"The Wind Carpet"

The difficulty of cross-cultural translation and navigation is the persistent theme of Kamal Tabrizi's 2003 film "The Wind Carpet" (Kaze no Juutan). Acbal and Makoto, two old college friends, find themselves enmeshed in a clash of cultures as Acbal and his cadre of family and friends try to complete the production of a persian rug designed by Makoto's wife shortly before her death. The making of the rug which was entrusted to Acbal, is initially left undone. Greatly complicating the matter is the looming deadline of the carpet's return to Japan for display in a major Japanese festival, and the enormous sentimental value of the rug to Sakura, Makoto's daughter who was particularly close to her mother and was present at her sudden death.

Acbal, worried for his friend's sanity and safety is reluctant to tell him that the carpet has not been completed as promised and assuages Makoto's growing suspicion with a constant brage of "daijoubu, daijoubu" (Everything's fine. No worries).But all is not "daijoubu" and forced by his wife to fess up Acbal proceeds to reassure Makoto that all will be "daijoubu"though he has no clue how he can rectify the problem.

It is the young love of a boy, Ruzbe, that sets in motion the process of getting the carpet completed. Ruzbe and Sakura make a meta-linguistic connection the moment they set eyes on one another, and for a time he is the only one who seems to provoke a positive response from this despondent young girl.

The overarching message of 'love can conquer all' seems to be the point of this film. It is engaging, funny, and sad though a bit over-the-top in terms of sentimentality. Humor is affected through the myriad of cultural misunderstandings that inevitably happen as Japan and Iran clash, but it is love that both bridges the gaps of understanding and saves the day in the end.

The Tragedy of Sorhab and Rostam

The Tragedy of Sorhab and Rostam is a thoroughly engaging tale told in the epic style. Its dates of origin are indeterminate but we know that it is just one episode in a much larger story of the Iranian national epic commonly referred to as the Shahname. The Tragedy of Sorhab and Rostam, boiled down to its most elemental state, is the story of a great warrior father who meets his equally great warrior son in battle and, after a fierce engagement of arms father mortally wounds son. The two combatants do not come to know of one another's true identities until it is too late, and the son reveals his name and heritage to the father shortly before he passes over to the other side. The actual story is, of course, more detailed and despite the prose form of this particular translation the story is nonetheless beautiful. I would really like to find a good verse translation to see how differently it might read.

My favorite part of this tale is that it so closely resembles the tale of Cuchulain and Conlaoch, an ancient Celtic myth chronicling the same tragedy of a father and son who meet in battle and, after long drawn out confrontation father triumphs over son. Go to http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cuch/lgc21.htm for the full story of Cuchulain and Conlaoch. If I had the time I would research the connections between these two myths and the larger epics in which they reside. It would also be interesting to see how many other cultures have a similar tragedy as part of their lore.