Tales of Wisdom
Persian Tales of Wisdom A rendering into English of four classic Persian fairy tales entitled The Fairy King’s Daughter The Patient Stone The Old Woman and her Tiny House The Tale of Master Mouse These Tales are being prepared for publication Read an Extract from The Patient Stone... With her eyes now wide open there came a clear awareness: ‘why was the sky so inky black? Where were the heavenly bodies, the stars and the moon?’ When they had gone to bed, Namaki now recalled, it had been a bright summer’s night – not a single patch of cloud anywhere. The outlines of the Milky Way and the Seven Sisters had been clearly visible from her bed inside the white mosquito net whose canopy, she now noticed, was all torn and rippling in the breeze like ghostly shadows.

FICTION FICTION FICTION

FICTION

The Awakening

Panic-stricken, Namaki opened her eyes. Grey shadows billowed around, and beyond was pitch darkness. Her mind was clouded by a deep feeling of discomfort. Yet she also found the darkness rather reassuring since the absence of light meant that it was night and she must have been only dreaming – just a nightmare, she thought. And yet that terrible voice was still resounding in her head: it had been calling her name N A M A K I in an endless echo before it had finally woken her up.


Namaki's mind went back over the details of their routine... preparing and airing the beds : after sunset when the flat roof of the house had cooled down in the early evening breeze, she and her two younger sisters had come up as usual. They’d had their usual tomfoolery giggling and tickling one another as they mounted the stairs, enjoying the cool refreshing air wafting their faces after the hot, sticky day as they emerged. The three of them had rolled out the rugs, swept them with straw brooms, spread out the two mattresses, fixing the wooden posts at the four corners of each and then put up the mosquito nets around them – the smaller one for their parents and baby brother; the larger one for themselves as the three girls slept together in one bed.


Now as Namaki stretched out her arm to touch her sister, instead of the warm soft flesh she had expected, her hand touched a block of solid rock. An unrestrained scream broke out from her innermost being ‘A  a  a  a  a  ah’.


Read an Extract from The Old Woman & Her Tiny House...... “The old woman dragged herself towards her room, telling herself she simply had no more room nor energy to open the door to anyone else. She went to her bed and slept. But as she was falling into a deep sleep a voice in her ear whispered ‘Old woman, you did some splendid work tonight by letting all those animals in to sleep in your house. You will have your reward for your good deeds!’” Chapter 1 – Bed Time “Once upon a time there was an old woman who lived on her own outside the town. Her house was very small. It was the size of a sieve and her room was the size of a matchbox. She was very unhappy on her own, but had no choice because there was nobody to visit her. And being very frail, she was unable to go for walks or do much else by way of enjoying herself. Only at midday she always went shopping, walking slowly to the only shop which was near the town, and slowly wending her way back again. However, in that very town certain events were taking place. And what the old woman didn’t know yet was that those events were about to change her life.” This story juxtaposes two impossible things: a huge number of animals are accommodated in a tiny house - the idea being that a big, loving and hospitable heart creates its own magic and reality, overriding apparent limitations and impossibilities. Read an Extract from The Tale of Master Mouse...... “Master Mouse took the thread and gave it to Master Tail Repairer. Master Tail Repairer threaded the needle, laid Master Mouse down on the couch, and sewed his tail back on. But…!!!!” Chapter 1 – Master Mouse and his Tail “Once upon a time there was a mouse. His friends called him Master Mouse. One day Master Mouse came to run from one hole to another when his tail got caught and was torn off. He picked up his tail and went to Master Tail Repairer and said ‘Master Tail Repairer, sew my tail back on.’ Master Tail Repairer said ‘Go to Weaver and get some thread and bring it to me; then I can sew your tail back on’.” And so his tale began.... A traditional tale for younger children that refers to the interconnectedness of life. Being comic and entertaining, it also conveys a moral point that undertaking even a simple task involves many skills that require concentration so as to prevent disaster.

Storms of the Heart is available HERE!     &    The Shadowkeeper is available HERE!