TEHRAN – Saless publishing house in Tehran has recently published Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ 1972 short story “The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother” in Persian.

The book has been rendered into Persian by Bahman Farzaneh, the Iranian litterateur who is most famous for his fine translations of Marquez’ books.

This is the story of Eréndira, a twelve-year-old girl who accidentally sets fire to the house where she lives with her grandmother. 

The grandmother decides that Eréndira must pay her back for the loss, and sells her into prostitution in order to make money. 

The story takes on the characteristics of a bizarre fairy tale, with the evil grandmother forcing her Cinderella-like granddaughter to sell her body. They travel all over for several years, with men lining up for miles to enjoy her.

Meanwhile, Eréndira falls in love. Her lover tries to poison the grandmother with arsenic in a birthday cake and to blow her up with a homemade bomb, but she survives all this and continues to dominate, until Eréndira’s lover finally stabs the grandmother to death. By the time he regains his composure, Eréndira has fled alone.

The short story was adapted to the 1983 art film “Eréndira”, directed by Ruy Guerra. Irene Papas acted as the grandmother and Claudia Ohana as Eréndira.

Violeta Dinescu’s opera “Eréndira”, to a German-language libretto, premiered in 1992 in Stuttgart.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian translation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ “The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother”.

MMS/YAW