Mula Nasreddin: The Sack
Photo: Uighurs in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China, 1943. Crowd listening to storyteller at city gates.
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Mula Nasreddin came upon a frowning man walking along the road to town. "What's wrong?" he asked.
The man held up a tattered bag and moaned, "All that I own in this wide world barely fills this miserable, wretched sack."
"Too bad," said Mula Nasreddin, and with that, he snatched the bag from the man's hands and ran down the road with it.
Having lost everything, the man burst into tears and, more miserable than before, continued walking. Meanwhile, Mula Nasreddin quickly ran around the bend and placed the man's sack in the middle of the road where he would have to come upon it.
When the man saw his bag sitting in the road before him, he laughed with joy, and shouted, "My sack! I thought I'd lost you!"
Watching through the bushes, Mula Nasreddin chuckled. "Well, that's one way to make someone happy!"
(Source)
The man held up a tattered bag and moaned, "All that I own in this wide world barely fills this miserable, wretched sack."
"Too bad," said Mula Nasreddin, and with that, he snatched the bag from the man's hands and ran down the road with it.
Having lost everything, the man burst into tears and, more miserable than before, continued walking. Meanwhile, Mula Nasreddin quickly ran around the bend and placed the man's sack in the middle of the road where he would have to come upon it.
When the man saw his bag sitting in the road before him, he laughed with joy, and shouted, "My sack! I thought I'd lost you!"
Watching through the bushes, Mula Nasreddin chuckled. "Well, that's one way to make someone happy!"
(Source)
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Recommended Reading:
'The Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty Ghazals from the Diwan of Hafiz'
By Elizabeth T. Gray (Author), Daryush Shayegan (Introduction)
Purchase Books:
Amazon.com
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Description:
Hafiz is the preeminent poet of Persian Sufism and one of the great poets of world literature. The Green Sea of Heaven is regarded as the finest English translation of his poetry. Elizabeth Gray’s translations are informed by her thorough knowledge of Persian and the Persian poetic tradition. (Many recent books attributed to Hafiz have been produced by persons who do not know Persian at all!) This bilingual edition also includes two brilliant studies of Hafiz by Gray and Daryush Shayegan, plus helpful notes to the translation.
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