The Blind Owl

The Blind Owl (1936; Persian: بوف کور‎, Boof-e koor, listen ) is Sadegh Hedayat's magnum opus and a major literary work of 20th century Iran. Written in Persian, it tells the story of an unnamed pen case painter, the narrator, who sees in his macabre, feverish nightmares that "the presence of death annihilates all that is imaginary. We are the offspring of death and death delivers us from the tantalizing, fraudulent attractions of life; it is death that beckons us from the depths of life. If at times we come to a halt, we do so to hear the call of death... Throughout our lives, the finger of death points at us." The narrator addresses his murderous confessions to the shadow on his wall resembling an owl. His confessions do not follow a linear progression of events and often repeat and layer themselves thematically, thus lending to the open-ended nature of interpretation of the story.

For other uses, see Blind Owl (disambiguation).
The Blind Owl
AuthorSadegh Hedayat
TranslatorD. P. Costello
CountryIran
LanguagePersian
Publication date
1937
Published in English
1958
ISBN978-1-84749-069-8

The Blind Owl was written during the oppressive latter years of Reza Shah's rule (1925–1941). It was originally published in a limited edition in Bombay, during Hedayat's two-year-long stay there in 1937, stamped with "Not for sale or publication in Iran." It first appeared in Tehran in 1941 (as a serial in the daily Iran), after Reza Shah's abdication, and had an immediate and forceful effect. It was later banned, reportedly because it led readers towards suicide.[1] It is believed that much of the novel had already been completed by 1930 while Hedayat was still a student in Paris. Being inspired by European ideologies, the author challenges the traditions and as a result, the work is the representation of modern literature in Iran.[2]

Translations

The Blind Owl was translated into French by Roger Lescot during World War II, apparently with Hedayat's knowledge and approval, and published as La Chouette Aveugle (1953), and later by Pasteur Vallery Radot, a member of the French Academy. The book was well received in the French literary circles.

In Germany, two translations appeared in the early 1960s. The first, entitled Die Blinde Eule, was translated by Heshmat Moayyed, Otto H. Hegel and Ulrich Riemerschmidt directly from the Persian; the second, in East Germany, was translated by Gerd Henniger from the French version. In Turkey, The Blind Owl was translated from Persian to Turkish in 1977 by the Turkish poet Behçet Necatigil, under the title "Kör Baykuş".

The Blind Owl was translated into English by D. P. Costello (1957), by Iraj Bashiri (1974, revised in 1984 and again in 2013), and by Naveed Noori (2011).

In Italy translations of the Blind Owl from English or French versions appeared since the 60s, whereas in 2020 it was translated from Persian by Anna Varzan.

In Poland The Blind Owl was translated from the Persian original by late specialist in Iranian studies, Barbara Majewska, Ph.D. It appeared under the same-meaning title "Ślepa sowa" twice. First in the respectable literary quarterly Literatura na Świecie (No 10(90), Warszawa, October 1978, pp. 4–116); then as a separate book (Warszawa, 1979).

In Romania, The Blind Owl was translated from Persian into Romanian in 1996 by the orientalist philologist Gheorghe Iorga, under the title Bufnița oarbă. A revised second edition came out in 2006.

In Mexico, The Blind Owl was translated from the Roger Lescot's French version into Spanish by Agustí Bartra, under the title La lechuza ciega. It was published by Joaquín Mortiz Books in 1966.

In Urdu the novel has been translated by Ajmal Kamal with the original name Boof-e-Kor. Many of Hedayat's short stories have also been translated into Urdu, mostly by Bazl-e-Haq Mahmood, who published one volume of his short stories as Sag-e-Awara (Sag-e Velgard).

In India, two translations appeared in the Malayalam language. The first, entitled Kurudan Moonga, was translated by the famous novelist late Vilasini. The second, entitled Kurudan Kooman was translated by S. A. [Qudsi] and published by Mathrubhumi Books in 2005; second edition has been published by DC Books in 2011.

In Finland, The Blind Owl was translated from Persian into Finnish in 1990 by Henri Broms, Petri Pohjanlehto and Leena Talvio, under the title Sokea pöllö.

In Armenian, translated by Eduard Hakhverdyan.

In Japan, The Blind Owl was translated by Kiminori Nakamura and published by Hakusuisha in 1983 under the title "盲目の梟 (Mōmoku no Fukurou)."

In Indonesia, The Blind Owl was translated by Noor Aida a.k.a. Aida Vyasa and published by Dastan Books in 2004.

In the Philippines, The Blind Owl was translated by Mercedes DL. Tulaylay under the title Bulag na Kuwago.

In the Netherlands, The Blind Owl was translated by Ali Soleimani under the title De Blinde Uil.

In China, The Blind Owl was translated by Mu Hongyan under the title 瞎猫头鹰 and published by Henan University Press in 2017. It was named to the China Reading Weekly's top 100 of 2017.

In Czechoslovakia The Blind Owl appeared in the translation of Věra Kubíčková (under the title Slepá sova) with other nine stories as a part of the book Tři kapky krve (Three Drops of Blood), and published by SNKLU in Prague, 1964.

In Estonia, The Blind Owl was translated from Persian into Estonian in 2018 by the orientalist Üllar Peterson under the title Pime öökull.

Film

The novel was made into a film in 1974 (Boof-e-koor AKA The Blind Owl - available on YouTube), directed by Kiumars Derambakhsh, starring Parviz Fanizadeh, Farshid Farshood and Parvin Solaymani.[3]

It was also made into the 1987 film The Blind Owl[4] directed by Raúl Ruiz.

It was adapted into a 2018 feature film, The Blind Owl: Boofe Koor by Iranian-Canadian Mazdak Taebi.[5]

References
  1. Farahbakhsh, Alireza; Haghshenas, Saleh (2014-12-23). "Exploring Bergsonian time in Sadeq Hedayat's The Blind Owl". Journal of European Studies. 45 (2): 93–105. doi:10.1177/0047244114559343.
  2. Coulter, Yasamine C. "A Comparative Post-Colonial Approach to Hedayat's The Blind Owl." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 2.3 (2000)
  3. The Blind Owl on IMDB
  4. "La chouette aveugle". www.imdb.com.
  5. The Blind Owl : Boofe Koor on IMDB
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