Goltaj and Isa’s Solitude

Reading orientation

During a wet winter, Goltaj lies under a quilt while Isa, a sailor, sits beside her. Their ten years of marriage have brought no child. Her tuberculosis makes him imagine a future with nobody waiting for his return from the water. She insists on visiting the river that evening, despite his fear of the cold, and describes a dream in which wind leaves her alone in a barren place. Source 1

The jasmine tree outside their room belongs to their shared life as closely as the river belongs to Isa’s work. Goltaj goes towards it in the final passage. Falling white flowers, her remembered dream and Isa’s unmoving figure enter an image of disappearance. The story gives this moment through her perception; it does not conclude with a separate medical account of her fate. Source 1

The scanned appearance

Goltaj va tanhayi-ye Isa appears in Palm Tree and Gunpowder, PDF and printed pages 50–58. The third story closes with Abadan 56. Its heading reads Goltaj; it is not a separate collection or a biographical account. The date identifies the scanned volume, rather than an independently established composition date. The English title is a finding aid. Source 1

Sources & credits

1. Goltaj and Isa’s Solitude · scanned Persian source

   Goltaj va tanhayi-ye Isa. Palm Tree and Gunpowder. The third story closes with Abadan 56. Its heading reads Goltaj; it is not a separate collection or a biographical account. PDF and printed pages 50–58. The English paragraphs are original editorial reading orientations, not reproduced or translated literary passages.