| palace; hall; veranda; portico |
ایوان |
| Ctesiphon, ancient Seleucid, Parthian and Sassanian capital, located on the Tigris river in Mesopotamia in what is now Iraq. All that remains is the arched Ayvān structure, known as the Tāq-e Kasrā, Arch of Khosraw. |
مدائن = المدائن = تیسفون |
| Beware! Take heed! | هان |
| (You) know! (You) Consider (imperative) < to know, to consider |
دان < دانستن |
| mirror; also the name of a genre of "advice literature", usually for princes. (This word may be spelled either with the "hamza + ye" or with "ye + ye", both are correct.) | آیینه
= آئینه |
| /az dide, `ebar kon/: learn from the seen, learn from the eye, learn from what you have observed with your eye! | از
دیده عبر کن |
| lesson, life lesson, warning | عبرت |
| one who sees/understands the lesson to be learned in the given example, one who heeds the warning | عبرت‌بین |
| eye; seen, that which has been observed | دیده |
| learn a lesson, take a warning < to learn a lesson for life | عبر کن < عبر کردن = عبرت گرفتن = پند گرفتن |
|
Tigris river, pronunciation: dajle |
دجله |
| road, way, path, walk. /rah/ is a poetic short form of /rāh/ |
ره = راه |
| from. /ze/ is a poetic short form of /az/ |
ز = از |
|
once, one time, firstly | یک |
|
[when you are on] one of the paths going via the Tigris |
ره ز ره دجله |
| place where you dismount, stopping-place along the journey; in modern Persian, this word means 'home'. | منزل |
| lodge / get down at Madāen, set up camp at Madāen |
منزل به مدائن کن |
|
to stay, to lodge, to put up temporarily ('at', 'in the vicinity of' = /be/) | منزل کردن به = اقامت کردن به |
| and from, and with | وز = و از |
|
and from [your] eye | وز دیده |
| dovom dajle = dovvom-in dajle = dajle-ye dovvom) - "a second Tigris". This usage of /dovom/ creates not only a highly literary stylistic effect, but also a smooth, enumerative flow after the /yek/ of the first mesra`. Placing the adjective /dovom/ before the noun also serves to turn the noun + adjective phrase into one compound noun: "another Tigris of a different kind", "a mini-Tigris". Also note here the poetic lack of gemination: /dovom/ in place of /dovvom/. | دوم دجله |
| (You) make go! (You) drive! Here: (You) cause to flow! (imperative) < to cause to go, to drive. /rāndan/ is the causative of /raftan/, 'to make the river of tears go flowing'. | ران < راندن |
| The Tigris itself. pronunciation: /khod dajle/. | خود دجله |
| it weeps thus [that], it weeps in such a way [that] | چنان گرید |
| The Tigris river cries one hundred Tigris rivers of blood |
دجله ... گرید صد دجلهٔ خون |
| you say. This also has become a fossilized form with the meaning, 'you might say", 'you could say', 'it's as if' (both spelling variants are fine) | گویی = گوئی |
| it cries < to cry. /gerye kardan/ is the modern equivalent of the obsolete /geristan/. This verb may be used with /bar/ to [literally] mean 'to cry upon' that is, make it wet, or figuratively 'to cry for someone/something' out of pity. | گرید < گریستن = گریه کردن |
| it cries < to cry. /gerye kardan/ is the modern equivalent of the obsolete /geristan/ | صد دجلهٔ خون |
| that from | کز = که از |
| bloody water | خوناب |
| it drips (present indicative, no mi- as in classical style) < to drip | چکد < چکیدن |
| mozhgān = mozhe-hā, 'eyelashes' the ān plural suffix is used with human and other animate beings or those objects belonging to animates | مژگان = مژه‌ها = پلک‌ها |
| it brings, (present subjunctive, no mi-), the missing /v/, ārad for āvarad is also common in classical style | آرد = آورد = می‌آورد < آوردن |
| lip, bank, edge, shore | لب |
| like, as, often pronounced /chun/ in classical style and /chon/ in modern style | چون |
|
mouth | دهان |
|
foam(ing) at the mouth | کف به
دهان |
| warmth, pronounced /taf/. Compare with /tof/ meaning meaning spit, spittle | تف = گرما |
| sigh |
آه |
| blister, sore, rash, pox, pronounced /ābele/. (Compare with /ablah/ meaning 'fool', 'foolish'.) Here, "ābele" refers to cold sores, also known as fever blisters, groups of small blisters on the lip and around the mouth caused by the herpes simplex virus. | آبله |
| sore(s) struck, erupted < to have sores appear | آبله زد < آبله زدن |
| much, so much, as much | چندان |
| fire, pronunciation: /ātash/ in formal and classical style. If, so far, you are only accostomed to hearing the colloquial, spoken equivalents of this word, i.e., /ātesh/ and /ātish/, you will need to make special efforts to pronounce this correctly as /ātash/ here. | آتش |
| yearning, longing, remorse | حسرت |
| (you) see! (imperative) < to see | بین < دیدن |
| liver | جگر |
| grilled, roasted, broiled | بریان = برشته |
| have you heard? < to hear (This is a classical and literary tense similar to the present perfect in contemporary Persian.) | شنیدستی = شنیده‌ای < شنیدن |
| that fire, which fire | کاتش =
که آتش |
| water which fire makes (it) roasted, water which fire broils. The emphasis here is on the special properties of the water which can be broiled by normal fire. It is the unusual properties of sensitivity, nostalgia, love, lament of the water of Dajle for Madāen that makes it vulnerable to being broiled by the said fire. | آب ...
کاتش کندش بریان |
| [that] fire would broil it (subjunctive) | اتش کندش بریان = آتش آن را بریان بکند |
| (you) cry! (imperative) < to cry | گری < گریستن = گریه کردن |
| again and again, over and over | نو نو
= نونو = بار بار |
| zakāt" or "zokāt", one of the "five pillars of Islam is a portion of one's income or gain that Muslims are obligated to pay directly to help certain financially underprivileged classes of the society. This term, here implies that the receiver is at some disadvantage with respect to the giver. When someone mourns for the loss of a loved one, no matter how high and powerful they may be, they still deserve the generosity of the consoling tears of sympathy of visitors. In this sense, the mourner is at a disadvantage with respect to the visitors. Now, Tigris, though lofty, rich, and benevolent enough to give "zakāt" to the mighty sea, mourns the loss of Madāen, and as such, it is deserving of the "zakāt" of the condolence tears of the visitors. | زكاة = زکات |
|
although | گرچه =
اگرچه |
| estān, 'taker', 'receiver', 'taking', 'receiving' is the participial form of the verb /setadan/, also pronounced /setodan/, 'to take', 'to receive'. (This verb is not related to /istādan/ , 'to stand'.) Compare with feshān ~afshān 'scattering' from the verb feshāndan, 'to scatter'. The initial alef is often added or removed for the sake of the poetic meter, also common device in breaking up clusters of consonants. Compare also with fesorde / afsorde 'frozen'. | استان = ستان < ستدن |
| if | گر = اگر |
| [if] it should mix (together), (subjunctive) < to mix (together) | درآمیزد < درآمیختن |
| wind, here, the freezing cold wind produced by sighing | باد |
| wind of lips, wind on its lips, wind on its banks | باد لب |
| burning, burning heat, present stem of /sukhtan/, to burn | سوز < سوختن |
| burning of heart, burning in the/its heart |
سوز دل |
| the [freezing] wind of lips and the burning of heart, the two temperature extremes | باد لب و سوز دل |
|
half | نیم |
| a half | نیمی |
| it would become, pronunciation: shavad, (subjunctive) < to become | شود < شدن |
| frozen, that which has frozen < to freeze |
افسرده = فسرده < افسردن = فسردن |
| fire-pit, -dān, suffix denoting a "container" for something | آتش‌دان |
| at the point when, when, since the palace chain unraveled | تا سلسله‌ٔ درگه بگسست |
| court, palace court, royal palace, dargah is a poetic short form of dargāh. | درگه = درگاه |
|
chain; dynasty | سلسله |
| it broke, the prefix /be-/ is often added to the simple past in classical poetry, pronunciation: /bogsast/ < gosastan, to break, to break apart, to unravel, to come undone | بگسست < گسستن |
| at Madāen, for Madāen. The /rā/ following /madāen/ is not marking the direct object, rather, it is singling out Madāen as the focus of attention, similar to the related form /barā-ye/. This is a usage of /rā/ very common in classical and formal styles | مدائن را |
| it became enchained | در سلسله شد |
| like a chain, as a chain. | چون سلسله |
| like a chain, it became twisted | چون سلسله شد پیچان |
| sometimes | گه‌گه = گه‌گاه = گاه‌گاه |
|
tear, teardrop | اشک |
| (you) call on (imperative, obsolete verb) < to call someone's name out loud, to call out to someone with a request | آواز ده < آواز دادن، کسی را |
| it is possible that, /bu ke/, this is a classical poetic form derived from the verb /budan/, to be | بو که |
| so that maybe, so that perhaps | تا بو که |
| ear of the heart, heart's ear | گوش دل |
| you might hear (subjunctive) < to hear | شنوی = بشنوی < شنیدن |
| reply | پاسخ |
| castle, palace | قصر |
| every palace, every castle | هر قصری |
| piece of advice, lesson, example | پند |
| one piece of advice | پندی |
| it gives, it will give to you a piece of advice. The -at suffix on dahad-at replaces /be to/. | پندی دهدت |
| base, root, foundation, pronunciation: bon |
بن |
| /sar/ (top) .../bon/ ( bottom), two extremes of measurement. The poet consciously plays on this contrast by asking the reader to hear what comes from the top of the parapet from the bottom depth of his bones, so to speak. | سر دندانه بشنو ز بن دندان |
| (you) hear! (imperative) < to hear | بشنو < شنیدن |
| tooth |
دندان |
| tooth, "cog-tooth"(as on a cog-wheel) or parapet of a palace/castle. With these special teeth, the palace will "talk" to you and teach you its lesson. | دندانه |
| you are from dust | تو از خاکی = تو از خاک هستی |
| we are
your dust | ما خاک توایم = ما خاک تو هستیم |
| now | اکنون = کنون |
|
two or three, a few | دو سه |
| (you) put! (you) place! (imperative) < to put, to place | نه < نهادن |
| (you) take a step! (imperative) < to take a step | گامی ... نه |
|
upon us. This is one place in this poem where /bar/ means "on". It can also
be the imperative of /bordan/ as we shall see later. | بر ما |
| (you) shed! (imperative) < to shed | بفشان < فشاندن = افشاندن |
| lament, lamentation, elegy | نوحه |
| we are | مائیم = ما هستیم |
| we are with pain of the head. Contrast /dard-e sar/, a greater kind of pain with /sar-dard/, a simple head-ache. | مائیم به درد سر |
|
clay, gel-āb is a certain kind of clay with therapeutic properties. The
alternative reading of “gol-āb” [=rose-water] has also been used, but seems
less justified in this context.) | گلاب |
| make a preparation of clay, make some clay | گلابی کن |
| (you) make settle (imperative) < to make settle, to cause to subside. neshāndan is the causative of the verb neshastan, 'to sit'. (Not related to /neshān/ as in 'to show' or 'sign', etc.) | بنشان < نشاندن |
| "the truth" (/al-/ is the Arabic definite article, "the"). al-haqq is also one of the names/attributes of God and may have the meaning "Oh God!" However, in normal usage, it is often simply uttered as an interjection and serves only to add a bit of emphasis or stress and would best be translated as "really!" | الحق |
| The poet has, by accident or design placed "joghd" and "al-haqq" next to each other, however, they are not part of a compound and in fact, there should be a comma after the "johgd". Still, the reader may recall the common Persian poetic trope, the "morgh-e haqq" who supposedly cries "haqq-haqq" all night in lamentation. Here the poet is merely saying "From the lamenting of the owl, truth be told, we reel in head pain." | جغد الحق |
| The poet is playing on a stark contrast here: "nightingale" and "song" stand for happiness and jubilation; "owl" and "lamentation" stand for misery, sadness, destruction, loss, and lament. They are not the same thing, nor one morphs into the other. The second inevitably follows the first, the same way that in Khayyām's quatrain about this same palace, at one point in time, Jamshid is raising his cup, and then deer is giving birth to its fawn and fox is resting. The same contrast in Hafez, when he talks about the feast of Jamshid, and their recognition that that era would not last | جغد است پی بلبل، نوحه است پی الحان |
| you find [it] strange (present indicative, no mi-) < to consider strange and wondrous | عجب داری <
عجب داشتن |
| yes, classical and literary form |
آری |
|
how strange | چه عجب |
| that inside | کاندر = که اندر |
| lawn, pasture, meadow | چمن |
|
world | گیتی |
|
owl (an inauspicious creature in the Persian tradition) |
جغد |
| after the nightingale, following after of the nightingale | پی بلبل |
| melodies, tunes, chants | الحان = لحن‌ها |
|
justice | داد |
| court, bār-gah is the poetic short form of bār-gāh | بارگه = بارگاه |
| We are the court of justice. | ما بارگه دادیم = ما بارگه داد هستیم |
| injustice, pronunciation: setam | ستم |
| "in raft setam" is an inversion of "in setam raft" for poetic emphasis effect: "this injustice befell us". | این رفت ستم = این ستم رفت |
|
tyrants | ستم‌کاران = ستم‌کارها |
| /tā/ here simply means "until" and in this context it implies "[now we can only sit back and wait] until [the inevitable happens now that the wheels have been set in motion]". This formulaic /tā/ often appears in the line containing the "moral of the story" in didactic fables and advice literature. This sense of "tā" is also used in the common expression, tā cheshm-etān kur shavad = [just wait] until you become blind, i.e., reap the horrible consequences, see the just desserts in this lesson.) | تا خود چه رسد |
| wretchedness, ill-luck, calamity. pronunciation: khezlān |
خذلان |
| khod, self, here used adverbially, "by itself", "inevitably": until the inevitable happens all by itself | تا خود چه رسد |
| what [misfortune] will arrive, come, befall, (present indicative, no mi-.) | چه رسد |
| heaven-like. The sufix -vash means "-like". | فلک‌وش |
| who? (classical spelling style) | که = کی |
| he/she/it has overturned, turned upside down, inverted < to overturn | نگون کرده < نگون کردن |
| order, edict, decree | حکم |
| gard-ān, turning (by itself), -ān suffix for present participle | (حکم) فلک‌گردان: گردان < گشتن / گردیدن |
| gardān, causing turning, present stem of gardāndan, causative form of gashtan and gardidan | (یا حکم) فلک‌گردان: |
| This is read in two ways: either as /gashtan/gardidan/ in participle form (meaning "turning by itself") or as the present stem of /gardāndan/ meaning "causing to turn". The poet uses the former first and the latter second in the same line 16. | فلک‌گردان |