“The Presence of Death” from The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat

Walpurgisnacht: “Refrain from reading this book. You have been warned.”

“The Presence of Death”

from The Blind Owl

Sadegh Hedayat

translated from the Persian by D.P. Costello

“The presence of death annihilates all superstitions. We are the children of death and it is death that rescues us from the deceptions of life. In the midst of life he calls us and summons us to him.”