Moradi Kermani gives humorous view of death in “The Stem End of a Cucumber”

TEHRAN -- Iranian children’s book writer Hushang Moradi Kermani’s book “The Stem End of a Cucumber”, which contain 30 short stories with a humorous glance at death, has recently been published.

 

The book was unveiled during a ceremony at the Mehr News Agency on Sunday.

 

Moradi Kermani, Moin Publications director Saleh Ramsari, the publisher of the book, critic Shahram Eqbalzadeh, and literary scholar Mohammad Mokhtarpur attended the ceremony was.

 

“I think of death a lot. I have written almost 340 stories about death and the bitter events in life and I have constantly thought if we can lessen the bitterness and add some sweetness, because many people are afraid of death and many writers do not like to write about it,” the writer said at the ceremony.

 

Moradi Kermani called ‘death’ the common theme of all the stories of the book and said that he liked to reduce the bitterness of death through his humorous descriptions of death.

 

He also explained about the book’s source of inspiration and said, “One day I was walking with my son in the [Behesht-e Zahra] cemetery, where I told him that every individual who is lying here beneath all this dust could be a good writer, since nobody’s life is similar. Each one has experienced war, poverty, happiness and hardship but has not said a word about them.”

 

The author added that he regards his books as his children, “The artwork of an artist is her child. She gives birth to the child, gives food, takes his hands, takes him to school and then the child should learn how to stand on his own. 

 

“My books are my children, after publications, they take their own way,” he added.

 

The 70-year old author noted that he has been writing for about 50 years but has never repeated himself and the characters of his books and the stories, due to what God and nature have bestowed him.

 

“Sweet Jam”, “Like the Full Moon”, “The Reservoir” and “Cushion” are among Moradi Kermani’s credits. Most of these works have been translated into English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Arabic, Armenian, Turkish and several other languages.

 

Several Iranian movies and TV-series have been based on his works. Kiumars Purahmad directed the TV series “The Stories of Majid” and Dariush Mehrjuii made “Mom’s Guest” -- both based on his novels of the same name.

 

RM/

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