| That palace which...It is not uncommon for this -i suffix to be dropped in poetry or even high-brow prose. Here, meter aside, it would sound less poetic with the -i as /ān qasr-i ke/. |
آن قصر که |
| that palace, that castle | آن قصر |
| castle, palace | قصر |
| wheel [of the universe / heavens] | چرخ |
| on, upon the wheel [of the universe] | بر
چرخ |
| side | پهلو |
| it used to hit sides, it would rub shoulders (with), rival < to hit sides, to rub shoulders (with), to rival. (imperfect tense with /hami/ instead of the modern /mi-/. In this case, the /hami/ adds a sense of "always". | پهلو همی زد = پهلو می‌زد < پهلو زدن |
| /hami/ often functions in classical Persian the same way the prefix /mi-/ functions in modern Persian. It often adds the sense of 'repeatedly' or 'continuously' or imperfective aspect. | همی |
| doorsill; threshold; doorway; royal court | درگه = درگاه |
| it. In formal Persian, /u/ can be used to mean all three, 'he', 'she', and 'it'. | او = آن |
| kings | شهان = شاهان = شاه‌ها |
| face | رو |
| to lay down one's face/head [in submission] | رو نهادندی = رو می‌نهادند < رو نهادن |
| they used to place, they would place, the -i attached to a verb in the simple past in classical Persian yields a tense similar to modern imperfect tense often with a sense of continued or repeated action. (Sometimes, however, this -i does not change the meaning, rather, it is used more to help the poetic rhyme or meter.) | نهادندی = می‌نهادند < نهادن |
| We saw that... | دیدیم که |
| on, upon | بر |
| its battlement, its parapet, its ramparts | کنگره‌اش |
| battlement, crenellation | کنگره |
|
stock dove, stock pigeon. (Pigeons and doves actually belong to the same
family.) |
فاخته |
| a dove, a pigeon, pronunciation: fākhte-i, the final indefinite -i is unstressed. | فاخته‌ای |
| it had sat down, it was sitting < to sit, the /be-/ prefix is a feature of classical style | بنشسته
< نشستن |
| it was continuously saying, it was always, repeatedly saying < to say, the /hami/ added to the simple past in classical style often performs the same function as the imperfect tense in modern style. (the classical -i suffix appended to the simple past can also be used to achieve the same effect. |
همی گفت = می‌گفت < گفتن |
| it was saying, "....", the /ke/ performs the function of quotation marks, or at least "open quote" indicating that a quote is coming up, in this case, exactly what the dove was saying. |
همی گفت که |
| where? | کو = کجا |
| The hoo-hoo sound of the owl is coo-coo in Persian. Just as “hoo-hoo” is suggestive of the bird asking “Who, who?” in English, “coo-coo” is suggestive of the bird asking “Where, where?” in Persian. | کوکو |
| to lay down one's face/head [in submission] | نهادندی = می‌نهادند < نهادن |