Ahmad Shamlou's raz

Hello and welcome to lesson 90 of Chai and Conversation. My name is Leyla and I’m your teacher for the course. So this lesson is a continuation of our study of Ahmad Shamlou’s Raz poem- if you haven’t heard the two previous lessons yet, go back and start with lesson 88- these lessons are cumulative!

That being said, let’s start by listening to my khālé Farnaz read the entire poem:

با من رازی بود

که به کوه گفتم

با من رازی بود

که به چاه گفتم

تو راه دراز

به اسب سیاه گفتم

بیکس و تنها

به سنگای راه گفتم

با راز کهنه

از راه رسیدم

حرفی نروندم

حرفی نروندی

اشکی فشوندم

اشکی فشوندی

لبامو بستم

از چشام خوندی

All right, so last week, we went over the first half of the poem, so at this point, you should know what that part of the poem is saying. Let’s listen to the portion we’re going to learn this week: 

با راز کهنه

از راه رسیدم

حرفی نروندم

حرفی نروندی

اشکی فشوندم

اشکی فشوندی

لبامو بستم

از چشام خوندی

Ok, so the first half had a pretty clear structure and a lot of repeat words. This next half starts in a different place than that first half. Let’s listen to the first two lines:

با راز کهنه

از راه رسیدم

So first, bā rāzé kohné. So the word rāz is obviously secret. Rāz

Rāz

And the word bā is with. Bā

Bā

And kohné simply means worn, old, weary. Something that has been worn over time and is no longer new. Kohné

Kohné

So again, we have the ezāfé linking the two words rāz and kohné making it rāzé kohné. Rāzé kohné

Rāzé kohné

So then what has become worn, or kohné? The rāz, the secret. So basically, he’s said it so much, he’s worn it out, kind of like that old kids saying ‘don’t say my name, you’ll wear it out’. In this case, that’s exactly what’s happened- rāzé kohné

rāzé kohné

bā rāzé kohné

bā rāzé kohné

So with a worn secret, next line is az rah reseedam. So reseedam is I arrived. Reseedam

Reseedam

And you know that it’s the first person conjugation, I arrived, because it ends in ‘-am’. I arrived, reseedam

Reseedam

Just as in the first half, we had, I said, goftam

Goftam

I said, goftam, and I arrived, reseedam

Reseedam

So Az means from az

Az

And rāh we’ve learned before means way. So az rāh reseedam means I arrived from the way, I arrived from the path, from the journey. Az rāh reseedam

Az rāh reseedam

So I arrived from the journey with a worn out secret. Bā rāzé kohné, az rāh reseedam. Next two lines:

حرفی نروندم

حرفی نروندی

Harfee naroondee

Harfee naroondam

So again, this is a good exercise in conjugations. The word harf means word, or saying. Harf

Harf

So we add the ee at the end, making it a word. Harfee 

Harfee

And naroondam literally means I didn’t drive. Again, it has the am which is the first person conjugation- so harfee naroondam means I didn’t drive a word, I didn’t say a word. Harfee naroondam

Harfee naroondam

Meaning I didn’t say anything. Harfee naroondam

Harfee naroondam

So if you simply want to say I didn’t say a word, you would say harfee nazadam. Harfee nazadam

Harfee nazadam

But in this case, he wants a bit more of a strong meaning- like, he has so much to say, he’s driven to say something, but he doesn’t do it- harfee naroondam

Harfee naroondam

And he follows by saying ‘harfee naroondee’

‘harfee naroondee’

Which means you didn’t say a word, you didn’t drive a word. So ee is the conjugation for second person informal- so you didn’t say anything. Harfee naroondee

Harfee naroondee

And it’s important to note here that in Persian, you don’t need to specify the pronoun if you conjugate a verb correctly- so for instance, you don’t need to say ‘I didn’t say a word’- the I is understood because you conjugated the verb with an am. So harfee naroondam I didn’t say a word, could be said ‘man harfee naroondam’, but the man, or I is understood. Ok, next two lines:

اشکی فشوندم

اشکی فشوندی

Ashkee feshoondam

Ashkee feshoondee

So ashk is the word for tear. Ashk

Ashk

So again, by adding the ee, it’s singular- a tear- ashkee

Ashkee

And feshoondam is the first person conjugation for I let

And finally the last two lines:

لبامو بستم

از چشام خوندی

Labāmō bastam

Az cheshām khoondee

So, a few new vocab words here. The word lab is the word for lips. Lab

Lab

Labam means my lips. Labam

Labām

Bastam is the first person conjugation for to close, so I closed. Bastam

Bastam

And now we have a little extra sound in there that we need to explain. Labamō bastam is actually short for labām rā bastam. Ra is a difficult concept to explain, and it’s one of those things that you have to just practice to understand the use for, and it gets easier with time. So Labam rā bastam means I closed my lips. Because the author is speaking about a specific set of lips- their own- they have to put the direct object marker in there- so specify it’s their own lips by using rā. But, in speech, rā gets shortened to ō. So labāmō bastam is I closed my lips. Labāmo bastam. 

Labāmo bastam

Don’t get too caught up with the direct object marker concept- again, it’s something that you’ll learn over time when learning the Persian language. Let’s go on to the last line- az cheshām khoondee.

So just az labām is my lips, cheshām is my eyes. Cheshām

Cheshām

Az we’ve covered before- it means from. Az

Az

And khoondee is the informal second person conjugation for you read. So you read, khoondee

Khoondee

So az cheshām khoondee means you read it from my eyes. Az cheshām khoondee

Az cheshām khoondee

So labamō bastam, az cheshām khoondee, meaning I closed my lips, you read it from my eyes.

labamō bastam, az cheshām khoondee

labamō bastam, az cheshām khoondee

So at the end, this big secret does come out, but not through words, but through the eyes. So again, let’s listen to the second half as read by my khālé Farnaz 

با راز کهنه

از راه رسیدم

حرفی نروندم

حرفی نروندی

اشکی فشوندم

اشکی فشوندی

لبامو بستم

از چشام خوندی

Ok now, I would like you to listen to the entire poem. Hopefully now, you can understand every single word of the poem:

با من رازی بود

که به کوه گفتم

با من رازی بود

که به چاه گفتم

تو راه دراز

به اسب سیاه گفتم

بیکس و تنها

به سنگای راه گفتم

با راز کهنه

از راه رسیدم

حرفی نروندم

حرفی نروندی

اشکی فشوندم

اشکی فشوندی

لبامو بستم

از چشام خوندی

So now you have a special mission. I want you to memorize this poem, recite it in a beautiful setting and send it to me at leyla@chaiandconversation.com. Or you can post it on Instagram and tag us with @chaiandconversation.com- and we’’ll repost it to our followers. Persian poetry is meant to be memorized, it’s the best way to really understand it, to really get it in your entire being. And again, we have tons of resources available to help you learn this poem- these audio lessons are just one part of our complete program- you can find it all on our website at www.chaiandconversation.com, with Chai spelled CHAI. There, you’ll find pdf guides with all these words and phrases written out along with their translations and spelled out in English phonetic, and Persian script as well. And you’ll find guides to help you through the memorization process.

So join us there, and we’ll be back soon with Tehran with another poem in our series, so be on the lookout for that!

Until next time,

Khodāhāfez from Leyla