Thanking a Shopowner

Leyla: salām bé hamegee. Hello everyone, and welcome to lesson 70, darsé haftād, of Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation. This is the last lesson of this unit in which we have been going through intermediate dialogues. And as always, I'm going to say salām to my colleague Vijay here, who is joining us. salām Vijay.

Vijay: salām bé rooyé māhet Leyla, chetor-ee?

Leyla: khaylee mamnoon. By now, Vijay has become an expert at tārofing. And quite appropriately, for the end of this unit, we have a dialogue that's all about saying khodāhāfez, as we say khodāhāfez to this unit. So Vijay, can you tell us a bit about this dialogue and the background of it?

Vijay: Absolutely. So just like the last dialogue, like you said, it's somebody saying goodbye to someone else. But in this case, it's specifically in a shop. In this particular case, specifically a jewelry shop. So a lady, a customer at the shop, is getting some earrings fixed, and she's making arrangements to come back and pick the earrings back up. But she's also taking leave of him, and they are exchanging more tārof as always.

Leyla: Yes. So really tārōf is not limited to friends or family or people that you're close to. It is also extending to every interaction that you have. So I'm glad that we get to see that, with the taxi driver, with the shop owner, with the person cleaning the halls, like every everyone deserves some tārōf in Iranian culture. And I think that's part of the things that makes it special. So here we go. Let's listen to it together.

Khānom: az bābaté rāhnamāyeeyetoon mamnoon-am. pas man gooshee-hārō meeyāram tā beheshoon yé negāhee bendāzeed.

maghāzedār: man ké kāree nakardam. hālā gooshee-hārō beeyāreed omeedvāram betoonam komakee konam.

Khānom: lotf meekoneed. man fardā meeyārameshoon.

Maghāzedār: faghat man fardā asr maghāzé neestam.

Khānom: pas man fardā sobh meeyām. bāz ham mamnoon. khodā negahdār.

Leyla: Okay, so let's go ahead and listen from the top.

Khānom: az bābaté rāhnamāyeeyetoon mamnoon-am. pas man gooshee-hārō meeyāram tā beheshoon yé negāhee bendāzeed.

Leyla: Okay, so a lot of interesting phrases here. So she goes az bābaté rāhnamāyeeyetoon mamnoon-am. So, az bābaté so, this is a phrase that means on the account of, so on the occasion of, az bābaté az bābaté bābaté

Vijay: az bābaté

Leyla: So on the occasion of, of the occasion of, rāhnamāyeeyetoon So your instructions or your helping me to find a way. So rāhnamāyee is to make a path clear, literally. rāhnamāyee

Vijay: rāhnamāyee

Leyla: But it's the way someone helps or gives you guidance. So they light the way for you. rāhnamāyeeyetoon

Vijay: rāhnamāyeeyetoon

Leyla: So your guidance, basically. So az bābaté rāhnamāyeeyetoon on the occasion of your guidance, on the account of your guidance. az bābaté rāhnamāyeeyetoon

Vijay: az bābaté rāhnamāyeeyetoon

Leyla: mamnoon-am, I am thankful. So, because of your guidance, due to your guidance, I am thankful. I'm thankful of your guidance. Mamnoon-am

Vijay:  mamnoon-am

Leyla: And then pas man gooshee-hārō meeyāram tā beheshoon yé negāhee bendāzeed. So this is really interesting. pas means then, pas.

Vijay: pas

Leyla: man, I

Vijay: man

Leyla: Yeah, and then gooshee-hārō. So gooshee is headphones. gooshee, goosh is the word for ear. gooshee is earpieces, so headphones. gooshee

Vijay: gooshee

Leyla: And then she said gooshee-hārō. So she's making it plural and then saying these particular by adding that rō, the direct object marker. gooshee-hārō

Vijay: gooshee-hārō

Leyla: meeyāram, I will bring meeyāram

Vijay: meeyāram

Leyla: And then tā means so that. tā

Vijay: tā

Leyla: beheshoon, to them, beheshoon

Vijay: beheshoon

Leyla: yé negāhee bendāzeed Okay, so this is interesting. negāh means a look, and andākhtan means to throw. So you can throw a look at them. So beheshoon yé negāhee bendāzeed is not something I ever say. I always say yé negāhee bokoneed, to do a look. But then negāhee bendāzeed, throw a look. So it's a different way of saying it. So you can give a look, basically. So you can say take a look, give a look. In this case, it's the same. She's saying throw a look. So throw a look their way. tā beheshoon

Vijay: tā beheshoon

Leyla: yé negāhee bendāzeed

Vijay: yé negāhee bendāzeed.

Leyla: So you could have a look at them. So tomorrow I'll bring my earphones, bring them so that you can look, take a look at them. So some interaction is taking place before this where maybe she's ask for some help, and then he said, you know, sure I'll help you out. So let's see what he says next.

maghāzedār: man ké kāree nakardam. hālā gooshee-hārō beeyāreed omeedvāram betoonam komakee konam.

Leyla: Okay, so he goes man ké kāree nakardam. I haven't done anything. Man

Vijay: man

Leyla: I ké kāree

Vijay: ké kāree

Leyla: Which ké means that, kāree is a thing. nakardam, haven't done. nakardam

Vijay: nakardam

Leyla: So kāree nakardam, I haven't done anything. So we have this in the last lesson too, where kār literally means work. But here it means I haven't done anything. I haven’t, I haven't done anything. And the ké emphasizes that. So he could say man kāree nakardam, I haven't done anything, but he says man ké kāree nakardam, I haven't done a thing. I've done nothing. man ké kāree nakardam

Vijay: man ké kāree nakardam

Leyla: Great! And then he says, hālā gooshee-hārō beeyāreed So hālā means now hālā 
Vijay: hālā

Leyla: gooshee-hārō Same way that she said it before, gooshee is earpieces, hā, so it's a plural of one gooshee, so there's two of them. gooshee-hārō Those particular earpieces, gooshee-hārō

Vijay: gooshee-hārō

Leyla: And then beeyāreed means you bring. Beeyāreed

Vijay: beeyāreed

Leyla: Okay, so now bring the earpieces. omeedvāram I am hopeful omeedvāram

Vijay: Omeedvāram

Leyla: betoonam komakee konam betoonam means I can, I will be able to. betoonam

Vijay: betoonam

Leyla: komakee konam, I can provide a help. komakee konam

Vijay: komakee konam

Leyla: And that's one of those compound verbs. And it's literally to do a help. I hope that I'll be able to do a help. I hope I'll be able to help you. So he says I haven't done anything. Now bring your earpieces with you. And I am hopeful that I will be able to help you. So he hasn't done anything yet. She was just thanking him in advance and saying she is thankful for his guidance, and he's saying I haven't done anything. Which also is a tārof thing because even we don't know what he's done before this, maybe he's done a lot of work to help her, and he's just downplaying it by saying man ké kāree nakardam, that's another form of tārof. So let's repeat that again, man ké kāree nakardam

Vijay: man ké kāree nakardam

Leyla: Okay. And then she says

Khānom: lotf meekoneed. man fardā meeyārameshoon.

Leyla: And then she goes lotf meekoneed

Vijay: lotf meekoneed

Leyla: And we've seen this word lotf so much before. And that is just you've done a kindness. You've done something nice. You have been helpful. So lotf meekoneed

Vijay: lotf meekoneed

Leyla: And then she goes, man fardā meeyārameshoon I tomorrow, fardā is tomorrow. meeyārameshoon, I will bring them tomorrow. So this is a future tense. I will bring them tomorrow. man

Vijay: man

Leyla: fardā

Vijay: fardā

Leyla: meeyārameshoon

Vijay: Meeyārameshoon

Leyla: And that means I will bring. So I will bring them tomorrow. And then he says.

Maghāzedār: faghat man fardā asr maghāzé neestam.

Leyla: faghat only faghat

Vijay: faghat

Leyla: man fardā asr fardā, again means tomorrow and asr means afternoon. So I tomorrow afternoon man fardā asr

Vijay: man fardā asr

Leyla: maghāzé neestam. And maghāzé is the word for a store. maghāzé

Vijay: maghāzé

Leyla: Then neestam, I am not, maghāzé neestam

Vijay: maghāzé neestam

Leyla: So, only I am not here tomorrow afternoon. faghat man fardā asr maghāzé neestam

Vijay: faghat man fardā asr maghāzé neestam

Leyla: So he's saying don't bring it tomorrow afternoon. I'm not here. And then she says

Khānom: pas man fardā sobh meeyām. bāz ham mamnoon. khodā negahdār.

Leyla: Okay. And then she goes pas man fardā sobh meeyām. So pas, then, man, I, fardā, tomorrow, sobh, morning, meeyām, welcome. So for the future tense again pas man fardā sobh meeyām

Vijay: pas man fardā sobh meeyām

Leyla: Okay. And then she goes bāz ham mamnoon bāz means again ham, again, also mamnoon, thank you. So again, thank you. bāz ham mamnoon

Vijay: bāz ham mamnoon

Leyla: And then khodā negahdār, and this literally means, may God take care of you. So we have a lot of these phrases in Persian. They're not necessarily religious, just like in English, you have, you know, God bless or these different things that are in our vocabulary. This is a very common phrase, even for people that are not religious. khodā negahdār

Vijay: khodā negahdār

Leyla: Take care, or God take care of you. Okay, so she’s saying, then I'll come tomorrow morning. Thanks again, take care. That is the end of our conversation. I feel like it's a very short and sweet conversation with a little bit of tārof thrown in there. Vijay, is there anything that you want to point out that maybe we didn't go over?

Vijay: Not really. I think that even though we don't have that much tārof in this particular dialogue, we do have some pretty advanced vocabulary here. So we have az bābaté, you know, involving, like, on account of something, you know, something that's not maybe even the first thing that you'd say in English, but, you know, it's still a useful expression to know. So we have, we have some interesting vocabulary here and, you know, for once, we actually have very specific situation, I mean, situation-specific tārof.

Leyla: Yes. Yeah, exactly. They're not just getting to the heart of it. He's downplaying his help. She's, even though she wants something from him, she's kind of dancing around it and kind of, you know, using her tārof phrases to drag it out a little bit. So yeah, so I think that you're right about that. All right, and without further ado, let's listen to it one more time

Khānom: az bābaté rāhnamāyeeyetoon mamnoon-am. pas man gooshee-hārō meeyāram tā beheshoon yé negāhee bendāzeed.

maghāzedār: man ké kāree nakardam. hālā gooshee-hārō beeyāreed omeedvāram betoonam komakee konam.

Khānom: lotf meekoneed. man fardā meeyārameshoon.

Maghāzedār: faghat man fardā asr maghāzé neestam.

Khānom: pas man fardā sobh meeyām. bāz ham mamnoon. khodā negahdār. 
Leyla: All right. And hopefully, you understood all of those words in there. And with that, we come to the end of our unit on intermediate dialogues. Thank you, everyone, for listening. As always, the learning resources of this lesson are on our website for the lesson page. We'll link to all of that in the show notes. And next time, we'll be back for our intermediate grammar unit. And that should be a lot of fun. And thank you so much, Vijay, for joining us and for putting these all together. Thank you to Anousha on Persian Conversations for putting these all so beautifully, making such nice dialogues and everyone who recorded them in Iran. We're indebted to a lot of different people and a lot of different voices for these lessons. So we're thankful for all of that. And until next time, khodāhāfez from Leyla.

Vijay: And bé omeedé deedār from Vijay.