The Hoja Takes A Wife (1954)

[Music] [Music] If you were riding a donkey instead of being where you are right now, what pleasant view would delight your eyes? Please have no fear. Slowfoot has always been a very gentle donkey. A gentle donkey. Now we must hurry down this familiar street to uh we must hurry to that coffee house ahead where a kind old shake retells the well-loved stories of Nasaredin Hocha. Enough for Hunt. We can't stop Hamid when we have been paid to deliver these jars. Hamid doesn't feel like work. He feels like having coffee. Ow. Come on, Bhan. I want coffee. But our work. Well, that's Hamid for you. Come along, Slowfoot, or we'll miss the shakes tales of Nasuredin. Hocha. You are lazy, Hamid. That's your trouble. I'm not lazy. You know, there are some countries in this world where the workers control everything. They own the land, tools, shops, and they get the best of food, bowls, and houses without working. I hear they work when they want to. That is not what I have heard. The workers in the countries you refer to do not know where they are going and cannot choose a life for themselves. They work, speak, think, and die as their master commands. Nah, you're wrong, Hamid. What I can't understand is how these foreign slave drivers get workers like you to believe their nonsense. You think they're liars? Why not? Why have the masters of these paradise countries drawn iron curtain across their borders? To help people learn the truth about them or to stop people from learning the truth? Everything they say can't be lies. You are too sure of yourself. Amid offendi, tell us what you think. Nonsense. The shake can tell us nothing. He is slow and he is old, too. Slowness can bring shoress and wisdom comes with age. What armade believes about the workers in some countries does not surprise me. For by repeating one big lie a thousand times, you can make it appear true. Allow me to tell you the story of Nasurin Hocha that may prove to you what I have said. [Music] There was a time when the hocher was very sad and [Music] lonely. His beloved wife had died over a year before, and there was no cheerful home waiting at the end of each weary day. The Hoch's friends were unhappy, too. They missed the old days when Nasaredine would sit with them and laugh at their jokes. Ah, they are jokes. Wise men have marked the thin line between comedy and tragedy, but fools know it not. And so, though they called themselves the Hocha's friends, the two villagers thought of the ugliest and plainest unmarried woman they knew, and they made their plans. [Music] the ho. 's friends with their distorted sense of humor let their imaginations run wild. And much as expected, their lavish descriptions of womanly beauty set fire to the lonely thoughts in the Hocher's unhappy mind. [Music] So without realizing that he was being tricked, the Hocha agreed to marry the ugly old maid chosen by his [Music] friends. As was the custom in that time and place, Nasaredin Hocha did not see his bride before the marriage contract was signed. But at last the day came for him to welcome her to his home. [Music] Welcome to my house, good wife. I hope you find it pleasing to your eyes." And the hocher was hoping the same thing for himself as he peered at her veil. [Music] Through the bitterness of his shattered dreams, the Hocha knew how he had been tricked. And he knew his friends must be taught a [Music] lesson. The next day, instead of being angry, the Hocha thanked his friends many times for finding him such a lovely woman. And you can imagine how this unexpected gratitude put them in a diver. Had they made a mistake? Perhaps the ugly girl was not ugly at all. You really couldn't be sure what was behind her veil. And the hoeer himself was sparing no words about the beauty of his new wife. [Music] Finally, by the time the story got back to the two friends, everyone was envying the Hocha and marveling at his rare luck in having such a bride. [Music] Rumors about the beauty and charm of the Hocha's wife grew and grew until the two bewildered friends really believed it when they told a stranger that Nasured was married to the most beautiful woman in all the [Music] world. At last the Hocha had reason to smile again, while the truth lay always concealed behind the veil of his faithful wife. And so you see, you would be wise to question the grand stories that come from behind a curtain of secrecy. For like the Hocha's big lie, they may have very little truth to them. [Music]