Una beffa suicida alla censura: il Mâhi-ye siyâh-e kučulu di Ṣamad Behrangi

Abstract

After a concise sketch of the main socio-political events in Iran under the second Pahlavi-King , a brief survey is given of the folktale rooted literary short stories. A feature is mostly underlined, i.e. the rhetorical tools used by the engagés authors to safeguard their creative freedom against the hash censorship of the Pahlavi regime. Behrangi’s literary works clearly exemplify such use of symbolism and allegory. In this article the first Italian translation of the Behrangi’s most famous story, Mâhi-ye siyâh-e kučulu, is also given. The story is told to a group of little fishes by an elder one. It deals with a little black fish, which grows tired with his tedious swimming around the small pond where it was born. He decides to undertake a journey to explore the outer world, that is - just to begin with - where is the end of the little stream gushing out of the pond. It has to overcome the reproaches and the harsh criticism addressed to it by its own mother and elder fishes, but at last it succeeds in meeting its desire to acquire more knowledge through experience. After a dangerous travel full of various and instructive adventures, the small fish reaches at last the sea. Such is its joy, that he feels ready even to meet death. In fact a heron swallows it up. The little fish succeeds in tearing the bird stomach and causing it to fall into the sea…; its fate, however, remains unclear. Here the story ends and the little fishes that have been told it are invited to go and sleep. All obey, but a little red fish remains awake, thinking of the sea. The translation is followed by a short analysis devoted to highlight Behrangi’s skill in inserting actual social themes into a traditional and popular fiction frame.