| آن قصر که | 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 | that palace, that castle |
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قصر | castle, palace |
چرخ | wheel [of the universe / heavens] |
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بر چرخ | on, upon the wheel [of the universe] |
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پهلو | side |
پهلو همی زد = پهلو می‌زد < پهلو زدن | 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". |
همی | /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. |
درگه = درگاه | doorsill; threshold; doorway; royal court |
او = آن | it. In formal Persian, /u/ can be used to mean all three, 'he', 'she', and 'it'. |
شهان = شاهان = شاه‌ها | kings |
رو | face |
رو نهادندی = رو می‌نهادند < رو نهادن | to lay down one's face/head [in submission] |
نهادندی = می‌نهادند < 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.) |
دیدیم که | We saw that... |
بر | on, upon |
کنگره‌اش | its battlement, its parapet, its ramparts |
کنگره | battlement, crenellation |
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فاخته | stock dove, stock pigeon. (Pigeons and
doves actually belong to the same family.) |
فاخته‌ای | a dove, a pigeon, pronunciation: fākhte-i, the final indefinite -i is unstressed. |
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بنشسته < نشستن | it had sat down, it was sitting < to sit, the /be-/ prefix is a feature of classical style |
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همی گفت = می‌گفت <
گفتن | 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. |
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همی گفت که | 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. |
کو = کجا | where? |
کوکو | 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. |
نهادندی = می‌نهادند < نهادن | to lay down one's face/head [in submission] |