Kitabı oku: «Hekayəti – Müsyö Jordan», sayfa 2
I, Aghabeyli Seyran Sanan oghlu valued M.F.Akhundzadeh’s poems, plays, stories, greatly and read them with unbounded love. On the eve of his 200th jubilee I planned to make him a present, and came to a conclusion to translate his most lovely comedy “A story about the Botanist- Doctor Monsieur Jordan and the Famous Sorcerer Mastali shah” into Engilish, and I`m pleased that I could do it! I kindly introduce the comedy to the readers and performers.
Seyran Sanan oghlu Aghabeyli, October 2012, Baku. Azerbaijan.
A Story about the Botanist-Doctor Monsieur Jordan and the Famous Sorcerer Dervish Mastali Shah
The comedy consisting of four acts
Dramatic Personal:
Monsieur Jordan – 40 years old Botanist-Doctor from Paris – France
Hatamkhan agha – a bey from Takla-Mughanli oba*. He is Karabakhian, 65 years old
Shahrabanu khanum – Hatamkhan agha’s wife. She is 45
Sharafnisa khanum – Hatamkhan agha’s elder daughter. She is 16
Gulchohra – Hatamkhan agha’s younger daughter. She is 9
Shahbaz bey – Hatamkhan agha’s nephew
Khanperi – Sharafnisa khanum’s nurse. She is 40
Dervish Mastali Shah – famous sorcerer from Iran. He is 50
Gulamali – Mastali Shah’s apprentice. He is 30
Act 1
The first act takes place in early spring, a day after Novruz bayrami 1263* in Takla-Mughanli, Karabakh district. Sharafnisa khanum brushes wool in the second room crying in a low voice. Her younger sister Gulchohra is playing nearby.
Gulchohra: Aghabaci*, why are you crying?
Sharafnisa khanum: (she takes by her hand and pushes it away) Get out and go to hell!
Gulchohra: (she stretches her hand towards Sharafnisa) Aghabaci, for the sake of God, say, why are you crying?
Sharafnisa khanum: (pushing away her hand again) Get away to hell, I say! Let me do my work.
Gulchohra: (with the same manner) You don’t do work, but you are only crying. Tell me please, why are you crying? If you don’t tell, I’ll go and call my mother. Tell me why are you crying? (she tugs by her headscarf)
Sharafnisa khanum: (she pushes her angrily) Go to hell! You impudent! She won‘t leave me in peace! She won’t let me do my work!
Gulchohra falls down, then gets up crying goes to the room where her mother is.
Sharafnisa khanum (alone): Oh, you impudent, she’ll go and complain of me to our mother. Oh my God, if she comes and asks me why I am crying, what shall I say? Oh, I’ll never say for what I’m crying. It’s better I’ll deny it. I’ll say I was not crying.
She rubs her eyes with her headscarf quickly; at this moment the door opens, Shahrabanu khanum enters.
Shahrabanu khanum: You, girl, why did you push and pull down Gulchohra?
Sharafnisa khanum: May she perish, she doesn’t leave me in peace. Since the morning she did not let me brush two handful of wool. She always plays a trick on me. She either drags the wool from my hand or pulls my headscarf; at the end, I had enough of it and I pushed her away slightly and she came up to you crying.
Gulchohra: By God, she says a lie, mother. She didn’t brush wool at all. She shed tears continuously; I asked her not to cry, but she pushed and pulled me down. I fell down on my back. (She cries rubbing her eyes)
Shahrabanu khanum: Sharafnisa, you needn’t to cry. What’s wrong with you that you cry? Thank God, your father and mother are safe and sound. Your handsome bride-groom is in your sight. You have got plentiful food, you have all kinds of dresses. But why do you cry?
Sharafnisa khanum: Mother, by God, I didn’t cry. (She pinches Gulchohra) May you perish, when did I cry?!
Again Gulchohra starts to scream
Sharafnisa khanum: Mother, by God, I didn’t cry! Thank God my father and mother are safe and sound, why should I cry?
Shahrabanu khanum: (laughing) But why don’t you say that your bride-groom is in your sight?
Sharafnisa khanum: Who is my bride-groom?
Shahrabanu khanum: Don’t you know who is your bride-groom? And whose bride-groom is your cousin Shahbaz bey? If God allow, in 20 days your father will play such a wedding for you that the praise of it will be told everywhere in Karabakh. The day before yesterday your father was writing a letter to his friend Gurban bey from Zerdab to send Shamakhinian musicians to your wedding.
Sharafnisa khanum: (she presses her low lip between her thumb and forefinger and raises her head up) Wow, what things my mother is saying. Shahbaz bey is leaving in 10 days. I don’t know for whom my father is doing wedding preparations.
Shahrabanu khanum: (in surprise) Is Shahbaz leaving? Where is he going? Whom is Shahbaz bey going with? What are you saying? For the sake of God, don’t say a lie. Now I understand that you really were crying. It’s a real fact that young girls have no wit. Their eye tears often are shed. Say, who told you that Shahbaz bey is going to leave us?
Sharafnisa khanum: (bending her head down) He himself.
Shahrabanu khanum: Well, where is he going?
Sharafnisa khanum: I don’t know, either to France or to Paris. May it perish, I cannot say it correctly.
Shahrabanu khanum: Well, whom is Shahbaz bey going to Paris with?
Sharafnisa khanum: He is going with our guest Monsieur Jordan.
Shahrabanu khanum: With that Frang* who gathers sticks and straws! What for? What contact has Shahbaz with that French? What has he lost in Paris?
Sharafnisa khanum: I don’t know. He is an ignorant teenager. Monsieur Jordan spoiled his brain saying that girls and ladies come together with men in the parties and companies with open faces, and he also told him a lot of other things. Now he became mad about travelling to see Paris. At first he wants to get his uncle’s permission, if his uncle doesn’t allow Shahbaz bey himself will cross the Araks on the horse back. He will join Monsieur Jordan there. Together with Monsieur Jordan he will go to Paris to observe it.
Shahrabanu khanum: (she throws down the sock, which she was knitting) Hey, Gulchohra, go to the next room and call Shahbaz to come here. I want to listen what he will say about this matter.
Shahrabanu khanum: I used to say Hatamkhan agha, my man, play the wedding of these children soon. I’m afraid of Shahbaz, thousand times a day he changes his mind. He neglected and didn’t listen to me and that’s the result.
At this moment the door opens, Shahbaz bey enters.
Shahbaz bey: Emidosti*, what’s wrong? May it be a happy news!
Shahrabanu khanum: (frowned) Shahbaz, they say you are leaving for Paris, France. Is it true?
Shahbaz bey: (smiling) Can‘t I go, emidosti? I’ll go and I’ll come back. I’ll also buy for Sharafnisa a kerchief as a present with which French girls cover their heads.
Sharafnisa khanum: I don’t need to know with what French girls cover their heads. Better buy and cover their heads because you are ready like a bird to fly to them from Karabakh.
Shahrabanu khanum: A good answer! The kerchief which you buy cover the French girls’ heads, Sharafnisa doesn’t need it. Tell me, are you wilful or, haven’t you any leading person instead of your father!
Shahbaz bey: Surely, I can’t go without my uncle’s permission. Monsieur Jordan himself will ask him for my permission.
Shahrabanu khanum: (angrily) Very good, you have lost your way and trace, go wherever you want! I’ll call Hatamkhan agha just now, I’d like to know who is Monsieur Jordan that takes his nephew to Paris? By God, I’ll do him such a bitter harm that he will lose his way where he came from. He will forget Paris. Very good, you go! Now I’ll call Hatamkhan agha. I want to see how it can be. Only 20 days are left till playing your wedding, how dare you to go to Paris?!
Shahbaz bey: How can it be that 20 days are left till our wedding? I’m a child yet. I’ll not marry so soon. I’ll not play a wedding and marry so early. I’ll not play a wedding by force.
Shahrabanu khanum: (screaming) Yes, by force. Surely, 2 years ago a wedding should be played for you, if Sharafnisa were not a child. When such ignorant children like you are left bachelor they become criminals, robbers, thieves and so on.
Shahbaz bey: People become criminals out of hunger and thirsty. Thank God, I have all necessities.
Shahrabanu khanum: (with irony) I wonder what beggars became robbers and robbed the people?! For the sake of God, don’t force your mind. You are a very ignorant fellow. Now go and do your work.
Shahbaz bey bends his head down and goes out.
Shahrabanu khanum: Are Hatamkhan agha and Shahrabanu khanum dead that the frenchman can deceive Shahbaz and will take him to Paris? Hey, Sharafnisa, I forgot to ask you, what words did that Frenchman say who wanted to deceive and take Shahbaz to Paris?
Sharafnisa khanum: I don’t know, he said that beautiful girls and women come together with men in the parties and companies with open faces.
Shahrabanu khanum: What else did he say?
Sharafnisa khanum: I don’t know, he said those girls and women use to dance, talk and laugh together with young men.
