Nezami Ganjavi's sokhanee chand dar eshgh (A Few Words on Love)

Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation Nezami’s A Few Words on Love, an excerpt from the romance of Khosrow and Shirin, part 4

salām bé hamegee, dorood and welcome to the fourth part of this wonderful discussion about our excerpt from the epic tale of khosro va shirin. 

Let’s start off by listening to my khalé farnaz recite the entire first part of the poem- what we’ve learned in the last two lessons, and the two lines we’ll be learning today. 

مرا کز عشق به ناید شعاری     مبادا تا زیم جز عشق کاری

“No greater practice exists than the practice of love;

God forbid that I undertake any work save that of love’s!

فلک جز عشق محرابی ندارد     جهان بی‌خاکِ عشق آبی ندارد

The Universe has no axis save that of love’s;

Without the soil of love the earth has no seas.

غلام عشق شو کاندیشه این است     همه صاحب‌دلان را پیشه این است

Tend wholly to love, for wisdom lies in this;

This has forever been the work of the enlightened.

جهان عشقست و دیگر زرق‌سازی     همه بازیست الّا عشقبازی

The world is love; all else, a deceptive charade!

It is all child’s play, save for the game of love.”

---

اگر بی‌عشق بودی جان عالَم     که بودی زنده در دوران عالَم؟

If the world’s existence was bereft of love,

How would any have lived throughout all of the world’s cycles?

کسی کز عشق خالی شد فسردست     گرش صد جان بوَد بی‌عشق مُردست

He who is devoid of love is hard-hearted;

Even if he has a hundred lives, without love, he is dead.

All right wonderful! Hopefully you recognized those first four lines, and now let’s go over the last two. First, let’s listen to my aunt read the first line that we’ll be learning today. 

agar bee eshgh boodee jāné ālam, ké boodee zendé dar dorāné ālam

So we begin with agar bee eshgh boodee. so first agar means if. agar

agar

and bee means without. bee

bee

and eshgh of course is the word for love. eshgh

eshgh

and finally boodee means was.. boodee

boodee

so in modern Persian, this actually means ‘you were’ but in this context it’s just an archaic ee. so boodee

boodee

so agar bee eshgh boodee means if you were without love. agar bee eshgh boodee

agar bee eshgh boodee

and then jāné ālam. so the word jān means soul. jān

jān

and that’s a word that’s very common in conversational Persian- we use it all the time. jān

jān

And ālam means world. ālam

ālam

so jāné ālam, the soul of the world. jāné ālam

jāné ālam

So all together, agar bee eshgh boodee, if it was without love, jāné ālam, the soul of the world. Or as Sahba translated it, If the world’s existence was bereft of love. So let’s repeat this together

agar bee eshgh bood

agar bee eshgh bood

jāné ālam

jāné ālam

Ok great. And then next, ké boodee zendé dar dorāné ālam. Let’s start with that last part- dorāné ālam. dorān literally means a cycle, but here, dorāné ālam means something along the lines of ‘in the cycles of the world’ or ‘in the era of the world’, in the time. Let’s repeat this together- dorāné ālam

dorāné ālam

So the cycles of the world. and then ké boodee zendé dar dorānè ālam. so ké here is actually kee, which means who. So in modern conversational Persian, it would be kee, but here in this poem, who is ké

ké

and boodee again means was. ké boodee

ké boodee

Who was and then zendé, meaning alive. zendé

zendé

and finally dar meaning in. dar

dar

ké boodee zendé dar- who was alive in. So again, ké boodee zendé dar

ké boodee zendé dar

dorāné ālam, in the time of existence. dorāné ālam

So altogether it means If the world’s existence was bereft of love, How would any have lived throughout all of the world’s cycles? So who would then even be alive? So let’s repeat all this together slowly.

agar bee eshgh boodee

agar bee eshgh boodee

 jāné ālam

 jāné ālam

ké boodee zendé 

ké boodee zendé 

dar dorāné ālam

dar dorāné ālam

Ok great. And now the next part- 

کسی کز عشق خالی شد فسردست     گرش صد جان بوَد بی‌عشق مُردست

kasee k’az eshgh khālee shod fesordast, garash sad jān bovad bee eshgh mordast

Ok! So first kasee. The word kas actually means one. kasee, anyone. kasee

kasee

and again k’az is a combination of ké and az meaning that from. k’az

k’az

and then eshgh khālee shod. khālee is the word for empty. khālee

khālee

and shod is became. shod

shod

so khālee shod, became empty. khālee shod

khālee shod

and of course eshgh is the word for love. eshgh

eshgh

we’ve repeated that a hundred times at this point, so hopefully it’s very easy for you. So kasee k’az eshgh khālee shod means anyone that from love has become empty. k’asee k’az eshgh

k’asee k’az eshgh

khālee shod

khālee shod

and then fesordast. This means is depressed. fesordast

fesordast

and in modern conversational Persian, we use the word afsordé for depressed. afsordé

afsordé

so afsordé hastam means I am depressed. afsordé hastam

afsordé hastam

but the poetic version is fesordast

fesordast

so kasee k’az eshgh khālee shod fesordast means one who from love has become empty, is depressed or as Sahba translates it, He who is devoid of love is hard-hearted

Great, so now our final line for today: garash sad jān bovad bee eshgh mordast

I absolutely love this line. So garash is an interesting poetic word. gar comes from the word agar or if. gar

gar

and ash means to him or her. so if to him or her, garash

garash

and then sad jān. so sad means a hundred. sad

sad

and jān as we said before means soul, but it can also mean life. so soul or life, jān

jān

and bovad is another poetic term that means to be, to have. bovad

bovad

so even if to him or her a hundred lives were had. and then bee eshgh mordast. and this is so simple and easy. bee eshgh as we’ve learned before means without love. bee eshgh

bee eshgh

and mordast is quite simply he or she is dead. mordast

mordast

so bee ehsgh mordast- without love, he or she is dead. bee eshgh mordast

bee eshgh mordast 

So altogether it’s garash sad jān bovad bee eshgh mordast, if he/she is granted a hundred lives, without love, he or she is dead. Or as Sahba translates it Even if he has a hundred lives, without love, he is dead.

Let’s say it altogether now,

garash sad

garash sad

 jān bovad

 jān bovad

 bee eshgh mordast

Ok, perfect! So these two lines really help us to weave our story here, and really raise the stakes. Ok, let’s repeat these two lines again together, bit by bit: 

agar bee eshgh boodee jāné ālam, 

agar bee eshgh boodee jāné ālam, 

ké boodee zendé dar dorāné ālam

ké boodee zendé dar dorāné ālam

kasee k’az eshgh khālee shod fesordast, 

kasee k’az eshgh khālee shod fesordast, 

garash sad jān bovad bee eshgh mordast

garash sad jān bovad bee eshgh mordast

Let’s listen to my khālé Farnaz read these two lines again:

agar bee eshgh boodee jāné ālam, ké boodee zendé dar dorāné ālam

kasee k’az eshgh khālee shod fesordast, garash sad jān bovad bee eshgh mordast

Ok so the language of this section might be a bit more complicated that in the other lessons, but hopefully this time around you were able to understand all of the parts of this selection.

We have two more parts for this poem, because we’re taking it very nice and slowly. 

So let’s listen to the full poem now as read by my khālé Farnaz, and see how much we can understand at this point! 

All right, and hopefully you understood more of the poem at this point- we’ll be back next week for part 5 of this series! Until then,

khodāhāfez,

from,

Leyla