This is a classic in Persian child literature. On the one hand the story is a beautiful tale where the reality is mixed with fiction. It tells an enlightening legend about a Little Black Fish who encounters the strange, narrow-minded world of grown-ups, most of which signify some futile aspect of adult existence. A dogmatic way of life filled with ignorance and the fear of the unknown, remained unchanged throughout generations, is the reason behind our hero s wish to travel to the sea and find out about life in other parts of the world. After long discussions with the community members who try to convince him to succumb to their static lifestyle and are willing to destroy him when they see their way of life under attack, he finally leaves in search of a better life. Along the way The Little Black Fish interacts with frogs, small fish and the moon. He also has brave encounters with a crab, a pelican and a swordfish. A wise lizard gives him lots of advice, encourages him to follow his quest, make connections and look for the team of fishes that have come together and formed a strong alliance to defend themselves when in danger. For children: beautiful, interesting and lovely tale about a little black fish who wants to learn about life and look for answers. For adults: short, well-written and edifying story about themselves and a path they can follow to achieve the goals of freedom and justice. Seldom do we find in literature a work with so many well-elaborated facets. A novel which is also richly adorned with history, politics, character studies while addressing deep philosophical, political and social issues. Although ostensibly a children s book, The Little Black Fish makes countless profound and realistic points about life and human nature. In this story we can see the painful truth about ourselves. The plot is not complicated because the most important message there is the question "what is the real essence of our life? The essence of the book is contained in the great and famous lines uttered by the Little Black Fish when thinking about his accomplishments: I might face death any minute now, but I should not put myself in harms way as long as I can live. Of course, it is not important if I die, because this is going to happen anyway. I know my purpose: How will my life or death impact the lives of others?

The Little Black Fish

By Samad Beh-Rang

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2008 Samad Beh-Rang
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4389-1399-5

Chapter One

It was one of those long and chilly winter nights and at the bottom of a brook a very old fish had gathered all of her 12,000 children and grandchildren around her and was telling them this story.

Once upon a time there was a little black fish who lived in a brook just like this one, with his mother. The water that filled the brook came from many small cracks and holes in the rocky mountains high above, and continued its passage to the bottom of the valley.

Behind a black rock there was a niche that looked as a safe shelter, it was covered with lots of algae at the top which could serve as a roof. The Little Black Fish and his mother lived in this niche and slept there when the night came. The Little Black Fish had a very secret wish; he wished to see the moonlight if only for once, in the middle of the night and inside their home.

Every day from dawn to dusk the two fish moved back and forth in this brook following each other. Sometimes other fishes joined them, and they all swung together at a fast pace in that small space, going back and forth as if they were in a great hurry and they all continued this comings and goings until the day was over. The Little Black Fish was his mother's only child. She had deposited about 10,000 eggs but The Little Black Fish was the only one among them who had been strong and healthy enough to survive.

Lately, for the past few days, The Little Black Fish had been deeply absorbed in his thoughts. He spoke very little, moved inside the water without any aspiration and in a careless manner from one place to another, showing no interest in anything that was happening around him; and most of the time he was just lagging behind his mother. The mother thought maybe her child was sick and she hoped that he would soon feel better. But to tell you the truth, The Little Black Fish's mind was occupied by a very wonderful and exciting plan.

One early morning before sunrise The Little Black Fish woke his mother up and told her: "Mom! I would like to talk to you."

"Come on child," said the mother still sleepy: "this is not a good time to talk! You can talk to me later in the day, right now it would be better for us to go out and have a nice and refreshing swim in the water."

"No mother," answered The Little Black Fish: "I cannot continue these daily swims any longer. I have made a decision and now I am determined to leave this place."

"Why would you want to leave this place?" Asked the mother very surprised.

"Well mother," answered The Little Black Fish: "I have made up my mind and am determined to leave."

"All right," said the mother: "but where do you want to go so early in the morning?"

"I want to make an effort," answered The Little Black Fish: "to venture out and try to find the end of this brook. You know mother, for several months now I have been thinking a great deal about this question and after all the thoughts and speculations, I still have not found any answers. Last night I could not close my eyes even for one second. I have been thinking it over and over again, and finally I have decided to leave this place with the goal of trying to find out for myself where this brook ends. My desire is to learn about what is happening in other places in the world and how life could be elsewhere."

"I always had similar thoughts when I was a child." Said the mother laughing: "My dear boy, there is no beginning or ending to a brook. This is the reality and everything that we need to know. The water always flows, and it never reaches anywhere."

"But dear mother," said The Little Black Fish: "is it not true that everything comes to an end? The night ends, the day ends, so do the weeks, months and years ..."

"I want you to stop babbling big words," interrupted the mother: "get up and we shall go for a swim. Right now it is time for us to go on with our usual and daily routine, instead of those silly talks that make no sense!"

"No mother," said The Little Black Fish: "I am tired of these aimless comings and goings. I want to move on, leave this brook and find out what is happening in other places. You may think someone has been putting these ideas into my head; but I want to make it clear that I have been thinking about this quest for a very long time. Of course I must admit that I have also learned a few things from others. For example, I know for sure that some fishes, when they get old, grumble and complain that they have wasted their lives in vain. They always whine, curse and blame everything and everyone around them for having lived unsuccessfully and to no purpose. I want to be absolutely sure whether the real meaning of life is just going back and forth in a small brook until you get old or, is there something more? Is there a different way one can live in this big world?"

"My child," said the mother, after The Little Black Fish had finished his speech: "are you out of your mind? World! World! What is this idea about the world? The world is right here where we are, and life everywhere else is exactly the same as we live here."

At this moment a larger fish approached their home and asked: "Neighbor, what are you arguing about with your child? It seems like you two have no intention of going out for a dip today."

"What a horrific time we are living in!" Said The Little Black Fish's mother, coming out of their home, as soon as she heard the neighbor's voice: "Now the children want to teach lessons to their mothers!"

"What do you mean?" Asked the neighbor.

"Guess where this itsy bitsy brat wants to go!" Answered the mother: "He keeps saying that he wants to go and see what is happening in other parts of the world! Some big ideas he has in his head, strange thoughts so unsuitable for his young age."

"Look at me kid," said the neighbor: "since when you have become a scientist and a philosopher, and how come you did not let us know about it?"

"Madame!" Answered The Little Black Fish: "I do not know what you mean by my having become a scientist and a philosopher. I am simply tired of these continuous and aimless swims. I do not want to go on living like this, pretending to be happy for very little trivial and unimportant things; and then suddenly opening my eyes to realize that I have become an old fish just like most of you, still the same as I have always been with barely any life experience, wisdom and awareness."

"My goodness," cried the neighbor: "what a shocking thing to say!"

"I never imagined," complained the mother: "that my only child would turn out to be like this. I do not know what wicked creature has been putting such dreadful ideas into his head and corrupting him!"

"Nobody has been corrupting me," answered The Little Black Fish: "I have enough wisdom to understand many things, and eyes to see for myself."

"Dear sister," said the neighbor turning to the mother: "do you remember that snail with a spiral shell?"

"You are right," agreed the mother: "the snail was always around my child, may God punish him!"

"Enough mother!" said The Little Black Fish: "He was my friend."

"Friendship between a fish and a snail," answered the mother: "whoever has heard such a thing!"

"I have never heard of any hatred and animosity between a fish and a snail either," answered The Little Black Fish: "but you all joined together, teamed up and got rid of that poor creature."

"These are all tales of the past." Said the neighbor.

"You are the ones," answered The Little Black Fish: "who brought up the tales of the past."

"The snail deserved to be killed," said the mother: "have you forgotten the things he used to say wherever he went?"

"Then go ahead and kill me too," answered The Little Black Fish: "because I am also saying similar things."

To make a long story short, this argument was loud enough to draw the attention of other fishes in the brook who by now, had all gathered around these three fishes.

The Little Black Fish's courageous words and the fearless manner in which he was expressing his thoughts and ideas were upsetting and alarming the whole community.

"What makes you think we will spare your life?" Asked an old fish.

"He deserves a little punishment!" Said another fish.

"Move away from him," yelled The Little Black Fish's mother as she felt the danger of violence and hostility: "do not touch my baby!"

"Madame," blamed a third fish: "if you do not educate your child the way you should, you must face the negative consequences!"

"I am ashamed of living in your neighborhood!" Declared the neighbor.

"We should persuade him," said a fourth fish: "to go and see the old slug and hear some wise advice from him before getting himself into more trouble."

At this moment all the fishes tried to catch The Little Black Fish, but his friends surrounded him and helped him escape in the midst of the commotion.

"My Goodness," moaned The Little Black Fish's mother, who was now crying very hard and seemed to be quite helpless: "I am going to lose my baby. What should I do? I will be ruined!"

"Mother," said The Little Black Fish: "do not cry for me, cry for those old and hopeless fishes whose lives have been wasted in vain."

"Don't you dare to insult us you little monster!" Shouted a fish from a far distance.

"If you leave this brook," said a second fish: "and then change your mind and decide to come back, we will not allow you to live in our community and this neighborhood again!"

"These thoughts are temptations of the young age," advised a third fish: "do not leave!"

"Can you tell us what is wrong with this place?" Asked a fourth fish. "There is no other world besides this one." Said a fifth fish: "Come back, this is the only world that exists!"

"If you regain your wisdom, change your mind and stay with us," reasoned a sixth fish with a kind and convincing tone: "then we will believe that you really are a very intelligent and mature fish."

"We are so used to seeing you every day," said a seventh fish: "and we are really going to miss you if you leave us."

"Have some pity on me," pleaded The Little Black Fish's mother: "do not go away, do not leave me!"

The Little Black Fish did not have anything else to say as he realized that the arguments were leading nowhere. He moved away and a couple of friends his own age escorted him until they reached the little waterfall where the brook ended, and returned from that point.

"My dear friends," said The Little Black Fish before bidding them goodbye: "I hope to see you again, do not forget me!"

"How can we ever forget you?" Announced his friends with great respect and admiration in their tones: "You woke us up from our hare-like slumber. With this decision and action, you told us so many new things and taught us lessons about which we had never even thought before. We hope to see you again our very dear, brave and wise friend!"

The Little Black Fish plunged down the waterfall and fell into a pond full of water. At first he was a little confused and scared, but soon he started to move around the pond. He had never seen so much water in one place before. Thousands of tadpoles were flipping around the water. As soon as they noticed The Little Black Fish, they started to make fun of him and said all at once: "Look at his ugly and disgusting face! What kind of a creature are you?"

"Please do not make fun of me," said The Little Black Fish examining them very carefully: "my name is The Little Black Fish. Would you please introduce yourselves so that we could get to know each other?"

"We call each other tadpoles." Answered one of them.

"We are descendants of a very high social line and come from old ancestral roots." Added a second one with a lot of pride in his tone.

"No creature on earth is more beautiful than us." Bragged a third one.

"We are not as ugly and disgusting as you are." Said a fourth one with great arrogance.

"I never imagined any creatures to be so snobbish and selfish." Replied The Little Black Fish: "I have no problem with your sarcastic remarks about my looks and appearance and the way you are making fun of me. I forgive you because your words are evidence of your ignorance."

"Our ignorance?" Shouted the tadpoles all at once.

"Of course!" Answered The Little Black Fish: "If you were not ignorant, you would have known by now that there are many other creatures in this world, who might look like me, and also there are others who do not look like me, but we all are beautiful each in our own unique and precious way. You tadpoles, on the other hand, do not even have your own individual names!"

At first the tadpoles were very angry at these remarks, but when they realized that The Little Black Fish was telling the truth, they changed their tone and said:

"You know what? You are wasting your time and energy for nothing! We go around the world from dawn to dusk, but we do not see any other creatures besides our parents and ourselves. Of course there are also the small worms down at the bottom of the water, but they do not count!"

"If you cannot leave this pond," asked The Little Black Fish: "how can you talk about going around the world?"

"Is there any other world besides this pond?" Asked the tadpoles.

"The least you can do," answered The Little Black Fish: "is to think about where this water comes from, where it goes to; and what other things could exist outside this water."

"What! Outside this water?" Asked the tadpoles: "We have never seen anything beyond this water, you must be out of your mind." They all laughed together again.

The Little Black Fish also felt like laughing. He first thought he would rather leave them alone and continue his journey. Then he decided that it might be helpful if he had a few words with their mother. He asked them: "Where is your mother now?"

Suddenly he was startled by a rough and frightening voice that said: "I am right here."

The Little Black Fish saw a big frog who was sitting outside the pond on a rock. Then the frog jumped into the water, approached The Little Black Fish and asked: "What can I do for you?"

"Hello Lady." Said The Little Black Fish.

"Do not play smart with me," said the frog: "you are not our equal because you have no pedigree. What makes you think that you can babble big words to my babies! I have lived long enough to know that the world is limited to this pond only, and that is the fact. Go on with your journey and do not try to put wrong ideas into my babies' heads."

"You could have lived a hundred lives," said The Little Black Fish: "living the same way day in, day out; and you will never be any more than an ignorant and helpless frog that you are today."

This made the frog very angry. She leapt to catch The Little Black Fish, who moved rapidly and hid himself among the pond's muddy water and worms; and from there he managed to escape.

The river snaked in the valley and the stream had become larger. Here the water seemed to be many times deeper and wider. However, if someone looked from the top of the mountains down into the valley, the water would only appear like a white thread. In one area a large boulder had fallen off the mountain down to the bottom of the valley, dividing the water into two branches. A big lizard the size of a human palm was stretching on her stomach enjoying the warmth of the sun. The lizard was gazing at a big red crab sitting on the sands at the bottom of the water, where it was somewhat shallow and he was eating a frog he had just caught. The Little Black Fish suddenly saw the crab and was scared. He said hello to him, keeping a safe distance away from him. The crab was now looking at him very cautiously and said: "What a polite fish, come closer little fish, come closer!"

"I am going to see the world," answered The Little Black Fish: "and I have no intention of becoming your next meal."

"Come, little fish," said the crab: "why are you so suspicious and scared?"

"I am neither suspicious nor scared." Said The Little Black Fish: "I only say things that I see with my own eyes, and follow what my wisdom tells me."

"All right," said the crab: "would you please tell me what your eyes saw and what your wisdom told you that gave you the wrong impression I was going to catch you?"

"Cut it out," said The Little Black Fish: "do not play innocent with me."

"Are you talking about the frog I just ate?" Asked the crab: "Come on now, you really sound like a child! Frogs just aggravate me, that is the reason why I catch and eat them. You know what? These creatures think they are unique in this world. What makes the matter even worse is that they are not only very proud of themselves, but they seem to be happy about it too. I just want to show them who is the master around here! So, do not be afraid of me, come forward, come closer!"

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Little Black Fishby Samad Beh-Rang Copyright © 2008 by Samad Beh-Rang. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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