New Naqqali
The Blind Owl · scene 58 of 77 · part two

A coffin passes the window

A coffin draped in black with a candle on top passes; shopkeepers and the butcher walk seven steps after it, but the junk dealer does not move. The nurse, frowning, prays loudly at his door.

Scene 58 of The Blind Owl, A coffin passes the window: ink-and-wash drawing
Lines
P166.L01–P166.L05
Where
the alley outside his window
Who
narrator; mourners; the butcher; the old junk dealer; Naneh-Joon
Kind
action · Optional scene
Echoes
Scene 19: The hearse through the geometric country

Who and what is here

Naneh-Joonننه‌جونThe old junk dealerپیرمرد خنزرپنزریThe butcherقصابThe narrator’s roomاطاق منThe window of his roomدریچهThe butcher’s shopدکان قصابیThe coffinتابوت

For the illustration A black-draped coffin with a burning candle passing a window, the old peddler motionless at his cloth.

The text of the scene

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

P166.L01

در این وقت از جلو دریچه اطاقم یک تابوت می‌بردند که رویش را پارچه سیاه کشیده بودند و بالای تابوت شمع روشن کرده بودند.

At that moment they were carrying a coffin past my room’s window, covered with black cloth, with a candle burning on top of it.

P166.L02

صدای «لا اله الا الله» مرا متوجه کرد. همه کاسب‌کارها و رهگذران از راه خودشان برمی‌گشتند و هفت قدم دنبال تابوت می‌رفتند.

The sound of “There is no god but God” drew my attention. All the shopkeepers and passersby turned back from their way and walked seven steps behind the coffin.

P166.L03

حتی مرد قصاب هم آمد برای ثواب هفت قدم دنبال تابوت رفت و به دکانش برگشت. ولی پیرمرد بساطی از سر سفره خودش جم نخورد.

Even the butcher came, walked seven steps behind the coffin for religious merit, and returned to his shop. But the old peddler did not budge from his spread-out wares.

P166.L04

همه مردم چه صورت جدی به خودشان گرفته بودند! شاید یاد فلسفه مرگ و آن دنیا افتاده بودند!

How serious all the people looked! Perhaps they had begun thinking about the philosophy of death and the next world!

P166.L05

دایه‌ام که برایم جوشانده آورد دیدم اخمش درهم بود، دانه‌های تسبیح بزرگی که دستش بود می‌انداخت و با خودش ذکر می‌کرد. بعد نمازش را آمد پشت در اطاق من به کمرش زد و بلندبلند تلاوت می‌کرد «اللهم، اللهم...»

When my nurse brought me a medicinal decoction, I saw her frowning; she was passing the beads of a large rosary through her hand and reciting invocations to herself. Then she came behind my room’s door, began her prayers, and recited loudly, “O God, O God...”

← Scene 57: The knife under the pillowScene 59: The room a coffin: death, fears and masks →