Bayrami’s Book in Serbian

‘Tales of Sabalan,’ a collection of two novelettes by famous writer Mohammad Reza Bayrami, has recently been rendered in Serbian.

The Serbian edition of the book will soon be released in the Balkans. It is translated by Serbian translator and language teacher Milos Delic, based in Belgrade, Mehr News Agency reported.

A native to the Serbian language, Delic also is highly proficient in Croatian and Bosnian languages. He translates and interprets English and Persian into Serbian, specializing in history, anthropology, culture and literature.

Bayrami, 56, was born in northwestern Iran in a village at the foothills of the Sabalan Mountain, where the two stories in this collection, as well as many of his other stories, take place. He is the author of over 30 novels and collections of short stories that have won many literary prizes.

In’ Tales of Sabalan,’ Bayrami weaves the themes of adolescence and responsibility into a captivating story. The book is the story of a young boy who is forced to grow up quickly, to assume the role of the male head of the household at a tender age because of the untimely death of his father. The volume includes two short novels: ‘The Mountain Called Me’ and ‘On the Edge of the Precipice.’

  The Mountain Called Me

Jalal is a teenager who lives with his family in a mountainous village in western Iran. His father has fallen ill and Jalal has to head to a nearby village with his horse Qashqa to find a local doctor.

The mountainous path is blocked by snow and hungry wolves. With the help of Qashqa and through his own cunning, Jalal finally finds the doctor and brings him home.

There is nothing the doctor can do for his dad who dies soon afterwards. In his final moments, he asks Jalal to take care of the family.

But Jalal is not taken seriously by his mother. He struggles to prove to his mother that he is old enough to be trusted. For this, a perfect opportunity comes up: his uncle is heading to the mountains for a hunting expedition and Jalal secretly decides to follow him.

  On the Edge of the Precipice

In the second novelette, a cold winter persists during which Jalal and his mother strive to overcome all odds for a better life in spring.

Their foremost challenge is to provide fodder for their sheep, while many livestock in the village have perished of starvation. The second story opens to a scene where the starved animals are on the edge of a precipice.

Eventually Jalal’s mother decides to sell their dear horse Qashqa, the very animal that saved and served them. Despite the old age of the horse, Jalal resists the decision but to no avail. A neighbor offers an insignificant amount for the animal, intending to kill and feed it to his shepherd dog. Jalal intervenes and takes Qashqa to the mountains, hoping that the horse will survive feeding on frozen grass and avoiding the attacks of hungry wolves.