‘If you lived a hundred years’, said the little fish, ‘you’d still be nothing more than an ignorant and helpless frog’.

Li Bla Fi – 4

or

The Little Black Fish

By famed fabulist Samad Behrangi

Li Bla Fi - 4 continues...

The tadpoles became very angry. But since they knew the little fish spoke truthfully, they changed their tone and said, ‘really, you’re wasting words! We swim around the world every day from morning till evening, but except for ourselves and our father and mother, we see no one. Of course, there are tiny worms, but they don’t count’.

‘You can’t even leave the pond’, said the fish. ‘How can you talk about traveling around the world?’

‘What! Do you think there’s a world other than the pond?’ exclaimed the tadpoles.

‘At least’, responded the fish, ‘you must wonder where this water comes from and what things are outside of it’.

‘Outside the water!’ exclaimed the tadpoles, ‘Where is that? We’re never seen outside of the water! Haha ...haha ...You’re crazy!’

Little Black Fish also started to laugh. The fish thought it would be better to leave the tadpoles to themselves and go away, but then changed its mind and decided to speak to their mother.

‘Where is your mother?’ asked the fish. Suddenly, the deep voice of a frog made the fish jump. The frog was sitting on a rock at the edge of the pond. She jumped into the water, came up to the fish and said:

‘I’m right here. What do you want?’

‘Hello, Great Lady’, said the fish.

The frog responded, ‘Worthless creature, now is not the time to show off. You’ve found some children to listen to you and are talking pretentiously. I’ve lived long enough to know that the world is this pond. Mind your own business and don’t lead my children astray’.

‘If you lived a hundred years’, said the little fish, ‘you’d still be nothing more than an ignorant and helpless frog’.

The frog got angry and jumped at Little Black Fish. The fish flipped quickly and fled like lightening, stirring up sediment and worms at the bottom of the pond.

The valley twisted and curved. The stream became deeper and wider. But if you looked down at the valley from the top of the mountains, the stream would seem like a white thread. In one place, a piece of large rock had broken off from the mountain, fallen to the bottom of the valley, and split the water into two branches. 

A large lizard the size of a hand, lay on her stomach on the rock. She was enjoying the sun’s warmth and watching a large, round crab resting on the sand at the bottom or the water in a shallow place and eating a frog he had snared.

The little fish suddenly saw the crab, became frightened, and greeted him from afar. The crab glanced sideways at the fish and said,

‘What a polite fish! Come closer, little one. Come on!’

‘I’m off to see the world,’ said the little fish, ‘and I never want to be caught by you, sir!’

‘Little fish, why are you so pessimistic and scared?’ asked the crab.

‘I’m neither pessimistic nor afraid,’ answered the fish. ‘I speak about everything I see and understand’.

‘Well, then,’ said the crab, ‘please tell me what you’ve seen and understood that makes you think I want to capture you?’

‘Don’t try to trick me!’ responded the fish.

‘Are you referring to the frog?’ queried the crab. ‘How childish you are! I have a grudge against frogs; that’s the reason I hunt them. Do you know, they think they’re the only creatures in the world and that they’re very lucky. I want to make them understand who is really master in the world! So you don’t have to be afraid, my dear. Come here. Come on’.

As the crab talked, he was walking backwards towards the little fish. His gait was so funny that the fish couldn’t help laughing and said,

‘Poor thing! You don’t even know how to walk. How did you ever learn who runs the world?’

The black fish drew back from the crab. A shadow fell upon the water and suddenly a heavy blow pushed the crab into the sand. The lizard laughed so hard at the crab’s expression that she slipped and almost fell into the water. The crab couldn’t get up.

The little fish saw that a young shepherd was standing at the edge of the water watching the fish and the crab. A flock of sheep and goats came up to the water and thrust their mouths in. The valley filled with the sounds of ‘meh meh’ and ‘bah bah’.

The little black fish waited until the sheep and goats had drunk their water and left, then called the lizard,

‘Dear lizard, I’m a little black fish who’s going to search for the end of the stream. I think you’re wise, so, I’d like to ask you something’.

‘Ask anything you want’.

‘All along the way, they’ve been frightening me a great deal about the pelican, the swordfish and the heron. Do you know anything about them?’

‘The swordfish and the heron,’ said the lizard, ‘aren’t found in this area, especially the swordfish who lives in the sea. But it’s possible that the pelican is farther down.

Be careful he doesn’t trick you and catch you in his pouch’.

‘What pouch?’

‘Under his throat’, explained the lizard, ‘the pelican has a pouch which holds a lot of water. When the pelican’s swimming, fish, without realizing it, sometimes enter his pouch and then go straight into his stomach. But if the pelican isn’t hungry, he stores the fish in his pouch to eat later’.

‘If a fish enters the pouch, is there any way of getting out?’ asked the fish.

‘There’s no way unless the fish rips open the pouch’, answered the lizard.

‘I’m going to give you a dagger so that if you get caught by the pelican, you can do just that’.

Then the lizard crawled into a crack in the rock and returned with a very sharp dagger. The little fish took the dagger and said:

‘Dear lizard, you are so kind! I don’t know how to thank you’.

‘It’s not necessary to thank me, my dear. I have many of these daggers. When I have nothing to do, I sit down and make daggers from blades of grass and give them to smart fish like you’.

‘What?’ asked the fish, ‘Have other fish passed here before me?’

‘Many have passed by’, the lizard replied. ‘They’ve formed themselves into a school and they give the fisherman a hard time’.

‘Excuse me for talking so much’, said the black fish, ‘but if you don’t think me meddlesome, tell me how they give the fisherman a hard time’.

‘Well,’ answered the lizard, ‘they stick together. Whenever the fisherman throws his net, they get inside, pull the net with them, and drag it to the bottom of the sea’.

The lizard placed her ear on the crack, listened and said, ‘I must excuse myself now. My children have awakened’. The lizard went into the crack in the rock. The black fish had no choice but to set out again. But all the while there were many questions on the fish’s mind. ‘Is it true that the stream flows to the sea? If only the pelican doesn’t catch me! Is it true the swordfish enjoys killing and eating its own kind? Why is the heron our enemy?’

The little fish continued swimming and thinking, In every stretch of the way the fish saw and learned new things. How the fish liked turning somersaults, tumbling down waterfalls, and swimming again. The fish felt the warmth of the sun and grew strong. At one place a deer was hastily drinking some water. The little fish greeted her.

‘Pretty deer, why are you in such a hurry?’

‘A hunter is following me,’ replied the deer. ‘I’ve been hit by a bullet ... right here!’

The little fish didn’t see the bullet hole, but from the deer’s limping gait knew she was telling the truth.

At one place turtles were napping in the sun’s warmth. At another place the boisterous noise of partridges twisted through the valley. The fragrance of mountain grass floated through the air and mixed with the water. In the afternoon the fish reached a spot where the valley widened and the water passed through the center of a grove of trees. There was so much water that the little black fish had a really good time.

Later on the fish came upon a school of fish. The little fish had not seen any other fish since leaving home. Several tiny fish surrounded Little Black Fish and said:

‘You must be a stranger here!’

‘Yes,’ responded the black fish, ‘I’m a stranger. I’ve come from far away’.

‘Where do you want to go?’ asked the tiny fish.

‘I’m going to find the end of the stream,’ replied the black fish.

‘Which stream?’

‘This very stream we’re swimming in’, answered the black fish.

‘We call this a river’, stated the tiny fish.

The black fish didn’t say anything.

‘Don’t you know that the pelican lives along the way?’ inquired one of the tiny fish.

‘Yes, I know,’ answered the black fish.

‘Do you know what a big wide pouch the pelican has?’ asked another.

‘I know that too,’ replied the black fish.

‘In spite of all this, you still want to go?’ exclaimed the tiny fish.

‘Yes,’ said the black fish, ‘whatever happens, I must go’.

Soon a rumor spread among all the fish that a little black fish had come from far away and wanted to find the end of the river. And the fish wasn’t even afraid of the pelican!

Several tiny fish were tempted to go with the black fish but didn’t because they were afraid of the grown-ups. Others said, ‘If there weren’t a pelican, we would come with you. We’re afraid of the pelican’s pouch’.

A village was on the edge of the river. Village women and girls were washing dishes and clothes in the river. The little fish listened to their chatter for a while and watched the children bathing, then set off.

The fish went on and on and on, still farther on, until night fell, then lay down under a rock to sleep. The fish woke in the middle of the night and saw the moon shining into the water and lighting up everything.

The little black fish liked the moon very much. On nights when the moon shone into the water, the fish longed to creep out from under the moss and speak with her. But Mother would always wake up, pull the fish under the moss, and make it go to sleep again.

to be continued... [the last part]...

image: bookdepositorydotcom