'Well, I never in my life heard that fish could be friends with snails', the neighbor said. 'They just aren’t our kind of people'

Li Bla Fi or

The Little Black Fish

By famed fabulist Samad Behrangi

The fable of Li Bla Fi thus far…

On a chilly night at the bottom of the sea, the old fish gathered twelve thousand of his children and grand-children and began to tell them this story:

Once upon a time, there was a little black fish who lived with her mother in a small stream. This stream was flowing out of the stoney walls of a great mountain and pouring into the valley below.

Every day, all day long, the Little Black Fish and her mother strolled back and forth across the stream.

One day the little fish was deeply in thought and spoke very little. Without joy or interest, she swam lazily behind her mother. The mother thought that her daughter was sick and that she’d soon be better. It never crossed her mind that the ‘sickness’ of the little fish had very special causes.

Early the next morning, before the sun came up, the little fish woke her mother and said, ‘Mother, I can’t go strolling any more. I’m leaving!’.

Her mother, still heavy with sleep said, ‘But where do you want to go at this hour of the morning!?’

The little black fish replied, ‘I want to go to see where this stream ends. You know mother, for months I have been thinking about it and after all this time, I still haven’t been able to figure it out. From last night to now, I haven’t been able to close my eyes. I’ve done nothing but think. Finally I have decided that, I must find the end of this stream myself. And, of course, in that way, I will find out what goes on in other places as well’.

But the little black fish’s mother looked at her and laughed. But little black fish was quite determined. Says she –

‘Of course, I’ve learned a lot from here and there. For example, I have learned that most fish, in their old age complain that they have wasted their lives on nothing. They always are nagging and cursing about everything. I’d like to know if life really means swimming in a little place, going back and forth until you are old, or if there is some other way you can live in the world!’ 

Even her neighbor chides and admonishes the little black fish for her bold and daring resolve. Says she, ‘Well now, little one, when was it that you became a sage and a philosopher and forgot to let us know about it?’

The little fish said to her, ‘Madame, I don’t know what you mean by a ‘philosopher’ or a ‘sage’. I only know that I am tired of all this strolling about and I don’t want to go on with it any longer. I don’t want to grow up and then open my eyes someday to see that I don’t know anything more than when I started out’.

Today’s Li Bla Fi continues…

The neighbor looked at the little black fish’s mother and cried, “What kind of talk is this?”

The mother fish moaned, “I never would have thought that my only child would have turned out this way. What terrible person has poisoned my darling child’s mind?”

“No one has poisoned my mind, Mother,” said the little fish, “but I have eyes to see with and a brain to understand with.”

Suddenly, the neighbor said, “Sister, do you remember the twisted old snail?”

“Yes, I do indeed,” replied the mother. “He was always tagging after my dear little child, the devil take him!”

“Please mother, don’t say that,” the little fish cried. “He was my dear friend.”

“Well, I never in my life heard that fish could be friends with snails,” the neighbor said. “They just aren’t our kind of people.”

“And I never in my life heard that the snails must be the enemies of fish. But you people, in your cruelty chased him out of our village,” cried the little black fish.

To make a long story short, the sound of their argument brought all the fish to the door. The little fish’s words angered everyone, for no one had ever wanted to leave before.

Li Bla Fi continues…

image: bookdepositorydotcom/amazondotcom