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EN ESPANOL: Encuentro en Bokara
EN PORTUGUES: Encontro em Bokara
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A merchant asked his servant to go to the market to buy some pieces of cloth.
Upon reaching the market, the servant saw his own Death shopping at the store near him.
Terrified, he ran back to the merchant’s house.
“I have to leave now, “he said, almost crying. “I saw my death this morning in the market, and I have to escape. I will go to Bokhara, my village, to spend the weekend there. ”
The merchant accepts the plea of the servant, but is wary. He decides to go to the market, where he finds the Death of the servant.
“Wow, you frightened my employee,” said the merchant.
“He also frightened me ” replied Death. “I never expected to find him around here as I have an appointment with him in Bokhara. ”
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(taken from a short story by John O’Hara, and translated by Priya Sher)
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Apologies for not translating to English but I feel i just doesn’t read as well as it does in Portuguese …. From my blog….
Poderia continuar a ler uma história, com o mesmo entusiasmo se você soubesse o fim?
Será que a crença de que vamos subir ao céu nos dá uma ilusão de saber o final da nossa história e, assim, dificultar a capacidade de viver a nossa vida ao máximo?
Imagine estar completamente alheado da existência de tal lugar. Será que este paradigma nos força a viver vidas mais completas? Eu acredito que sim. Viva a vida como um mortal, e não como um dado á promessa da imortalidade. Cada um de nós tem um conto interessante para contar, mas é nossa responsabilidade garantir que nós, e não o medo, continuam a ser os autores.
… por jose :)
WOW!
Wow the story is so interesting and meaningful.
It IS a wonderful experience when you die. Do not fear it. Accept it. When you are able to accept that you will die eventually you are then able to start living your life by risking….What are you going to lose, your earthly life? ;-) It’s okay to die. From one who was sent back from that loving side of the veil, it’s the most warm and loving experience you’ll ever have and so well worth the journey you are making to get there. Deeply experience every little thing while you are here. God and Goddess created this world for you to learn from and for you to ENJOY! Take mental notes of the items and experiences that taught you the most while you have been visiting this particular world, because eventually, after many other experiences through time, you will be creating worlds of your own.
((((LOVE)))) and ***warm blue light*** to you,
Lainee
I love this story it reminds me of Sophocles ‘King Oedipus’.
Priya
Bokhara? Samarra? Samarkand? or Luz?
‘Appointment in Samarra’ (1934) is a novel by John O’Hara…he wanted to name his novel ‘Infernal Grove’ but his publisher and editor did not like this title. Dorothy Party showed him this story in W. Somerset Maugham’s play ‘Sheppey’(1933) and he used it as an epigraph to his novel.
I read the story in Idries Shah ‘Tales of Dervishes’ (1960) with the title ‘When death came to Baghdad’ and the story is credited by him to the Arabic text Hikyat-I-Naqshia, by the ninth century Arabian Sufi Fudail ibn Ayad and most likely it is from the oral tradition.
The most interesting point is that in W. Somerset Maugham’s version of the story: “Death” is a woman…and Vernon Johns’ — ‘The Romance of Death’ (1965) also uses “a woman in pale robes who symbolized death”…(based on W. Somerset Maugham’s -”Death’s” speech in ‘Sheppey’)
The story in the Talmud, Sukkah 53a: Solomon sent his scribes Elichoreph and Achiyah to the city of Luz…a legendary city where no one dies…to escape death… but at the gates before entering the city “Death” caught up with them…
So interesting, thanks a lot dear Satora.
sometimes, we imagine things and do it real as we imaging. That is why we always need to be cold to think….it is so hard because we have blood in our body….and we became hot…..but …..y
very funny…2 things are for sure in our life…birth and death. So?
one cant escape from them.
I remembered a scene from a book by Terry Pratchet…a wizard tried to escape death, he closed all windows doors. was too dark, and he thought he need a match to lit the candle…somebody gave him a match. Was the Death…ha ha ha.
:) liked it, poor wizard…
Thenk you ……….
Graetttttttttttttt
He he,apoitment is apoitment,you cn never run,lets god help as to vait that with dignity.
One of the quatrains of the Rubaiyat, written in ancient Persia by Omar Khayyam :
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it…
My dad use to quote this quatrain to a very scared 9 yo boy after he los his brother and sister and his beloved grandparents within the blink of an eye.
I hope someone will find solace in these wise words whenever the GRIM REAPER strikes unexpectedly.
Carpe Diem!!!!
sim , as vezes pensamos que e obra do destino.mas muitas vezes ,o destino nos havisa do perigo.mas o impulso e maior e nao fugimos do nosso proprio destino MORTE!
This story find its origin in the Islam Doctrine
This story reminds me of the movie “The Seventh Seal” where knight plays a game of chess with death who has came to take his life.
hey this is a same story we heard in our childhood, in hindu mythology,,, with the GOD of death yama, and a rich mechant who didd many years of penanace. The merchant was arwarded the gift that he would be informed prior to his death 24 hours, and so , one day, the servant of yama: yamadoot visits him and says , u hav just 24 hrs to live, so the guy decided to take a long journey to a small n hidden and almost out of reach cave in the himalayas, and enters there with 24 hrs just getting over, and the yama standding in the cave and on seeing the man, he says, thank vishnu, u r on time i was getting worried jow will u reach here as the 24 hrs were just about to get over!!! so in hindu mythology, its said, u r time nad manner of daeth is decided and cannot be changed or escaped…
Esta é acoisa mais certa de acontecer o dia da nossa morte o dia marcado por Deus ella chegará esteja aonde for.Ninguem foge dela a não ser que Deus determine.
POR MAS QUE LA EVITES ELLA LLEGA, ES UNA DE LAS COSAS MAS SEGURSA QUE TENEMOS EN ESTA VIDA,NO TRATES NUNCA DE EVITARLA PORQUE EL DIA QUE TE TOCA NO HABRA NADA QUE PUEDA EVITAR QUE SUCEDA ,ES SI PORQUE SI .
It is real story. We always do what we have to do from the point of view of the universe. All we can is to take it as our fate.
Real story, no one can escape their destiny.
Once upon a time, in a potter’s shop
I saw two thousand clay pot and cup
Suddenly a lone pot cried out, “stop!
Where the vendor, buyer, where my prop?”
OR
To a pottery I went by chance
Two thousand pots I saw in a glance
Cried out a pot awakened from trance
“whither potter, vendor and buyer prance?”
Meaning:
We simply exist, silent, unaware
Busy with minute mundane worldly care
Occasionally find someone who’ll dare
To ask why we came, and from here go where?
written by: “Omar Khayam”
It is not a scary topic, if we consider death the only TRUTH and do not take it as an end…it is certainly a begining of a new journey…
Perhaps msg conveyed in the story is The Turth that none can run away from death…as it is the ultimate end to the existence of human body in this world.
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