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Who died? The Mystery of Hodja's Mourning | The facetious stories of Nasr-en-Din Hodja

 HIS MOURNING is a witty short story of Nasreddin Hodja (or simply Nasreddin , or Mullah Nasreddin Hodja, Nasruddin Hodja, Mullah Nasruddin, Mullah Nasriddin, Khoja Nasriddin)  a character in the folklore of the Eastern world.

 The story belongs to a collection  called "The facetious stories of Nasr-en-Din Hodja". 

 The book, at least in Greek, belongs to the public domain and you can find it here.

 And now let’s move on to the translation of the story and then to summary and analysis.

 I put side by side the English text as I translated it and the Greek one from the book,  for the Greek enthusiasts!

HIS MOURNING 

One day, Nasr-en-Din Hodja wore a grieving gown, and walked down to the marketplace.

As soon as his friends saw him, they ran anxiously to him, and they cried out:

 - Life to thee! Who died?

Hodja answered:

 - My son's father is dead, and I am in mourning.

ΤΟ ΠΕΝΘΟΣ ΤΟΥ

Μια μέρα, ο Νασρ-εν-Ντιν Χότζας φόρεσε βαρύ πένθος, και κατέβηκε στην αγορά.

Μόλις τον είδαν οι φίλοι του, τρέξανε ανήσυχοι κοντά του και τούπαν:

 — Ζωή σε λόγου σου! Ποιος πέθανε;

Ο Χότζας απάντησε:

 — Πέθανε ο πατέρας του γιού μου, και κρατάω πένθος.

Summary

 The hero of the story Nasr-en-Din Hodja, wears the clothes of mourning and walks down to the market. His friends are worried and ask who died. With a straight face Nasr-en-Din Hodja declares that his son’s father has passed away and he’s in mourning!  The sly response given by our hero certainly creates a moment of confusion and then gives way to laughter.


 Analysis
 That is another story where we see Nasr-en-Din Hodja’s humor and wit and his character.  The central idea is that obviously a son’s father is the same person as the person’s father!  Got confused? That was the point of the story. It uses this wordplay to create a humorous situation. 
 The story begins telling us that our hero wore a grieving gown and then went to the market. Those who are not acquainted with Hodga’s stories, might think that somebody did indeed die, and he was in mourning and so his attire. 
 That is certainly what his friends conclude when they meet him. They immediately show concern and worry and ask who died.
And then comes the punchline, the statement from Hodja "My son's father is dead, and I am in mourning.", given in all seriousness! 
 It might take some time for the reader to understand the response. I am sure some of his friends were left with their mouths hanging open, some might even nodded in grievance! 
 Another humorous anecdote with clever wordplay, a Nasr-en-Din Hodja’s jest, bringing (at least in my mind) the question “what weighs more 1 kg of iron or 1 kg of cotton?”

You can listen to the story in Greek, turning on the English subtitles in the following video





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