An Anthology of Persian Stories & Anecdotes Read online

An Anthology of

  Persian Stories and Anecdotes

  By Mohammad Ali Heidari-Shahreza

  Copyright © 2015 by Mohammad Ali Heidari-Shahreza

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  Table of Contents

  Preface

  Bald parrot

  White lie

  Unlucky beggar

  Wise mouse

  Cunning wife

  Layli and Majnoun

  Schoolboys

  Remembrance

  Satan

  Gamble

  Farmer

  Siyavash

  If God wants

  Suitors

  Wasp

  Watery milk

  Origin of injustice

  Daydreamer

  Bad luck

  Worried cow

  Wise enemy

  Poor but kind

  Cruel lion

  False prophet

  Bijan and Manijeh

  Gardener

  Friendship

  Tanner

  Woodcutter

  Best judge

  Pious cat

  Falcon

  Language

  Rostam's seven labors

  Question

  Silence

  Justice

  Practice makes perfect

  Scholar's servant

  Old snake

  Teacher

  Wholesaler

  Wise bird

  King's ring

  Dead dog

  Sore eyes

  Minister

  Apple tree

  The beggar in love

  Greedy mouse

  Thief

  Dissatisfied officer

  Oldest animal

  Pelican

  Dead parrot

  Wise servant

  Lost donkey

  Wolf and lost kid

  Idol

  The secret of Creation

  Greedy thieves

  Wild elephant

  Fee not free

  Heartless and brainless donkey

  Shepherd

  Farhad and Shirin

  Dream

  The mirror of deeds

  War

  True lover

  Monkey's heart

  Traders

  Naughty servant

  Camel

  True server

  Fat and thin travelers

  Tailor

  The secret of health

  Rostam and Sohrab

  Wise rooster

  Whose baby

  Blame

  The elephant in darkness

  White cat

  False friends

  Mean vs. meat

  Fugitive

  What kind of death

  Impatient turtle

  Simorgh

  Deaf visitor

  Educated donkey

  Wine

  Ant and paintbrush

  Generosity or bravery

  Sick teacher

  Early bird

  Preface

  Persian literature is the reflection of a glorious culture and civilization adorned with gems of wisdom, art and imagination of Persians over many centuries. It includes a great number of anecdotes and stories, in varying length and genres both in prose and verse which instruct and delight at the same time. The main incentive behind the present anthology was to make Persian literature accessible for a wide range of readers all around the world. Although the outstanding works of Persian literature have already been translated into English and some other languages, these translations mainly suit only an elite number of literary experts who are completely familiar with Persian language and culture. This, in turn, is in contrast with the fact that literature should serve all people from all walks of life.

  This anthology contains about one hundred stories and anecdotes recreated out of the following works of Persian literature.

  1. Masnavi (rhyming couplets) by Rumi (also Mawlana), the great Persian poet, scholar and Sufi mystic, 13th century.

  2. Gulistan (the rose garden), by Sa'di, the great Persian poet and literary man, 13th century.

  3. Akhlaq-al-Ashraf (ethics of the aristocracy) and Risala-i-Dilgusha (joyous treatise), by Ubayd Zakani, the great Persian poet and satirist, 14th century.

  4. Kelileh o Demneh (Kelileh and Demneh), by Nasr Allah Munshi, 13th century, Persian author and translator, originally from Panchatantra, an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in verse and prose, 3rd century BCE.

  5. Marzban-Nama (the book of Marzban), by Saʿd-al-Din Varavini, Persian author and translator, 13th century originally by Marzban b. Rostam, a Persian prince, 4th century.

  6. Haft-Paykar (seven beauties), Makhzan al-Asrar (the treasury of mysteries), Khosrow o Shirin (khosrow and Shirin), and Layli o Majnoun (Layli and Majnoun) by Nizami Ganjavi, great Persian poet, 12th century.

  7. Shahnameh (the book of kings) by Ferdowsi, great Persian poet, 10th century.

  8. Manteq-ot-Tayr (the conference of the birds), Mosibat-Nameh (the book of suffering) and Ilahi-Nameh (the divine book) by Attar, the great Persian poet and suphist, 12th century.

  9. Sindbad-Nameh (the book of Sindbad) by Zahiri-Samarqandi, the Persian author and translator, 12th century.

  10. Qabus-Nameh (the book of Qabus) by Keikavus, the Persian king and author, 11th century.

  It is, in essence, a free translation of old Persian stories in varying length, from a few lines of prose to several thousands lines of poetry, into simple prose with an atmosphere of a more familiar world than that of ancient times. Some stories have been originally short as it is often the case with stories from Gulistan by Sa'di or from Risala-i-Dilqusha by Ubayd Zakani. However, in case of long stories (i.e. more than a few pages of prose), such as the ones from Shahnameh by Ferdowsi or Layli and Majnoun by Nizami, the stories have been summarized into not more than three pages of prose, keeping its essence and message intact as far as possible. Therefore, all stories in this anthology are really reader-friendly both in terms of the time needed to be read and the level of language mastery required. This hopefully makes this collection readable for even those many people nowadays who can devote only little time to reading literature or have little mastery over English as an international language. Moreover, almost all stories in this anthology have been directly recreated out of perusing the original works. Yet, some online resources and available Persian books have inspired me to include or exclude some stories among which I would like to acknowledge the series Good Stories for Good Children in Persian by Mehdi Azar-Yazdi that won a UNESCO prize in 1966 and was selected as Iran’s best book of the year in 1967. In addition, while the stories in this anthology do not follow any specific order, they are hopefully arranged in the most amusing way, avoiding overlapping themes in successive stories.

  Finally, it's worth noting that some of the selected stories have originally had various layers of meaning covering a wide range of concepts from everyday issues to sophisticated ideologies. In case of some stories especially the longer ones, the brevity and simplicity of the present anthology may have been reached at the cost of defocusing some notions. Defensibly speaking, however, the gains are worth the
loss. Therefore, the present stories are miniatures of the original ones in terms of the main plot, theme and moral.

  Mohammad Ali Heidari-Shahreza,

  July, 04, 2015,

  Shahreza, Iran.