Zorba Greek

15.99

Title: Zorba Greek

Author: Nikos Kazantzakis

Translator: Heshmatollah Azadbakht

Publisher: Navid Sobh

Subject: Greek stories

Age category: Adult

Cover: Paperback

Number of pages: 272

Language: Farsi

Qty:
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Description

The Greek Zorba by Nikos Kazantzakis is a book that tells the story of a friendship between a young man and a 60-year-old man who claims to be a lively lover, an adventurous warrior, a cook, a musician, a miner and a storyteller, and much more.

Yes, Zorba has such a personality. A man who, according to the narrator, trying to describe him would be in vain.

Zorba, the hero of the book Zorba The Greece, although a common and uneducated person, is a man of work and a man of life.

He is a very capable, practical and wise man, if we disregard religious beliefs and unbridled resentment towards women or, in his own words, that endless entertainment.
The Greek tyrant is a story in praise of life;

But Zorba teaches you to feel it with your flesh and blood, otherwise you will see nothing but “ghosts.”

Anyone might read this novel as an educational novel, training the emotional young man to enter the violent world of the twentieth century.

The narrator’s friendship with Zorba and his participation in the narrator’s business plans puts them both in the position of master and apprentice.
But in most of his novels, including this one, Kazantzakis uses storytelling to illustrate philosophical issues.

The characters are clearly caught up in the dilemmas of ontology: in the face of a meaningless world, man must create an end for himself or head involuntarily and aimlessly towards his meaningless death.

In the Greek Zorba, Kazantzakis examines this situation through a series of contradictions, primarily in the characters that make up the story.
The young narrator, known as the boss, studies Buddhism to escape world violence in a retreat.

But in a bizarre accident, he is linked by a business partnership with a glamorous, extremist and earthly old man, Alexis Zorba.

About the Author of the Greek Zorba: Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis (18731957), a Greek poet and writer, was born in Candia (Crete, the largest city on the island until 1841).

His childhood was spent during the patriotic wars of the people of Crete with the Ottoman Turks, the same heroic spirit that can be seen in his writings.

He studied law in Athens. He then traveled to France, Germany and Italy to study and research literature and fine arts.

Subsequently, he engaged in mining with one of his friends, Georg Zorba (the same friend who inspired the Greek Zorba’s book); But, because he failed in this task, he became a newspaper informant.
His most important works are the epic poem Odyssey (33,000 verses), “The Garden of Rocks”, “Ulysses”, “Christ”, “The Crucified Christ”, “The Greek Tyrant”, “Freedom by Death”, and “The Poor Aziz” .

In its 1953 review of the novel, Time magazine rightly described it as “a story without a plot but with meaning”, and in the case of this book, this definition seems appropriate and complete.

Greek Zorba by Nikos Kazantzakis is a novel that will undoubtedly have a special place in the mind of the reader.
The main character of this book – Alexis Zorba – can not be disliked, even those who are critical of some of his behavior, still love him and admire his philosophy of life.

Nikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer, poet, journalist, and translator. He is a writer who has dealt with and analyzed human society. Kazantzakis was born in 1883 in the city of Heraklion on the island of Crete.

The story of the Greek tyrant is told by a young writer and intellectual.
Someone who is 35 years old and a seeker of truth. In the lab of many books he has read, he seeks to find the meaning of life, and more recently, he has been researching the life of the Buddha.

The young man rejects his friend’s offer to go to the Caucasus and decides to change his lifestyle for a while. He is looking for new experience in coal mining on the island of Crete.

The young man – whose name we do not know – encounters Alexis Zorba on his way to the port of Crete.
As soon as our eyes met – as if he had come to your heart that I am what he wants – he reached out without hesitation. He walked slowly and softly across the tables until he reached in front of me and stood up. He asked me:

– Are you traveling? Where, God willing
– I’m going to Crete. Why do you ask?
Will you take me too?

I looked at him carefully. He had sunken cheeks, strong jaws, prominent facial bones, gray and curly hair, and shiny eyes.

Why you? What do I want you to do?

He shrugged and said with hatred and contempt:
-Everybody why you do it! That is, one can not do something without saying “why”? Can’t he work like that for his own heart? Well, take me with you! For example, as a chef. I cook soups so well that you have never eaten or heard of them.

In the same piece of the book that was mentioned, you have probably noticed that Zorba’s character is different and very different from ordinary people.

We will talk much more about Zorba’s character in the following, but now Zorba’s answer is in response to “What is your name?” read:

Alexis Zorba. Sometimes, because of my height and head, and the width I have, it is also ridiculously called “bakery paddle”.
But anyone can call me by any name he wants. My other name is “Paso Tempo” or “pastime”, because that was when I was selling roasted pumpkin seeds. My other name is “aphid”, because wherever I walk, I kill it.

I have other names and titles, but their descriptions should be for another time… (

In the continuation of the novel, it becomes clear that Zorba is not very inexperienced in mining and can be useful, so the young man decides to take Zorba to Crete as a miner.
When they get to Crete, Zorba does everything. First he buys a hotel, then finds houses by the sea, cooks, takes care of mining, draws big plans, and so on. But the most important thing that Zorba does in this meeting is to influence the young reader.

In a part of Mohammad Ghazi’s introduction, we read:
I also have that intense Epicurean-Khayyam spirit in Zorba. Like Zorba, I do not take on the hardships of life, and I do not lose my happy spirit in the face of adversity.

I, too, know the real needs of the understood man in the small and essential things of “what I eat or wear,” and I consider self-selling and running in pursuit of fame, fortune, and wealth a waste of time, and I strive to obtain it in such a way that my mind, soul, and conscience Convince my social to use.

Zorba is someone who literally lives in the moment. He does not think about the future and quickly forgets the events of the past, even if it’s the death of someone he loves.
His whole being is present. If he works, he will be busy with all his being. If he listens to someone, he looks at the other person as if there is no other voice in the world.

If he loves someone, he loves him with all his being. If he starts dancing, he will get drunk and will not notice anything else. If he plays the dulcimer, he will drown.

The only thing that can not be separated from Zorba is his centurion. The santorini he bought at the age of twenty and always has with him. In this case, he says:
I have become a different person since I learned to play the dulcimer. I play the dulcimer when I feel sad or I miss the arena life and I feel lighter.

I do not hear anything when they are talking to me playing the dulcimer, and if I do, I can not speak. Of course I want to, but I can’t.

Zorba is a man of freedom and he fights against anything that hinders his happiness. It does not matter who or what the obstacle is.
I was a potter at one time. I loved it crazy. Do you know what it means to take a handful of flowers and make whatever one wants from it?

فر رررر! You turn the wheel and the flower spins with it like crazy, while you stand on top of it and say: Now I am making a jar, now I am making a plate. I make lamps now, and in short I make whatever I want. This is called being a man, it means freedom!

He had forgotten the sea, did not bite the lemon in his hand, and his eyes were open.

I asked:
– Finally you did not say what happened to your finger.
-Nothing! It bothered me when I was working on the wheel. He put himself in the middle of everything and disrupted my plans. I also picked up an ax one day and… (

In one part of the book, Zorba says the following about himself:
When I was a child, I was like a tiny old man: I mean, I was a sluggish person, I did not talk much, and I had a harsh voice like the voice of old men.

They said I was like my grandfather! But the older I got, the better. At the age of twenty, I started playing crazy, but not much, of the same pranks that everyone does at that age.

At the age of forty, I gradually felt young, and then I fell in love with big games.
And now that he is sixty years old – be with us, Lord, I am sixty-five years old – yes, now that he is in his sixties, the world is really too small for me.

Zorba has his own philosophy in almost everything and he is happy and satisfied with the way he looks at things. But the part of Zorba’s philosophy of life that has received a lot of negative reviews is his view of women.

Zorba is very pessimistic about women and does not speak well of them at all. However, she is also weak against them and is very dependent on women.
Zorba inherited his ideas about women from his grandfather and repeats his teachings in various parts of the book. Of course, somewhere in the text of the book, he says about himself and his grandfather: “Oh, my grandfather, may his soul be happy, he was a lustful lust like me;”

Have you noticed, Lord, that everything good in this world is the invention of the devil? Beautiful women, spring, grilled milk pigs, wine and all these things are made by the devil.

But God has created priests and prayers and fasting and decoction of chamomile and ugly women… Ah!
Zorba treats everything in an extraordinary way. Whenever he sees something as if it is his first time, he sees it, gets excited and looks at it with passion and really enjoys it.

He is not afraid and does not allow fear of anything to overwhelm him or take away his power.

He owns his own life and is free. He is pragmatic, he does not think much, he does not care why he works and the style of aggravating things, he does not care what logic dictates and he only does his own thing.
It has its own ideas about God and Satan and this material world, and so on and so forth.

Much can be said and written about Zorba’s character, but it is best to read the Greek Zorba’s book to get to know him.

Sentences from the text of the Greek tyrant
This is freedom! Craving, accumulating gold coins, and then suddenly becoming lustful and squandering the treasure you have amassed. Free yourself from the shackles of lust and become a more honorable lust.

But isn’t that another form of slavery? Sacrificing yourself for one thought, for your nation, for God?

Or the higher the position of the master, the longer the rope around the slave’s neck? In that case, the slave can better walk and jump in a wider field without noticing that the rope is closed and die. Is that what freedom is called?

Zorba sees everything every day as if for the first time.
We hardly feel it as long as we live in happiness; And only when happiness passes and we look back do we suddenly – and sometimes with surprise – feel how happy we have been.

But I lived on that Cretan beach in happiness, and I knew I was happy.

We sat quietly by the fire until late last night.

I once again felt that happiness is easy to come by, and that it can only be achieved with a glass of wine, a roasted oak, a small brazier and the whisper of the sea.

In order to feel that happiness is these things, it is enough to have a simple and satisfied heart.

Everyone has their own madness, but the biggest madness in my opinion is that one does not have madness.
Do you know what I do when I want something? I eat so much of it that it breaks my heart and I never think about it again, or if I did, it would make me vomit.

I was a cherry dead when I was a kid. I did not have much money and could not buy a lot at once, so that every time I bought and ate cherries, I would crave it again.

Day and night I had no thoughts and thoughts except for cherries, and I really suffered from not having them. I do not know until one day I get angry or embarrassed.
I just felt like I was in the hands of a cherry, and that in itself made me laugh. What did I do then?

I woke up one night and went to the footpath, went to my father’s pockets, found a silver purse and pulled it out, and went to the gardener early in the morning. I bought a basket of cherries, sat in the ditch and started eating.

I ate and ate and ate and ate until my stomach swelled. The next moment, my stomach ached and I felt sick. Yes, my lord, I vomited and did, and from that day onwards the cherry lust was killed in me;

So that I could no longer bear to see the photo of the cherry. I was saved. I would look at them and say, “I don’t need you anymore!” Later I did the same with wine and tobacco.
Hear me, O Lord, and know that there is no other way to be saved than to be satisfied with whatever one desires, not to deprive oneself of it.

I want you to tell us where we come from and where we are going. You have spent your life on these magical books for many years and you have to draw the juice of two thousand three thousand kilograms of paper. So, what is the result of this work?

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1- Introducing the book  on YouTube

2- Introducing the book  in Aparat

Additional information

Translator

نویسنده

نیکوس کازانتزاکیس

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