Story · Palm Tree and Gunpowder
Overcoat
English finding-aid title for the scanned Persian text; not a published English translation title.
Two friends leave a café without paying and celebrate their small triumph until the cold exposes what one of them has forgotten.
- Author
- Ghazi Rabihavi
- Publication
- Palm Tree and Gunpowder
- Source date
- Summer 1359 (Iranian calendar) · Damoon edition
- Published language
- Persian
- This page
- English publication guide
English editorial orientation to the inspected Persian scan. The complete literary text remains with the original publication.
Reading orientation
The narrator and Salim sit beneath a chandelier, drunk and uneasy in a café they cannot afford. Salim’s unusually long overcoat seems to place him among its better-dressed customers. They leave separately to avoid paying the bill, and he gives their escape the language of a victory over the bourgeoisie. Source 1
Outside, rain and cold replace the café’s soft chairs and warmth. Their last money has gone to the doorman, so they must walk. Salim sings as the narrator urges him towards shelter. Only at a bus stop does the missing garment become apparent: the overcoat remains on the café’s coat stand. The closing joke returns their imagined victory to its material cost. Source 1
The scanned appearance
Palto appears in Palm Tree and Gunpowder, PDF and printed pages 71–77. The fifth story closes with Abadan 58 on page 77. PDF page 78 is the publisher’s back cover and is outside the story. The date identifies the scanned volume, rather than an independently established composition date. The English title is a finding aid. Source 1
Sources & credits
- Overcoat · scanned Persian source
Palto. Palm Tree and Gunpowder. The fifth story closes with Abadan 58 on page 77. PDF page 78 is the publisher’s back cover and is outside the story. PDF and printed pages 71–77. The English paragraphs are original editorial reading orientations, not reproduced or translated literary passages.