Читать книгу Self-Portrait in Bloom - Niloufar Talebi - Страница 11

There is no exact equivalent in English for the Persian word zahre-maar, at least none that I’ve thought up, but the literal translation is “venom of snake.” Zahr/venom, e/of, maar/snake. Three distinct syllables.

I love the way the word sounds, how the Z can be emphasized, ZZZZAH!, how the H can be guttural—no, not as the Arabic H that veers into KH, we’re talking a breathy H, as in a hardy Hi!—before the release into the elongated AA, MAAAAAAAR, like a snake itself.

Zahre-maar has multiple meanings depending on context and delivery. As an exclamatory phrase, Zahre-maar! can be a bitter response to someone, a retort for being wronged, but it could also be delivered with a lighter touch, feigning a greater degree of hurt than felt. For jest.

Zahre-maar reminds me of a board game I used to play with my brother, Maar O Pelleh, Snakes and Ladders. Each player competes to be the first to arrive at the final square by rolling dice and advancing on a board. On the way, each could randomly encounter ladders (which give a leg up) or snakes (the opposite). If a player lands on the Envy box, for example, the snake of envy drops the player to only the second of usually one hundred squares in some games. Forward momentum seriously thwarted.

Zahre-maar can also be used with the auxiliary verbs shodan, to become, or kardan, to do:

Zahre-maaram shod = It was ruined for me. Zahre-maaram kard = Someone ruined it for me.

To ruin something for someone.

Yeki bood, yeki nabood. Once upon a time there was one, there was none* which was not the negation of one but its own being misunderstood yearning to break free

*Upon creation, there was one and the polar opposite of one. One was angel, infinity, existence, fulfillment, light, oneness, and the other was the equal opposite, merely a shadow, where light wasn’t, where nothing was, an absence, nothing, zero. Then, the equal opposite objected! What could possibly be more unequal than one versus zero, all versus none? it said. This is not an equal opposite, it is a ghastly manifestation of the question. And thus, to make the playing field even, was born JUSTICE. The shadow, the none, was given the value of negative or minus one, which is in itself a futile concept, there existing no negative in reality. But it simply had to be imagined and created to make the game equal, so it could unfold in the first place.