Omar Khayyam's rendee deedam

salām bé hamegee, and welcome to this second part of our lesson on the poem rendee deedam by Khayyam! So in the first episode, I talked to my friend Alan Eyre, former first-ever Persian language spokesperson of the United States Department of State, about the poem, which he picked out of his little black book of Persian poetry that he’s been accumulating for years. So, if you haven’t listened to that lesson yet, go ahead and listen to the introductory lesson for this poem. 

For this episode, we’re going to listen to the full poem again, read by my khālé Farnaz, my aunt who has a beautiful voice for reciting poetry. And then we’re going to go over the entire poem line by line, word by word, phrase by phrase, to make sure we have all the vocabulary and phrases down in a way that we not only understand the poem, but that we can use the poem in current Persian conversation. 

So, first, let’s listen to the entire poem as read by my khālé Farnaz:

rendee deedam neshasté bar khengé zameen,

na kofr ō na eslām ō na donyā vō na deen,

na hagh, na hagheeghat, na sharee'at, na yagheen.

andar dō jahān kerā bovad zahréyé een?

Okay, great! So let’s listen to that first line again:

rendee deedam neshasté bar khengé zameen.

So we begin the poem with the simple phrase “rendee deedam.” So “rend,” as we mentioned in the introductory episode, is a really complicated word. If you haven’t already read the full six-page article I posted in the introductory lesson of this poem, it’s included on this lesson as well; please take a couple minutes to read it. It’s really interesting and takes you through a journey of how the word has been used throughout time, and how its usage has even changed throughout the centuries. We have it translated as ‘sage’ for this poem, but really, it means someone who is no good, a scoundrel, a rogue. So when you add -ee to the end of a word like we have here, it means ‘a’, as in ‘a rogue’ or ‘a particular rogue’, like ‘a particular person’. So for example, the word for ‘boy’ is “pesar.” “pesaree” means ‘a boy’ or ‘a particular boy’. So “pesaree deedam” would mean ‘I saw this boy’, for example, instead of like “pesar deedam,” ‘I saw a boy’. It makes it more specific. So let’s repeat that together: rendee.

rendee

And then “deedam” is the first-person conjugation for ‘to see’. You could say “man deedam,” ‘I saw’. man deedam.

man deedam

But because you’re conjugating the verb, the “man” or ‘me’ is understood. deedam.

deedam

So together, it’s rendee deedam.

rendee deedam

Then “neshasté,” this means ‘sitting’. neshasté.

neshasté

And then “bar khengé zameen.” “bar” means ‘on’. bar.

bar

Then “khengé zameen,” this is a bit of a tricky one. “zameen” is clear; it means ‘the ground’. zameen.

zameen

But the official definition of “kheng” means ‘stupid’. So “khengé zameen” here means ‘barren earth’, so just on the ground, but as Alan mentioned in the first episode, it does have the double meaning of ‘stupid’ or ‘dumb’ as well, so here, this rend is just sitting on the ground like a fool. khengé zameen.

khengé zameen

So let’s go over that whole line together. I’ll say it; you repeat it after me:

rendee deedam neshasté bar khengé zameen

rendee deedam neshasté bar khengé zameen

Great! Next line as read by my aunt:

na kofr ō na eslām ō na donyā vō na deen

Okay, so this line is really good for us, because it gives us so many great vocabulary words. So “na” simply means ‘no’. na.

na 

And then he goes on and rattles the things that this rend is not. So, “na kofr,” “kofr” means ‘infidelity’ or ‘disbelief’. kofr.

kofr

So, “na kofr,” so he’s ‘not a heretic’. na kofr.

na kofr.

And then “ō,” “ō” simply means ‘and’. ō.

ō

This is spelled “va” and can be said that way, too: “va,” meaning ‘and’. va.

va

But a lot of times, in conversation, it’s “ō.”

Great, so “na kofr ō na eslām.” “eslām” simply means ‘Islam’, as in the religion. eslām.

eslām

“na kofr ō na eslām,” so he’s ‘neither an atheist nor a Muslim’. na kofr ō na eslām.

na kofr ō na eslām

And then “ō na donyā.” “donyā” simply means ‘the world’. donyā.

donyā

And he ends it with “vō na deen.” So “vō” is another version of ‘and’, which as we said can be either pronounced “ō” or “va” also. In this case, “vō” just slips more nicely off the tongue, so that’s the version used. vō.

vō

vō na donyā.

vō na donyā

So ‘and not the world’, and he ends it with “vō na deen.”

vō na deen

And “deen” simply means ‘religion’. deen.

deen

So he’s saying ‘not an atheist, and not a Muslim, and not the world, and not religion’. Let’s repeat the full line together: na kofr ō na eslām ō na donyā vō na deen.

na kofr ō na eslām ō na donyā vō na deen

Excellent! It’s such a nice line to say because it just all rolls in together so beautifully. So next line as read by my aunt:

na hagh, na hagheeghat, na sharee'at, na yagheen.

All right! So “hagh" means ‘rights’, as in the law. hagh.

hagh

And “hagheeghat” is ‘the truth’. hagheeghat.

hagheeghat

And let’s say these two together: na hagh, na hagheeghat.

na hagh, na hagheeghat

So for this line, it feels like he’s gotten even more into the rhythm, so he’s dropped the “ō”s or the ‘and’s, so just “na hagh, na hagheeghat,” and then “na sharee’at.” And that is simply the Sharia law, which is the set of rules which Muslims abide by to live, you know, an ethical life. So, sharee’at.

sharee’at

So na sharee’at…

na sharee’at

And finally, “na yagheen.” “yagheen” means ‘certainty’. yagheen.

yagheen

So ‘no Sharia law and no certainty’. na sharee'at, na yagheen.

na sharee'at, na yagheen

And now let’s repeat this full line together: na hagh, na hagheeghat, na sharee'at, na yagheen.

na hagh, na hagheeghat, na sharee'at, na yagheen.

Perfect! And now, the final line:

andar dō jahān kerā bovad zahré-yé een

All right! So first, the word “andar,” this is not one that’s used in conversation much. It’s a very fancy word and kind of reserved for poetry like this. It simply means ‘in’, but you can think of it as a word like ‘within’. andar.

andar

Then “dō jahān.” “dō” simply means ‘two’, as in the number. dō.

dō

And “jahān” means ‘world’ or ‘universe’. jahān.

jahān

I want to point out that this is now the second word we’ve had for this concept of ‘world’. The first was “donyā.” donyā.

donyā

So these can be synonyms for ‘world’ or ‘Earth’ or ‘universe’. So here, “dō jahān,” ‘two worlds’. dō jahān.

dō jahān

And I think by this he means this Earth that we know of and heaven, or the celestial, godly world, if you will. dō jahān.

dō jahān

So “andar dō jahān,” ‘in these two worlds’, and then “kerā bovad zahréyé een.” We’re going to break these apart a bit to get the meaning of it: “kerā bovad.” So “bovad” is, again, not one of these words that we use in conversation, and neither is this whole construction of “kerā bovad,” but it means ‘who has’. kerā bovad.

kerā bovad

And “zahré” means ‘gall’, meaning ‘guts’ or ‘courage’. zahré.

zahré

And when we say “zahréyé een,” “een” means ‘this’, so ‘this kind of gall or courage’. zahréyé een.

zahreyé een

So the full sentence means ‘in these’, “andar dō jahān,” ‘in these two worlds’, “kerā bovad,” ‘who has’, “zahréyé een,” ‘this kind of courage?’.

So let’s say the full sentence together again: andar dō jahān kerā bovad zahréyé een?

andar dō jahān kerā bovad zahréyé een?

All right, perfect! So again, as we said with Alan Eyre, the poet is walking by someone sitting on the ground who isn’t mired by all these characteristics that he maybe sees in other people, perhaps some hypocrites in his life, and he’s saying ‘who has such courage to just be like this?’.

So, I absolutely love this poem! We’re going to listen to my aunt Farnaz recite it one more time. Hopefully, this time, you can follow along more completely:

rendee deedam neshasté bar khengé zameen,

na kofr ō na eslām ō na donyā vō na deen,

na hagh, na hagheeghat, na sharee'at, na yagheen.

andar dō jahān kerā bovad zahréyé een?

It’s so short, simple, and sweet but really packs a powerful image and meaning, so I encourage you to now memorize it and to join our discussion on the poem. We’ll link to the page where you can see videos from classmates reciting it from memory and discussing the meaning. Hope you’ll join us there!

And that’s it for this lesson. Thanks so much for joining us, and until next time, khodāhāfez from Leyla!