated the Rubaiyat from a crumbling manuscript. From press releases we learned of the painstaking task to which the artist devoted eight years. Putting on canvas the thoughts that Khayyam expressed so subtlely in words was not easy. Behzad instilled amazing accuracy, precision and meaning into each picture, doing much of the minute details under a magnifying glass. The result is a collection of exquisite paintings that grow in meaning and beauty each time they are viewed. We, the staff of the 1958 BOONE LEGEND, hope that you will find real pleasure in this world-famous art and that you will thoroughly enjoy this book depicting life at Wm. R. Boone High School. For the juniors and sophomores this book will record a year of work and fun, but for the seniors the LEGEND will be a storehouse of fond memories to be opened on a rainy night or to be laughed over with old friends. This is your BOONE LEGEND.