Hafez's yoosofé gom gashté

salām bé hamegee and welcome to our final lesson covering Hafez’s beautiful yoosofé gom gashté. We’ve already gone through the first 5 lines of the poem, and now we’re going to conclude with the final two lines, and go over them word by word, phrase by phrase.

So, to begin today, let’s listen to our selection in its entirety as read by Farnaz Nouri:

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

در بیابان گر به شوقِ کعبه خواهی زد قدم     سرزنش‌ها گر کُنَد خارِ مُغیلان غم مخور

گرچه منزل بس خطرناک است و مقصد بس بعید     هیچ راهی نیست، کـ‌آن را نیست پایان، غم مخور

حال ما در فِرقت جانان و اِبرامِ رقیب     جمله می‌داند خدایِ حالْ‌گردان غم مخور

حافظا در کُنجِ فقر و خلوتِ شب‌هایِ تار     تا بُوَد وِردَت دعا و درس قرآن 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!

If you cross the desert in longing for the House of God,

Should the Egyptian thorn reproach you; grieve not!

Though the route is quite dangerous and the destination quite far,

There is no road that has no end; grieve not!

Our condition in separation from the beloved and the torments of our rivals

Is all known to the Lord who alters conditions; grieve not!

O Ḥāfeẓ! In the corners of poverty and the loneliness of darksome nights

So long as your mantra is prayer and your guide the Qur’an, grieve not!

All right, amazing! So now, let’s listen to the portion we’ll be going over today:

حال ما در فِرقت جانان و اِبرامِ رقیب     جمله می‌داند خدایِ حالْ‌گردان غم مخور

حافظا در کُنجِ فقر و خلوتِ شب‌هایِ تار     تا بُوَد وِردَت دعا و درس قرآن غم مخور

Our condition in separation from the beloved and the torments of our rivals

Is all known to the Lord who alters conditions; grieve not!

O Ḥāfeẓ! In the corners of poverty and the loneliness of darksome nights

So long as your mantra is prayer and your guide the Qur’an, grieve not!

Wonderful, so we start off with hālé mā dar ferghaté jānān va ebrāmé ragheeb

So hālé mā- hāl is the word for state, or condition. hāl

hāl

and we hear this all the time with the question- hālet chetoré, which means how are you doing, but literally means what’s your state? hālet chetoré

hālet chetoré

And the phrase here is hālé mā, and mā means us, or our. mā

mā

so hālé mā means ‘our state of being. hālé mā

hālé mā. or how we’re doing. hālé mā

hālé mā

and then hālé mā ferghaté jānān va ebrāmé ragheeb. so first ferghaté jānān. remember that ‘é’ sound in there is an ezāfé and here, you can think of it like the word of. So hālé mā is literally the state of us. ferghaté jānān is the ferghat of jānān. and ebrāmé ragheeb is the ebrām of ragheeb. Before we get to each of those words, let’s go over these two words jānān, and ragheeb. First, jān is the word for life or soul, this is a very common word in Persian conversation, often used after someone’s name to mean dear. so jān

jān

and jānān is the word for the beloved. jānān

jānān

And the word ragheeb is the word for the adversary or antagonist- someone who is against you. ragheeb

ragheeb

so these two are opposite- jānān, the beloved, and ragheeb, the competitor, someone who is not on your side. So then ferghaté jānān - ferghat means separation. ferghat

ferghat

and ferghaté jānān is the separation of the beloved. ferghaté jānān

ferghaté jānān

and then ebrāmé ragheeb. ebrām means something along the lines of torment. ebrām

ebrām

So then ebrāmé ragheeb means the torment of the adversary. ebrāmé ragheeb

ebrāmé ragheeb

Ok wonderful! So there’s one last word in here that we haven’t gone over yet- see if you can spot it- 

hālé mā dar ferghaté jānān ō ebrāmé ragheeb

and that’s the word dar, which means in. dar

dar

So all together- hālé mā dar ferghaté jānān ō ebrāmé ragheeb means our state of being in the separation from the beloved and the torment of the rivals. Let’s repeat it all together bit by bit:

hālé mā 

hālé mā 

dar ferghaté jānān

dar ferghaté jānān

 ō ebrāmé ragheeb

 ō ebrāmé ragheeb

Great! And let’s listen to this read with the second part of the line:

حال ما در فِرقت جانان و اِبرامِ رقیب     جمله می‌داند خدایِ حالْ‌گردان غم مخور

Ok and that second part is jomlé meedānad khodāyé hālgardān

so jomlé means all, or the sum or total. jomlé

jomlé

and this is used to mean sentence in modern Persian too- so the full sentence, but here it specifically means the sum or total, or everything. jomlé

jomlé

and then meedānad, this is the third person conjugation for to know. so he or she knows, meedānad

meedānad

so he or she knows everything. jomlé meedānad

jomlé meedānad

and then who is he referring to in this? Who knows everything? khodāyé hālgardān

so khodā is the word for god. khodā

and again we have that é sound in there standing for of, the the god of what? of hālgardān. hāl again is the word for a state, and gardān is he or she that turns. so hālgardān means an entity that keeps the state turning. hālgardān

hālgardān

So Sahba in his translation translated it as the Lord who alters conditions, but you can think of it very literally of the lord that keeps the conditions spinning, or ever changing. khodāyé hālgardān

khodāyé hālgardān

What a beautiful concept!

Ok wonderful, so again, this line ends with gham makhor, which we should repeat together- gham makhor

gham makhor!

All right! Let’s listen to this line again together-

حال ما در فِرقت جانان و اِبرامِ رقیب     جمله می‌داند خدایِ حالْ‌گردان غم مخور

 Wonderful, so all together, it’s saying our state of being, whether it’s in separation from the beloved, or in the vying of the rivals, all of this is known by the god that can change the states of being, do not despair. So all this pain and difficulty, it will be turned around, it will change. gham makhor!

Wonderful, now let’s hear this first line along with the second:

حال ما در فِرقت جانان و اِبرامِ رقیب     جمله می‌داند خدایِ حالْ‌گردان غم مخور

حافظا در کُنجِ فقر و خلوتِ شب‌هایِ تار     تا بُوَد وِردَت دعا و درس قرآن غم مخور

 All right, so hāfezā, dar konjé faghr o khalvaté shabhāyé tār,

So in Hafez poems, he often ends the poem by giving advice to himself, so this is the moral of the poem. So hāfezā, and this means Oh Hafez. Hāfezā 

hāfezā

and then dar konjé faghr. dar means in. dar

dar

and konjé faghr- faghr means poverty. faghr

faghr

and konj means in the corner. konj

konj

and konjé faghr means in the corner of poverty. konjé faghr

konjé faghr

so in other words in the depths of poverty. dar konjé faghr

dar konjé faghr

and then o khalvaté shabhāyé tāreek. Oooh, I love this imagery. Khalvat means empty. khalvat

khalvat

shab is the word for night. shab

and shabhā makes it plural. the nights. shabhā

and finally tāreek is dark. tāreek

And then we have all those é sounds in there, which you can again substitute for of. So in this case khalvaté shabhāyé tareek becomes in the emptiness of the nights of darkness. How incredible is that. Let’s repeat it all- khalvaté shabhāyé tareek

khalvaté shabhāyé tareek

Beautiful. So this all together- hāfezā, dar konjé faghr o khalvaté shabhāyé tāreek, is Oh Hafez, in the corner or depths of poverty and the emptiness of the nights of darkness. Let’s repeat it all together: hāfezā, dar konjé faghr o khalvaté shabhāyé tāreek

Wonderful, and then finally:  تا بُوَد وِردَت دعا و درس قرآن غم مخور

tā bovad verdat doā va dars ghorān, gham makhor

so tā bovad. tā is the word for as long as. tā 

tā

and bovad means is. bovad

bovad

and then verdat means your mantra, what you repeat to yourself. verdat

verdat

and then do’ā means prayer. do’ā

so tā bovād verdat do’ā by itself means that as long as your mantra or truth is prayer, and then va dars ghorān. va of course means and. va

va

and dars is the word for study. dars

dars

and of course ghorān is the holy book of Islam. ghorān

ghorān

so va dars ghorān

va dars ghorān

so altogether it’s tā bovad verdat doā va dars ghorān, gham makhor

so as long as it is your mantra prayer and your study the ghorān. 

I want to pause here because I’ve said before, at first when I read this poem, it did seem very overtly religious to me. Obviously, it has a lot of references to bibical stories, and here it’s explicity referencing the ghoran. But just as we said in the introductory lesson, these poems can all be understood on many different levels. And I think that this poem in particular, could be completely understood, appreciated, and useful no matter if you are religious or completely secular. To me, as I said in the intro, this line is saying that you must speak your truth, speak in prayer, and also you must study. You must continue to seek truth, and speak truth. So I wanted to just make that clear in this case. So again, let’s repeat this last part together- 

tā bovad 

verdat doā 

va dars ghorān,

 gham makhor

And of course, the entire poem ends on that mantra again- gham makhor! So let’s repeat that one final time again together- gham makhor

gham makhor

And with that, let’s listen to the entire selection of the poem together

Wonderful, and hopefully this time around you understood the entire poem. This entire selection is available on the poem lesson page for you to listen to, either in its entirety or line by line. And of course, I encourage you to memorize this entire poem- I think it’s one of those that you will come back to over and over again, especially these days. But if not the whole thing, then you could memorize just a couplet of it, meaning two lines, like the ones we learned today. 

Either way, I hope you’ve enjoyed this one as much as I have, and until next time, khodahafez from Leyla.