Hafez's yoosofé gom gashté

salām bé hamegee, and welcome to our 4th episode of our discussion on the poem yoosofé gom gashté bāz āyad by the 12th century poet Hafez. To start our lesson, let’s listen to Farnaz Nouri read the first couple lines we studied in the last two episodes, followed by the portion we’ll be going over today. 

یوسفِ گُم گشته بازآید به کنعان، غم مَخُور     کلبهٔ احزان شَوَد روزی گلستان، غم مخور

ای دل غمدیده، حالت بِه شود، دل بَد مکن     وین سرِ شوریده باز آید به سامان غم مخور

گر بهارِ عمر باشد باز بر تختِ چمن     چتر گل در سر کَشی، ای مرغِ خوشخوان غم مخور

دورِ گردون گر دو روزی بر مرادِ ما نرفت     دائماً یکسان نباشد حالِ دوران غم مخور

هان مَشو نومید چون واقِف نِه‌ای از سِرِّ غیب     باشد اندر پرده بازی‌هایِ پنهان غم مخور

ای دل اَر سیلِ فنا بنیادِ هستی بَر کَنَد     چون تو را نوح است کشتیبان، ز طوفان غم مخور

The lost Joseph will again return to Canaan; grieve not!

The House of Sorrows will someday become a rose garden; grieve not!

O afflicted heart, you’ll feel better; despair not!

And this disheveled mind will again find respite; grieve not!

Should the spring of life repose again upon the throne of green,

You’ll raise a canopy of roses over your head, O sweet-singing bird; grieve not!

Should the heavens not turn in our favor for a couple of days;

The ways of the world never remain the same—grieve not!

Verily, do not dismay that you are not privy to the secrets of the invisible,

[For] behind the veil lies many a secret game; grieve not!

O heart! Should the flood of annihilation uproot the very essence of existence,

So long as Noah is your captain, from the storm grieve not!

All right, wonderful, so hopefully you understood those first two couplets that we’ve already gone over. Now we’re going to go over the third. Let’s first listen to the full thing: 

هان مَشو نومید چون واقِف نِه‌ای از سِرِّ غیب 

Verily, do not dismay that you are not privy to the secrets of the invisible,

hān mashō no’meed chon vāghef ne’ee az serré ghayb

    باشد اندر پرده بازی‌هایِ پنهان غم مخور

[For] behind the veil lies many a secret game; grieve not!

bāshad andar pardé bāzeehāyé penhān, gham makhor

ای دل اَر سیلِ فنا بنیادِ هستی بَر کَنَد 

O heart! Should the flood of annihilation uproot the very essence of existence,

ay del ar saylé fanā bonyādé hastee bar kanad

    چون تو را نوح است کشتیبان، ز طوفان غم مخور

So long as Noah is your captain, from the storm grieve not!

chon tō rā nooh ast kashteebān, zé toofān gham makhor

All right wonderful. So the first line, for me, the first time I hear it sounds quite challenging. It goes ‘hān mashō no’meed chon vāghef ne’ee az seré ghayb. So first the word hān- this is similar to the English word verily. hān

hān

so verily or in truth. Not something that’s used too often in conversation. hān

hān

So in truth, and then mashō no’meed. So mashō is the poetic equivalent of the word nashō, or do not become. So in Persian conversation, nashō

nashō

and in the poem, mashō

mashō

and then no’meed. So this is a shortened version of the actual word, which is nā’omeed, a very common Persian word meaning hopeless. nā’omeed

nā’omeed

And in the poem, in order to make it work with the rhythm of the poem, it becomes ‘no’meed’

no’meed

so hān mashō no’meed, means in truth, or in reality, or verily, do not become hopeless. hān mashō no’meed

hān mashō no’meed

and then chon which is a common word meaning because. chon

chon

and then vāghef ne’ee, and that means you are not aware. vāghef ne’ee

vāghef ne’ee

This isn’t something we’d say in conversational Persian, and also ne’ee is short for neestee, or you are not. neestee

neestee

and in the poem, vāghef ne’ee

vāghef ne’ee

and then az serr’é ghayb. So az means of. az

az

And ghayb is the word for invisible, or hidden. ghayb

ghayb

and serr’é ghayb is secrets of the invisible. serr’é ghayb

serr’é ghayb

Wonderful! So let’s say this all together slowly- 

hān mashō no’meed 

hān mashō no’meed 

So do not become hopeless, or do not lose hope

chon vāghef ne’ee 

chon vāghef ne’ee 

because you are not privvy

az seré ghayb

az seré ghayb

of the secrets of the invisible. 

In other words, don’t be sad because you don’t understand everything, or 

Great! Now let’s listen to Farnaz reading the first and second line: 

Verily, do not dismay that you are not privy to the secrets of the invisible,

hān mashō no’meed chon vāghef ne’ee az seré ghayb

    باشد اندر پرده بازی‌هایِ پنهان غم مخور

[For] behind the veil lies many a secret game; grieve not!

bāshad andar pardé bāzeehāyé penhān, gham makhor

Ok great, so bāshad andar pardé. bāshad simply means there be or there is. bāshad

bāshad

and then andar pardé. andar means in. andar

andar

and pardé is the word for the curtain. pardé

pardé

so bāshad andar pardé, there is in the curtain. bāshad andar pardé

bāshad andar pardé

or as Sahba translates it, for behind the veil. So the curtain, the veil. bāshad andar pardé

bāshad andar pardé

and then bāzeehāyé penhān. so bāzee is the word for game. bāzee

bāzee

and bāzeehāyé penhān, penhān means hidden. penhān

penhān

so bāzeehāyé penhān means games that are hidden. bāzeehāyé penhān

bāzeehāyé penhān

so bāshad andar pardé bāzeehāyé penhān, there are in or behind the curtain games that are hidden. Great, let’s repeat that together- bāshad andar pardé 

bāshad andar pardé 

bāzeehāyé penhān

bāzeehāyé penhān

Great! And this line ends with gham makhor, do not despair. gham makhor

gham makhor

Wonderful! Let’s listen to these two lines again:

هان مَشو نومید چون واقِف نِه‌ای از سِرِّ غیب 

Verily, do not dismay that you are not privy to the secrets of the invisible,

hān mashō no’meed chon vāghef ne’ee az seré ghayb

    باشد اندر پرده بازی‌هایِ پنهان غم مخور

[For] behind the veil lies many a secret game; grieve not!

bāshad andar pardé bāzeehāyé penhān, gham makhor

Wonderful! Now let’s listen to the next two lines:

ای دل اَر سیلِ فنا بنیادِ هستی بَر کَنَد 

O heart! Should the flood of annihilation uproot the very essence of existence,

ay del, ar saylé fanā bonyādé hastee bar kanad

    چون تو را نوح است کشتیبان، ز طوفان غم مخور

So long as Noah is your captain, from the storm grieve not!

chon tō rā nooh ast kashteebān, zé toofān gham makhor

Wonderful, so this selection begins with ay del, meaning oh heart. ay del

ay del

ay of course, meaning oh, ay

ay

and del is the word for heart. del

del

ay del

ay del

and next ar saylé fanā. ar is short for agar, or if. ar

ar

and then saylé fanā. sayl is the word for flood. sayl

sayl

and fanā is a Sufi concept that basically means becoming nothing. So destruction, annihilation, going into nothingness. fanā

so saylé fanā could be something along the lines of flood of annihilation. saylé fanā

saylé fanā

and then bonyādé hastee bar kanad. Ok, I love this concept. So bonyād is the word for foundation. bonyād

bonyād

and hastee is the word of being. hastee

hastee

so bonyādé hastee- the foundation of being. bonyādé hastee

bonyādé hastee

and then bar kanad, means to rip away or to uproot. bar kanad

bar kanad

and kanad comes from kandan, to tear away. kandan

kandan

so bar kanad, to rip away. bar kanad

bar kanad

So all together- ay del, ar saylé fanā bonyādé hastee bar kanad

Oh heart, if the flood of becoming nothing, or reaching that point of nothingness, takes the foundation of being, and rips it out, essentially. Or as Sahba translates it O heart! Should the flood of annihilation uproot the very essence of existence,

So if your entire foundation gets rocked, if your very sense of being is ripped out. Let’s repeat this bit by bit: 

ay del, 

ay del

ar saylé fanā 

ar saylé fanā

bonyādé hastee

bonyādé hastee 

 bar kanad

 bar kanad

Wonderful! So  ay del, ar saylé fanā bonyādé hastee bar kanad

And the final line-    chon tō  rā nooh hast kashteebān ze toofān gham makhor

All right, so first chon, which means because. chon

chon

and tō rā nooh hast kashteebān. I love this line. So tō meaning you. tō

tō

and rā is our direct object marker, this is a word used often in the Persian language that doens’t really have a direct translation, but it’s saying because you, nooh hast. Nooh means Noah, a character we are all probably familiar with. Nooh

Nooh

and hast means is. hast

hast

and kashteebān means captain. kashteebān

kashteebān

So chon tō rā nooh hast kashteebān means because for you Noah is the captain. chon tō rā nooh hast kashteebān

and then zé toofān. zé means az or from. zé

zé

and toofān is the word for storm. toofān

toofān

zé toofān, from the storm. zé toofān

zé toofān

and finally gham makhor, do not despair. gham makhor

gham makhor

so because Noah is your captain, from the storm, do not despair. So you’re in good hands, do not despair. All right amazing! Let’s repeat all this slowly together. 

chon tō rā 

chon tō rā

nooh ast kashteebān

nooh ast kashteebān

zé toofān 

zé toofān

gham makhor

gham makhor

Wonderful. Now let’s listen to our full selection from this week together: