This heartfelt and occasionally humorous memoir recounts the author’s childhood memories in Tehran, Iran, in 1972. It reflects on her close bond with her father, Professor Ahmad Mahdavi Damghani—a distinguished scholar of Arab and Persian literature and mysticism, who emigrated to the United States and became a professor at Harvard University after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Alongside her best friend, family, and other kind-hearted acquaintances, she recalls a time of joyful innocence and magical discoveries about human nature. Her father’s deep erudition and love for classical European literature nurtured her inner world, introducing her to the great characters of Hugo, Tolstoy, the Brontës, Dickens, and Dostoevsky. He gently guided a dreamy, bright, and timid girl growing up in a modernizing Iran, encouraging her to embrace culture and art in all forms without imposing religious constraints. Through his actions and choices, he taught her lifelong moral lessons infused with warmhearted Persian affection and the good humor emblematic of the Iranian people. This all unfolded during Iran’s golden era—a time of cultural awakening, hope, and gradual modernization before the Revolution altered the country’s course. This rich cultural and intellectual environment shaped Farideh Mahdavi Damghani into the renowned translator she is today—fluent in four languages and responsible for translating over 650 classical, modern, and spiritual works, including the complete works of Dante Alighieri, Milton’s *Paradise Lost*, the complete comicals of Shakesoeare and Osvar Wilde, along with important other literary works by Gide, Stendhal, Jorge Luis borges, Umberto Eco, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Giacomo Leopardi, Petrarch, and even the Analects of Confucius into Farsi—bridging cultures and voices across the world.
