Selected Microfiction by Rasool Yoonan, translated by Siavash Saadlou
Translation
Selected Microfiction by Rasool Yoonan
Translated by Siavash Saadlou
“A president-for-life who believed he would never be ousted had fallen. And now he was stuck in a bad predicament.”
Drought
by Rasool Yoonan
Translated by Siavash Saadlou
The rabbit was dreaming of a carrot farm; the farm owner, dreaming of a rabbit steak. But neither of their dreams would come true. A drought was going on. The farm owner went to the city to find a new job, and the rabbit ended up in a magician’s hat.
The Fall of Stalin
by Rasool Yoonan
Translated by Siavash Saadlou
His mustache resembled that of Stalin’s; that’s why he still regarded Stalin as the world’s only powerful leader. When he lost his mustache because of a barber’s clumsiness, things changed out of the blue. The world changed. And Stalin collapsed.
Don't Shoot
by Rasool Yoonan
Translated by Siavash Saadlou
The armed, masked men surrounded and pointed their guns at him. A president-for-life who believed he would never be ousted had fallen. And now he was stuck in a bad predicament. While shivering with fear, he screamed, by way of plea: Don’t shoot! But since he himself had never cared to listen to this utterance, they, too, refused to hear him out—bang bang and adios!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rasool Yoonan, a poet, playwright, novelist, and translator, was born in 1969 in Urmia, Iran. His first collection of poetry, Good Day My Dear, was published in 1998. Further collections include Concert in Hell, I Was a Bad Boy, Carrying the Piano Down the Stairs of an Icy Hotel, and Be Careful; Ants Are Coming. His poetry has previously been translated into multiple languages, including French, Turkish, and Armenian.
AUTHOR PHOTO BY Hossein Ronaghi via Wikimedia Commons.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Siavash Saadlou is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer whose short stories and essays have appeared in Southeast Review, Plenitude Magazine, and Asymptote, among other journals. His poetry has been anthologized in Odes to Our Undoing: Writers Reflecting on Crisis (Risk Press) and Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora (Green Linden Press). In addition, his translations of Mohammad-Ali Sepanlou have earned him the 55th Cole Swensen Prize for Translation and an honorable mention in the inaugural Stephen Mitchell Prize for Best Poetry in Translation. Saadlou is currently an MFA Creative Writing candidate at the University of British Columbia. Learn more at siavashsaadlou.com. Follow him on Twitter @siavashsaadlou and on Instagram @siavashsaadlou.
Translator's Photo by Foroogh Hantooshzadeh. FEATURED IMAGE by Foroozan Faraji via Unsplash.
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