Gli animali in gabbia di Chubak: naturalismo o metafora della condizione umana?

Sâdeq Chubak, a renowned short-story writer and novelist of the 20th century Persian literature, is known for the realistic and naturalistic style of his works, characterized by a detailed description of scenes, actions, and characters and an accurate reproduction of colloquial language. The protagonists of Chubak’s stories are both representatives of the lower strata of society as well as animals. The latter, in particular, have led critics to interpret some of Chubak’s stories as a metaphorical representation of human destiny in general and of the Persian society in particular, and as a description of the relationship between oppressors and oppressed. An example of this type of story, is Qafas (La gabbia, 1949), the translation of which is proposed here. In this story, Chubak portrays the life of a group of chickens locked in a cage from where, from time to time, a hand takes out one of them to bring him to meet his destiny. Death, in Chubak’s pessimistic – or “naturalist” – view, seems to be in Qafas and in other stories the only way out.