Dear Mr. Ghost.
First of all, I would like to thank you. Secondly, if you want to know about the situation here, you should know that we thank you for your existence every day. Thirdly, I would like you to know that because of being engaged in work, I am late to meet you. God permits, there will be a good reason to meet you. There are often so many good reasons in Baku, when Muslims shoot one another, that is when someone is shot, they will be at your service. Fourthly, I have a request for you. I am sorry, but you know about my trouble because only the dead know what is going on in the world. Because the dead are alive, but we, the alive don’t understand it yet. In short, you know everything.
Do you remember what problems the vinegar caused me? It destroyed my life. Oh my God, damn, Devil! That damned led me astray. Because of it, I divorced my wife, my children became orphans! Yes, then I regretted it. I went to my wife and made up with her. All the relatives came and said that that woman couldn’t be a wife of mine and I couldn’t marry twice with her. Oh! What can I do? They said: “You should give your wife to another man for a few days, and this man should divorce her, then you can marry her.”
I was astonished. After thinking a little, we decided to give my wife to Hafiz, our blind neighbor. For God’s sake, what can I do? This damn blind doesn’t divorce my wife. The more money I give him, the more I beg him, he doesn’t divorce my wife. He says: I am not crazy to divorce this woman.
Now I am helpless. No witchcraft helps. Poor Haji Ismayil has been tired of writing down a prayer. My dear Ghost, you are my only hope. You should make friends with the late Pobedonostev because he was a charity man of Muslims, he had been a chief of Muslim spirituals for a long time. Please, ask for him to create such a law that this damn blind man divorces my wife – my children’s mother. In short, help me!
Heartbroken
Molla Nasreddin, 1907, N 19
