New Naqqaliشاهنامه
The Cooks Spare One Youth
Book A5 · Zahhak’s Tyranny and the Uprising of Kaveh

The Cooks Spare One Youth

From A5.1, The Evil Customs of Zahhak. It illustrates A5.1.29–33:

  • A5.1.29
    Of those two, one they killed; no means they knewTo save them both from what they had to do.
  • A5.1.30
    They drew a sheep’s brain from its severed head,And mixed it with the brain of him they bled.
  • A5.1.31
    They spared the other: “Hide your head from sight;Guard well your life and vanish in the night.
  • A5.1.32
    Do not remain where settled cities stand;The plain and mountain shall become your land.”
  • A5.1.33
    The sheep’s brain took the spared youth’s place inside,And fed the snakes while truth remained denied.
Read it in the poemIn the Illustrated PoemAll panels of Book A5
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