An Anthology of Persian Stories & Anecdotes
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 lo
ss. 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.