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Persian Font Embedding with WEFT |
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The Persian and English fonts seen below have been embedded directly onto the page using WEFT. WEFT requires Windows and Internet Explorer. Here is a PDF version of this page for comparison. |
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Ḥāfiẓ (born 1325 or 26, died 1389 or 90 C.E.) |
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English in the Tahoma font |
Persian in the Tahoma font |
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I saw the blue-green field of heaven and the sickle of the new moon. I recalled what I had sown and the harvest season. I said, “O Fortune, you slept while the sun rose.” It said, “Still, don’t despair of His preeminent mercy.” On the night of departure, like Christ, so go to heaven that a hundred rays from your torch will reach the sun. Don’t rely on your star, stealing through the night, for that fraud made off with Kāvūs’ throne and the cincture of Kay Khusraw. The golden, ruby earring burdens the ear— The time of beauty is passing: Hear my counsel. May the evil eye be far from your beauty mark, for on the chessboard of loveliness it advanced a pawn that checkmated sun and moon. Tell heaven, “Don’t boast of this grandeur, for in the realm of love, the moon’s harvest halo is worth only a barleycorn and the Pleiades’ cluster but two.” The fire of the hypocrite’s asceticism will burn up the harvest of faith. Ḥāfiẓ, cast off this woolen cloak and go. |
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| مزرع سبز فلک دیدم و داس مه نو | |
| یادم از کشته خویش آمد و هنگام درو | |
| گفتم ای بخت بخسبیدی و خورشید دمید | |
| گفت با این همه از سابقه نومید مشو | |
| آنچنان رو شب رحلت چو مسیحا به فلک | |
| کز چراغ تو به خورشید رسد صد پرتو | |
| تکیه بر اختر شب‌دزد مکن که این عیار | |
| تخت کاووس ببرد و کمر کیخسرو | |
| گوشوار زر و لعل ارچه گران دارد گوش | |
| دور خوبی گذران است نصیحت بشنو | |
| چشم بد دور ز خال تو که در عرصه حسن | |
| بیدقی راند که برد از مه و خورشید گرو | |
| آسمان گو مفروش این عظمت که اندر عشق | |
| خرمن مه به جوی خوشه پروین به دو جو | |
| آتش زهد ریا خرمن دین خواهد سوخت | |
| حافظ این خرقه پشمینه بینداز و برو | |
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Busḥāq (died, circa 1427 C.E.) |
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English in the Tahoma font |
Persian in the Koodak font |
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I saw the broad platter of heaven and the goblet of the new moon. I said, “O Reason, don’t be misled by an empty dish.” Say to heaven, “What is this grandeur, when one cannot pawn the disc of your sun for a loaf of bread one day?” If I don’t have wheat for the porridge, I’ll sell the moon’s harvest halo for a barleycorn and the Pleiades’ cluster for two. At the edge of the tabletop King Saffron Pilaf advanced a lentil pawn that checkmated sun and moon. If you set King Pilaf’s candle near honeyed sweets, a hundred rays from your torch will reach the sun. Grab the roast sheep’s tail and leave the meat stew! These are seasoned words— Hear my counsel. Plant the seed in the field of gruel, so those burned by time can take a share of the harvest. If, like Busḥāq, my skull turns to dust, at the table, you’ll catch my scent from the new pitcher. |
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| طبق پهن فلک دیدم و کأس مه نو | |
| گفتم ای عقل بظرف تهی از راه مرو | |
| چرخ گو این عظمت چیست چو نتوان کردن | |
| قرص خورشید تو یک روز به نانی به گرو | |
| اگرم گندم بغرا نبود بفروشم | |
| خرمن مه به جوی خوشه پروین به دو جو | |
| بر لب عرصه خوان شاه مزعفر ز نخود | |
| بیدقی راند که برد از مه و خورشید گرو | |
| گر نهی شمع مزعفر بر حلوای عسل | |
| از چراغ تو به خورشید رسد صد پرتو | |
| دست بر دنبه بریان زن و یخنی بگذار | |
| سخن پخته همین است نصیحت بشنو | |
| تخم در مزرع کاچی به همین نیت کار | |
| که از آن بهره برد سوخته وقت درو | |
| کاسه سر اگرم خاک شود چون بسحاق | |
| بر لب خوان شنوی بوی من از کوزه نو | |
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Jāmī (died 1492 C.E.) |
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English in the Arabic Typesetting font |
Persian in the Arabic Typesetting font |
As long as there’s the ancient cask of heaven and the goblet of the new moon I’ll pawn my cloak to the vintner’s shop for a cup of wine. Tell the gale of eternal wrath, “Extinguish the torch of the sun!” One ray of your face is enough for all eternity. Not everyone understands the meaning of the rose’s display. The commentary on that book is unwritten— hear it from the nightingale. Heaven harvested your moon-like face from its field. Tell the sickle of the new moon, “Reap the cluster of the Pleiades.” If the Turk of your eye calls me its Indian slave, I’ll pull the Kayanian crown from King Khusraw’s head. How often the heart ran after its goal and did not reach it. Run down this street too, my tears, for a few days. Jāmī, this refuge of good fortune is neither your place nor mine. The letter of devotion is sealed: Kiss the ground and go. |
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| تا خم چرخ کهن باشد و کأس مه نو | |
| بهر جامی بودم خرقه به خمخانه گرو | |
| صرصر قهر ازل گو بنشان مشعل مهر | |
| بس بود تا ابد از شمع رخت یک پرتو | |
| هر کس از جلوه گل فهم معانی نکند | |
| شرح آن رفتر ننوشته ز بلبل بشنو | |
| زد مه روی تو خرمن فلک از مزرع خویش | |
| گو به دأس مه تو خوشه پروین بدرو | |
| ترک چشم تو اگر هندوی خویشم خواند | |
| در کشم تاج کیانی ز سر کیخسرو | |
| دل بسی در پی مقصود دوید و نرسید | |
| چند روزی تو هم ای اشک در این کوی بدو | |
| جامی این مأمن اقبال نه جای من و تو است | |
| ختم شد رقعه اخلاص زمین بوس و برو | |
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Jamālzāde (1892-1997 C.E.) |
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English in the Tahoma font |
Persian in the Roya font |
| ...I saw, as Belqīs had intimated, a span of night had risen. I looked at the sky. It had become an expansive garden in which crores of shining flowers and star-bursts had blossomed in its boundless open space and hordes of fiery bees had descended upon them and were over-excitedly and joyfully flapping around. I had neither appetite for dinner nor the ability to sleep. I wished I could roll up my sleeves and with agility, fall onto the vineyard of the sky to fill baskets and platters from the clusters of stars and throw at the lovely feet of Belqīs... | . . . دیدم بطوریکه بلقیس اشاره نموده بود مدّتی از شب بالا آمده است. آسمان را دیدم گلستان پهناوری گردیده که کرورها گل‌های کوکب و شکوفهٔ ستاره در ساحت بیکران آن شکفته است و فوج فوج زنبورهای آتشین بجان آنها افتاده از فرط شوق و نشاط بال و پَر می‌زدند. نه میل شام داشتم و نه قدرت که بخوابم دلم می‌خواست که آستین بالا بزنم و چالاک بتاکستان آسمان افتاده از خوشهٔ ستاره‌گان سبدها و طبق‌ها پُر کرده نثار قدم نازنین بلقیس نمایم. . . |
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The Content |
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The Poems All three ghazals in the original Persian and in scholarly translation used in this demonstration have been taken from the following book with the kind permission of both the author and publisher for use on this instructional website: Losensky, Paul E. Welcoming Fighani : Imitation and Poetic Individuality in the Safavid-Mughal Ghazal. Costa Mesa, Calif. : Mazda Publishers, 1998. (ISBN 1568590709). Pages 166-73 & 351-52. "Welcoming" is a literal translation of the critical term "istiqbāl," referring to the old practice of adopting the meter and rhyme of an earlier poem. This was possibly a precursor to our modern day "copyright infringement" only it was considered to be a compliment back then! "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," as the saying goes. See, the poets even leave their EULA in the last line! This book is available from the Mazda Publishers, Inc website. The Prose The prose snippet is from pages 32-33 of a famous book by an author who had a real knack for copying and pasting from the classics: Jamalzadah, Muhammad Ali. Dar al-majanin. Tihran : Kanun-i Marifat, 2536 [1977]. |
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The Fonts (All Unicode-Compliant) |
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The well-hinted Tahoma font ships with all Windows computers and that fact, in addition to its functional, stream-lined appearance makes it viewable even at small font sizes and on not-so-good screens. Since earlier versions of Tahoma had bugs in the Persian subset, embedding the newer, corrected version is highly desirable. Tahoma is currently the most commonly used font on Persian websites. It has really been the ONLY decent Persian web font up till now. The Koodak and Roya fonts are two of a set of fonts being updated by the FarsiWeb team, a research and development project at Sharif FarsiWeb, Inc, Tehran. These fonts are in the beta-testing stage right now and if you'd like to help troubleshoot bugs, you can download the zipped set for free. Bug reports should be emailed to: FWPG@sharif.edu The Arabic Typesetting open-type font is a cutting-edge, prize-winning Perso-Arabic and Latin font. It will be included in future versions of Microsoft Office and is currently only available as part of the "Office 2003 Proofing Tools Kit" (sold in computer supply shops) and requires Office 2003 with the latest Uniscribe updates. |
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Kashida |
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It is still not possible to implement Kashida on a webpage with CSS2. Wait a couple years for CSS3 for that! What you see above is a clever way of tricking the browser into stretching out the letters by force. You can thank Behdad Esfahbod of FarsiWeb and the Persian Digital Library (the link can be slow but it does come!) for devising this brilliant yet completely standards-compliant solution. Among other things, this means you can cut and paste it off the screen into Word or Notepad. In the examples above, the kashida is exaggeratedly longer and not proper according to Persian calligraphy. |
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WEFT |
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WEFT is a free program you can download from Microsoft Typography. Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to use WEFT. Weft only works on Windows computers with Internet Explorer browser. Even then, it only works in certain conditions. Statistically speaking, at this time, it works on at least 50% of computers. Here is some feedback I've received on what to expect with Weft. |
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