In turn, the Iranian students performed their own folktale, Mah-Pishuni (or Mah-Pishooni), for the visiting German children. Mah-Pishuni is a story relatively unknown in the West. Mah-Pishuni, whose name means Girl With a Face Like The Moon, is an Iranian princess, whose prince searches all of Iran for her, having fallen in love at a glimpse of her beautiful, moon-like face. To come together, they have to thwart the machinations of Mah-Pishuni's embittered sister-in-law.
I find this a beautiful moment - these two groups of schoolchildren have chosen these fairy tales to try and convey to each other some of the depth and beauty of their two cultures.
You can glimpse some echo of the beauty and energy of Mah-Pishuni through this song based on the story (forgive that the video component is a slideshow and not a clip of the singer, GooGoosh - it is difficult to find any of this in the West, so we must make do; fortunately the slideshow is very compelling itself):
Think of it! We may have Snow White, and Cinderella with her glass slipper and her prince seeking her, but we do not have the Girl With A Face Like the Moon. How blessed these students are to be sharing their stories, stories that have been told and retold in each of their cultures until they have fermented with their age like fine wine. Think of the beauty and ideas we get each time we encounter a new story, especially a story from a different part of the world. If only there were more opportunity for this kind of sharing, and if only more newspapers than the Tehran Times will recognize this event for the occasion it is, and make mention of it. This is a very beautiful thing that the children have done, and I hope that it enriches their lives.
And I must try to learn more of Mah-Pishuni.
You can read the article in the Tehran Times here - it is very brief.
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4 comments:
I want an English version of the Persian Cinderella (Maah-Pishooni) story. Can you help me?
A second predecessor for the Cinderella character, hailing from late Antiquity, may be Aspasia of Phocaea. Her story is told in Aelian's Varia Storia: lost her mother in early childhood and raised by her father, Aspasia, despite living in poverty, has dreamt of meeting a noble man. As she dozes off, the girl has a vision of a dove transforming into a woman, who instructs her on how to remove a physical imperfection and restore her own beauty. In another episode, she and other courtesans are made to attend a feast hosted by Persian regent Cyrus the Younger. During the banquet, the Persian King sets his sights on Aspasia herself and ignores the other women
From:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella
Or
The Iranian version of the story is called Moon-Forehead or in Persian, Mahpishooni (Persian: ماه پیشونی, romanized: māhpišuni). The story is very similar to the German version but the girl is described as having been born with a shining moon on her forehead and after losing her natural mother, was forced to live under the ashes, to block her shining moon that could overshadow the two daughters of her stepmother. The contrast between the shining moon and ash denotes potential, similar to fire under the ashes. The location of the shine on the forehead could be a reference to superior knowledge or personality.
German scholar Ulrich Marzolph [de] listed the Iranian variants of Cinderella under tale type *510A, "Aschenputtel", and noted that, in Iranian tradition, the type only exists in combination with type 480, "Stirnmöndlein"
Same source as above
The Persian Cinderella Mah Pishooni: The Sieve of Initiation
https://www.faranakmirjalili.net/articles/2020/12/23/the-sieve-of-initiation-sifting-patriarchal-attitudes-in-inner-work
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