Pezhman Mousavi: Grief Killed Abbas Maroufi

Pezhman Mousavi: Grief killed Abbas Maroufi

Pezhman Mousavi, a journalist, wrote in a note on his Instagram page on the occasion of the death of Abbas Maroufi, the famous Iranian novelist, in exile: Grief ultimately killed Abbas Maroufi. Part of this note reads:

Abbas Maroufi has also passed away in exile, like many others. It seems to be the fate of people of culture that their homeland is not their home, that they are forced to leave their homes and go away. He himself had written some time ago about the cancer that finally brought him down: ‘Once again, Charité hospital in Berlin and me, with my cancer having metastasized and me suffering from a brain tumor. Tomorrow they will operate on my brain to remove this vile creature from my head. If I recover and come out healthy, I will write the story of this grief that grew in my throat, consumed my jaw, tongue, and teeth, and then penetrated my brain. I will write so future generations know why we ended up like this. But if I don’t come back, my daughters will publish my writings.’

Grief ultimately killed Abbas Maroufi. He had foreseen it, it seems, that day when he wrote: ‘Simin Daneshvar told me grief means cancer. Don’t let grief consume you, Maroufi. And I was consumed by grief.’