I tried to review all my information about love. Unfortunately, it was rather limited. Although I was over 13 years of age, I had never seen anyone in love in my entire life. Romantic books and biographies of lovers were seldom published at that time. Still, they wouldn’t allow us to read all kinds of love stories. Parents and relatives, especially Daee Jon, whose presence and ideas overshadowed the whole family, had forbidden us, the children, to leave the house without a chaperon, let alone speak to someone of the opposite sex. We were afraid to even get close to the children who played in the street.
The radio was still a novelty. With a 2-3 hour daily program it couldn’t offer any helpful information. In reviewing what I knew about love, I first came upon Leyli and Majnoun, which we have heard many times. No matter how much I searched every corner of my brain, I still didn’t know how Majnoun had fallen in love with Leyli. All they said was Majnoun fell in love with Leyli.
It might have been best if I didn’t bring Leyli and Majnoun into this research. The fact that Leyli and Daee Jon’s daughter had the same first name likely affected my subsequent deductions. But I had no choice. My only remaining authorities were Leyli and Majnoun. Other than that, I didn’t know much about Shirin and Farhad and especially the way they fell in love. I had also read a love story that was being published in the newspaper’s serial. But I hadn’t read the first few installments; one of my classmates had told me what had happened. So I didn’t know how the story had begun.