The legend of creation
The Legend of Creation is a book by Sadegh Hedayat from 1930.
content
The Legend of Creation is a collection of three short stories , namely The Legend of Creation (Afsâné-je-âfarinesch), Crawled Out of the Bush (Kasijé-je-sir-e botté) and Water of Life (Âb-e sendegi) .
The legend of creation
It is a parody of the creation story. The people are: Gottvaterow, Gabriel Pascha, Michael Effendi, Raphael Beg and Mulla Uriel. These people try to create Adam in a self-humanized form. Out of frustration at doing nothing, Adam and Eve finally celebrate their expulsion from paradise as a success.
Crept out of the bush
It also describes the development of mankind since the expulsion from paradise. Wars break out and the poet's task is to help the warlords to achieve literary immortality with outrageous exaggerations. Another tribe invents the profession of historian, who denies the hostile tribe of their divine origin and claims that they have crawled out of the bush. The other tribe soon adopted this history of origin.
water of life
The story is about a father who had three sons, Hassanî, Hosseinî and Ahmadak. When a famine breaks out, he sends all three of them abroad to earn money. Ahmadak is beaten up by the others and hidden in a cave, Hassanî comes to a witch's house where he has to go into a well. There he meets a bird that sends him to the land of Sarafschân, the land of gold, which, however, makes its inhabitants blind. Since they are waiting for a prophet to heal their eyesight, Hassanî poses as their prophet. Hossenî comes to the land of Mâhtâban, the moonlit land in which all people are deaf, and Hosseinî also pretends to be their prophet. Ahmadak, on the other hand, comes to the land of Hamisché-Bahâr, where the water of life wells, which releases from blindness and deafness and from all earthly pursuits. Ahmadak is led there by a Simurgh . Since he felt sorry for his brothers who were addicted to the search for wealth and fame, he wanted to bring them the water of life. Hassanî and Hosseinî then allied themselves and started a war against Hamishé-Bahâr. This won the war and redeemed the inhabitants of Sarafschân and Mâhtâban, whereupon they got rid of their prophets. Ahmadak returned to his father and healed him from his blindness with the water of life.
criticism
“ The legend of creation was written as a satire for the puppet theater. It is based on the Mohammedan idea - not unlike the Judeo-Christian one, by the way - that divine rule is set over human beings. [...] In this world of faith, Hedâjat suddenly introduces modern aspects of science. This is how the monkey messes with God: he gazes in the mirrors and shapes people in his own image. This is Darwin's teaching in Hedâjât's legend of creation. It also reflects the national and social chaos of the late feudalist-bourgeois Orient. "
literature
- Sadegh Hedayat: The Legend of Creation . Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1960
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sadegh Hedayat: The Legend of Creation. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1960, epilogue