title: Death before Dying
author: Sultan Bahu
description: "Jamal Elias has done a great service to those with an interest in poetry, in translation, and in the mystical by producing this volume. . . . A splendid guide to the poetry of Sultan Bahu, and to a Sufi poetry that continues to electrify."--"Parabola
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  # My Name Is Red
  
  
  
  
  
  by Omar Pamuk
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  2001
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  * * *
  
    
  
  
  In Istanbul, in the late 1590s, the Sultan secretly commissions a great book:
  a celebration of his life and his empire, to be illuminated by the best
  artists of the day — in the European manner. But when one of the miniaturists
  goes missing and is feared murdered, their master seeks outside help.
  
  
  
  
  
  ### ONE
  
  
  
  
  
  I AM A CORPSE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well. Though I drew
  my last breath long ago and my heart has stopped beating, no one, apart from
  that vile murderer, knows what’s happened to me. As for that wretch, he felt
  for my pulse and listened for my breath to be sure I was dead, then kicked me
  in the midriff, carried me to the edge of the well, raised me up and dropped
  me below. As I fell, my head, which he’d smashed with a stone, broke apart; my
  face, my forehead and cheeks, were crushed; my bones shattered, and my mouth
  filled with blood.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  For nearly fou