Orkideh, the pro­tag­o­nist in this chap­ter, embarks on a pro­found reflec­tion of death and the role of art in nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex­i­ties of grief. The nar­ra­tive unfolds with an intense explo­ration of per­son­al loss and the sense of empti­ness that fol­lows, por­tray­ing a moment of pro­found detach­ment from real­i­ty. The nar­ra­tor’s intro­spec­tion leads to the cre­ation of an instal­la­tion titled “Death-Speak,” which serves as both an artis­tic expres­sion and a con­fronta­tion with mor­tal­i­ty. This piece aims to engage view­ers in an unfil­tered dia­logue about death, offer­ing an inti­mate and raw per­spec­tive on the fleet­ing nature of exis­tence. The process of craft­ing this instal­la­tion becomes the nar­ra­tor’s way of grap­pling with the inevitable, using art as a medi­um to speak to the audi­ence about their own mor­tal­i­ty, invit­ing a shared expe­ri­ence of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and intro­spec­tion.

The narrator’s reflec­tions are fur­ther influ­enced by the pow­er­ful poet­ry of Far­rokhzad, whose urgent and despair­ing vers­es res­onate deeply with the narrator’s emo­tion­al state. They are struck by the poet’s abil­i­ty to artic­u­late the human con­di­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly the con­flict between the super­fi­cial­i­ty of art and its true emo­tion­al essence. For the nar­ra­tor, this real­iza­tion fuels their frus­tra­tion with con­tem­po­rary art, which often pri­or­i­tizes aes­thet­ics over authen­tic­i­ty. They argue that true art is not meant to be dec­o­ra­tive but should be an hon­est reflec­tion of human expe­ri­ence, emo­tions, and the strug­gles we face in life. This philo­soph­i­cal stance chal­lenges the norms of the art world, push­ing the nar­ra­tor to ques­tion the very pur­pose of artis­tic cre­ation in the con­text of pro­found per­son­al truths. It is in this moment of artis­tic cri­sis that the nar­ra­tor’s path toward an hon­est explo­ration of death and human expe­ri­ence begins to solid­i­fy.

A piv­otal rela­tion­ship unfolds in the nar­ra­tive as the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on their bond with Sang, a fig­ure who has trans­formed from a for­mer lover into a trust­ed friend and pro­fes­sion­al col­lab­o­ra­tor. Despite the past emo­tion­al ties between them, the cur­rent dynam­ic reveals the strain of unspo­ken feel­ings, which com­pli­cate the narrator’s emo­tion­al expres­sion. When the nar­ra­tor shares their thoughts about the “Death-Speak” instal­la­tion, Sang responds dis­mis­sive­ly, unable to ful­ly grasp the depth of the nar­ra­tor’s jour­ney. This reac­tion expos­es the ten­sion between them, high­light­ing the dif­fi­cul­ty of shar­ing such per­son­al, exis­ten­tial real­iza­tions with some­one so close­ly tied to their past. How­ev­er, despite the emo­tion­al dis­tance, Sang plays a cru­cial role in the devel­op­ment of the instal­la­tion, even sug­gest­ing the fit­ting title “Death-Speak,” which aligns with the narrator’s desire to cre­ate a truth­ful, uncom­pro­mis­ing state­ment about mor­tal­i­ty. This moment sig­ni­fies a turn­ing point in the nar­ra­tor’s jour­ney, where the fusion of their per­son­al strug­gles and artis­tic ambi­tions comes to a head.

The dia­logue between the nar­ra­tor and Sang under­scores a crit­i­cal theme of the chap­ter: the ten­sion between emo­tion­al hon­esty and the com­plex­i­ties of past rela­tion­ships. As the nar­ra­tor reflects on their shared his­to­ry with Sang, they begin to rec­og­nize how love can often com­pli­cate the expres­sion of truth. The weight of unspo­ken words and unre­solved feel­ings becomes pal­pa­ble, and the nar­ra­tor is con­front­ed with the real­iza­tion that their desire to com­mu­ni­cate the raw­ness of their expe­ri­ences through art might not be ful­ly under­stood by those clos­est to them. How­ev­er, this dif­fi­cul­ty in com­mu­ni­ca­tion does not deter the nar­ra­tor; instead, it strength­ens their resolve to cre­ate art that reflects the truth of their emo­tions and the inescapable real­i­ty of death. In the end, the chap­ter reflects the narrator’s com­mit­ment to authen­tic­i­ty, both in their per­son­al life and artis­tic expres­sion, under­scor­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of their final act of cre­ation as a means to con­front their fears and con­nect with oth­ers through shared vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty.