Hafez's aybé rendān makon

salām bé hamegee and welcome to Part 3 of our discussion on Hafez’s beautiful poem, ʿaybé rendān makon! In the last lesson, we covered the first two lines of the poem, and this time around we’ll be going over lines 3 and 4. So now, let’s listen to my dear khālé Farnaz recite the first four lines of the poem:

ʿaybé rendān makon, ay zāhedé pākeezé seresht,

ké gonāhé deegarān bar tō nakhāhand nevesht!

man agar neek-am ō gar bad, tō borō, khod-rā bāsh!

har kasee ān deravad ʿāghebaté kār ké kesht.

All right! So you should completely understand the first two lines at this point, and now, let’s go over these next two lines! So first:

man agar neek-am ō gar bad, tō borō, khod-rā bāsh!

Okay, so this is one of my absolute favorite lines in any poem, and even this one line, if you just memorize it and repeat it like a mantra, I guarantee will make your life better. So let’s go over it very, very carefully. First of all, the line just flows so incredibly beautifully: man agar neek-am ō gar bad, tō borō, khod rā bāsh! Oof, gets me every time! So, “man,” the word for ‘me’: man.

man

And be careful when pronouncing this word. It’s not “man,” like we have in English; it’s man.

man

So ‘me’ or ‘I’, man.

man

And “agar” means ‘if’ or ‘whether’, so we’re talking about two things, either or. agar.

agar

And now, one of my most favorite words in the Persian language: neek.

neek

Now, this word features most prominently in the Zoroastrian saying “goftāré neek, pendāré neek, kerdāré neek,” which means ‘say good things, think good things, do good things’ and is the entire basis or instructions of living of Zoroastrianism. So it’s very simple; let’s repeat it together! goftāré neek.

goftāré neek

pendāré neek.

pendāré neek

kerdāré neek.

kerdāré neek

And it gives us an excellent basis for what this word “neek” means. Now, I like to say that ‘good’ doesn’t really do the word justice. The word ‘good’ is kind of mediocre. It’s a step down from great, and it comes with a kind of moral judgment. On the other hand, “neek” doesn’t have any of that. “neek” is more like ‘right, truth, righteous’, but without judgment, just in the universal right and wrong of things. So, yes, it can be described by ‘good’, but also think of it as ‘right’! So “neek-am” means ‘I am good’. neek-am.

neek-am

But of course, we have another way to translate ‘good’, and that is “khoob.” Like if someone asks you how you are doing, you say “khoob-am,” or ‘I am good’, whereas “neek-am” is a kind of deeper meaning of ‘I am good’. So “man agar neek-am” is ‘if I am good' or 'if I am right’. man agar neek-am.

man agar neek-am

And then he says “ō gar bad.” So “ō” is a way to say ‘or’. ō.

ō

It literally means ‘and’, but in this context, it’s making a comparison between two things like the word “or” would do. ō.

ō

Then “gar bad,” so “gar” is just a shortened version of “agar,” which means ‘if’. gar.

gar

And it is just shortened to make sense within the rhyme and rhythm of this poem. And then, of course, we have the word “bad.”

bad

Which has the same meaning in Persian as it does in English: bad.

bad

And note here that just like “man” and “man,” you need to use the correct pronunciation when saying “bad” versus “bad.” It’s the exact same sound; in English, it’s a kind of hard “a” sound, very sharp and pronounced. “a,” “man,” “bad.” Let’s repeat those together: man.

man

bad.

bad

Okay, so the full thing, “man agar neek-am ō gar bad,” means ‘whether I am good or I am bad’. Let’s repeat this together: man agar neek-am ō gar bad.

man agar neek-am ō gar bad

And then he says, “tō borō, khod-rā bāsh!” and oof, this hits so hard! Let’s go over it word by word. We have that word “tō” in there that we learned in the last lesson is ‘you (informal)’. tō.

tō

And then “borō” means ‘go!’, and it’s in command form. borō!

borō!

So “tō borō!” ‘you go!’. tō borō!

tō borō!

And then “khod-rā bāsh!” “khod” means ‘self’. khod.

khod

And this is an interesting formation that he has here: “tō borō, khod-rā bāsh!” “bāsh” means ‘be’ in the present tense: bāsh!

bāsh!

And “rā” is something we call a direct object marker, and it’s when you want to talk about something specific. So “khod-rā bāsh!” means ‘you go be yourself!’ but it’s talking directly to you; ‘you go be that which you are'. Let’s repeat this command together: khod-rā bāsh!

khod-rā bāsh!

Which is quite simply ‘be yourself!’. So again, the full thing: “man agar neek-am ō gar bad, tō borō, khod-rā bāsh!” all together is ‘if I am good, or if I am bad, you go and be yourself!’. Again, I absolutely love this, and I love that he uses way more words than he really needs to in order to emphasize the point. In Persian, the way you conjugate a word contains the pronoun in it, so it’s not necessary that he has to pronounce “man” and “tō” in there, but he wants to say, ‘Me, if I am good, or if I am bad, you, you go and be yourself!’. So he’s making a distinction here. I am living my life, and you are living yours; whether I am right or wrong does not have any relevance to your being. So again, let’s repeat this entire line together, bit by bit. man agar neek-am.

man agar neek-am

ō gar bad, tō borō. 

ō gar bad, tō borō 

khod-rā bāsh!

khod-rā bāsh!

And now I’m going to say the full line, and I want you to repeat it after me: man agar neek-am ō gar bad, tō borō, khod-rā bāsh!

man agar neek-am ō gar bad, tō borō, khod-rā bāsh!

Amazing! Okay, as much as it pains me to move on from this beautiful sentence, let’s look at the next one:

har kasee ān deravad ʿāghebaté kār ké kesht

Okay, no need to be sad, because this line is also equally beautiful and quotable and applicable to life! So first, “har kasee.” “har” means ‘any’. har.

har

And “kas” is a being or person. “har kas” means ‘anyone’. har kas.

har kas

And “har kasee” is ‘each person’. har kasee.

har kasee

“ān” is the word for ‘that’. ān. 

ān

“deravad” means ‘to harvest’. deravad.

deravad

Then we have “āghebaté kār.” So “kār” by itself means ‘work’. kār.

kār

And “āghebat” means something along the lines of ‘in the end’ or ‘conclusion’ or ‘the result’. āghebat.

āghebat

So “āghebaté kār” means ‘the conclusion of work’, so ‘as a result of work’. āghebaté kār.

āghebaté kār

And “ké kesht,” “kesht” means ‘planted’. kesht.

kesht

So ‘planting seeds’: esht.

kesht

Although, in present-day conversation, this is pronounced as “kāsht.”

kāsht

And “ké,” we’ve learned before, is ‘that’. ké.

ké

So “ké kesht,” ‘that he or she sowed’. ké kesht.

ké kesht

So the full thing, “har kasee ān deravad ʿāghebaté kār ké kesht,” means ‘any person will harvest in the end that which they plant’. Let’s repeat this whole thing: har kasee ān deravad. 

har kasee ān deravad 

ʿāghebaté kār ké kesht.

ʿāghebaté kār ké kesht

And the full line: har kasee ān deravad ʿāghebaté kār ké kesht.

har kasee ān deravad ʿāghebaté kār ké kesht

Okay, so putting these two together, you can see the full message, so ‘if I am good, or I am bad, you go be yourself. In the end, everyone will reap what they sow’. So it’s not your job to be worried about others or to judge them. ’You do you', as they say these days.

And again, I feel like we can talk for hours about these two lines because they’re so meaningful and impactful and such a beautiful way to live. It’s along the same lines as Gandhi's “be the change you want to see in the world.” Sow the plants that you want to harvest, and the world will be so much better! 

Okay, at this point, let’s listen to my khālé Farnaz repeat these two lines again:

man agar neek-am ō gar bad, tō borō, khod-rā bāsh!

har kasee ān deravad ʿāghebaté kār ké kesht.

And you know the drill: go practice these two lines throughout the coming week, write it, recite it, tell it to all your family and friends, and we’ll be back next week with Part 3 of our discussion!