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Title.
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 3:50 am
by Ophelia
Any comments about the choice of the title of the novel?
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:14 pm
by JulianTheApostate
From an interview with the author at
http://www.bloomsbury.com/Authors/micro ... 1&aid=1873
3. Where does the title of your new book come from?
It comes from a poem about Kabul by Saib-e-Tabrizi, a seventeenth-century Persian poet, who wrote it after a visit to the city left him deeply impressed. I was searching for English translations of poems about Kabul, for use in a scene where a character bemoans leaving his beloved city, when I found this particular verse. I realized that I had found not only the right line for the scene, but also an evocative title in the phrase "a thousand splendid suns," which appears in the next-to-last stanza. The poem was translated from Farsi by Dr. Josephine Davis.
Until I read that, I had no idea what the title was referring to.
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:58 pm
by Ophelia
Thanks, Julian, for pointing this out to us.
So, by choosing this line from a poem at a time when Kaboul has been so destroyed and the characters have to live in Pakistan, do you feel he has chosen to stress the future and its possibilities, as a symbol, over bleakness and destruction?
P-S: Julian, I've read your introduction and the link to your blog is no longer working.
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 12:53 pm
by JulianTheApostate
Until I'm further into the book, I can't comment on the title.
FYI, my blog at
http://www.mindspring.com/~teleri/julian/ is still working. However, it's been a year and a half since I posted to it regularly.
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:10 am
by Ophelia
The two verses from the poem are quoted in chapter 26 by Babi, Laila's father, as they are getting ready to leave Kabul and he is heartbroken about leaving his books behind.
"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her [Kabul's] roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls."
So, the title of the novel is nostalgic, and refers to Kabul before it was destroyed.
A lovely poem . . .
Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 6:16 pm
by WildCityWoman
It's a good choice using it for a title, methinks.
I was impressed with the quoting of that poem too.