The Lost Lion Cub
Translated from the original Persian post. Images, if present, are from that post or thread.
Translated thread in its original order, with the images attached to each part
The Lost Lion Cub
In our story, a cheerful, playful lion cub lived in a lovely forest. He spent his days playing, running, and roaring. Usually, though, he stayed close to his family so he wouldn’t get lost and be left alone.
One evening, he got so caught up in running that he didn’t notice how far he’d gone.
By the time he realized it, darkness had fallen. His family was nowhere to be seen, and he’d lost his way.
He struggled, roared, and ran here and there, but somehow he seemed to keep coming back to the same place.
At last he was exhausted and had lost hope.
He sat crying beside a tree, breathing hard. He kept blaming himself. Why had he done this? Why had he wandered away from his family? Why hadn’t he paid attention? The questions went on and on.
Then a firefly heard our cub crying and came over to see what was wrong.
The cub told the firefly how he’d become lost, then began crying again. “It’s so dark now. I’m scared, and I can’t find my way.”
The firefly thought for a moment. “I can shine a light and show you the path.”
“How?” asked the cub.
The firefly lit up its back. “Look.”
The cub looked. “That light barely reaches the ground around you. What good is it?”
“You’re weak. Your light is no help to me.”
The firefly was hurt at first. But it looked at its little glow and saw that the cub was right: the light was faint and couldn’t do much.
Then an idea came to it. “Stay here until I come back,” it told the cub.
The cub, now hopeless, turned away and sank into his sadness.
A little later, the firefly returned and...
“Maybe I can’t do much on my own,” it told the cub. “But when we come together, each of our little lights becomes a glow as bright as moonlight. We can light up the whole forest, and light will overcome darkness.”
The cub stared in surprise. “How?”
“Like this,” said the firefly. Suddenly a great crowd of fireflies lit up.
There might have been millions of them together. The sight was so magnificent it looked as though they had strung lights throughout the forest.
They had illuminated a path. The cub was so excited he could hardly contain himself.
“Hurry,” the firefly said. “We don’t have much time.” The cub set off, and a few minutes later he heard his father’s roar.
The cub found his family.
As I wrote this story, I thought of every one of my fellow Iranians. Each carries a ray of love for our homeland.
Alone, that light may be faint today. Perhaps it reaches only the space around us. But...
When you and I stand together with millions of other Iranians shining just as brightly, we can light up any darkness and save our tired, wounded lion.
Light overcomes darkness when you and I become us.
Long live Iran.
Long live the Shah.
