New Naqqali

The Blind Owl · scene 51 of 77 · part two

The overturned soup; opium prescribed

He knocks the soup bowl from beneath and screams until the household gathers; his wife passes by, visibly pregnant. The physician prescribes opium, which lifts him on golden moth wings into a shining void.

Scene 51 of The Blind Owl, The overturned soup; opium prescribed: ink-and-wash drawing

Lines: P148.L01–P150.L02
Where: room (house outside the city)
Who: narrator; Naneh-Joon; the household; his wife; the physician
Kind: action · Optional scene
Echoes: Scene 27: Opium before the two portraits; the fall down the well

Who and what is here

The harlot (the narrator’s wife)لکاتهNaneh-Joonننه‌جون The wife's childبچهٔ لکاته The physicianحکیم‌باشی The householdاهل خانه The narrator’s roomاطاق من Opiumتریاک

For the illustration Household faces crowding a doorway over a spilled bowl; a pregnant woman passing behind them.

The text of the scene

Sadegh Hedayat’s Persian beside our literal English, line by line.

ظهر که دایه‌ام ناهارم را آورد من زدم زیر کاسه آش، فریاد کشیدم، با تمام قوایم فریاد کشیدم.

At noon, when my nurse brought my lunch, I struck the bowl of soup from beneath, cried out, cried out with all my strength.

همه اهل خانه آمدند جلو اطاقم جمع شدند.

Everyone in the house came and gathered in front of my room.

آن لکاته هم آمد و زود رد شد.

That harlot came too and quickly passed by.

به شکمش نگاه کردم، بالا آمده بود.

I looked at her belly; it had swollen.

نه، هنوز نزائیده بود.

No, she had not yet given birth.

رفتند حکیم‌باشی را خبر کردند.

They went to fetch the physician.

من پیش خودم کیف می‌کردم که اقلاً این احمقها را به زحمت انداخته‌ام.

I was pleased with myself that at least I had caused these fools some trouble.

حکیم‌باشی با سه قبضه ریش آمد، دستور داد که من تریاک بکشم.

The physician came with his three fistfuls of beard and ordered that I smoke opium.

چه داروی گرانبهائی برای زندگی دردناک من بود!

What a precious medicine it was for my painful life!

وقتی که تریاک می‌کشیدم افکارم بزرگ، لطیف، افسون‌آمیز و پرّان می‌شد، در محیط دیگری ورای دنیای معمولی سیر و سیاحت می‌کردم، خیالات و افکارم از قید ثقیل و سنگینی چیزهای زمینی آزاد می‌شد و به سوی سپهر آرام و خاموشی پرواز می‌کرد، مثل اینکه مرا روی بالهای شب‌پره طلائی گذاشته بودند و در یک دنیای تهی و درخشان که به هیچ مانعی برنمی‌خورد گردش می‌کردم.

When I smoked opium, my thoughts became great, delicate, enchanting, and flying. I traveled through another realm beyond the ordinary world; my imaginings and thoughts were freed from the heavy constraint and weight of earthly things and flew toward a peaceful, silent firmament, as though they had placed me upon the wings of a golden moth and I were roaming in an empty and shining world where I encountered no obstacle.

به قدری این تأثیر عمیق و پرکیف بود که از مرگ هم کیفش بیشتر بود.

So deep and pleasurable was this effect that its pleasure was greater even than death.

← Scene 50: The embroidered curtain above the korsi Scene 52: The nurse in the courtyard; prayers against death →