Hafez's barafshān

salām bé hamegee, and welcome to part 3 of our discussion on Hafez’s beautiful poem barafshān! Last week, we went over the first two lines of the poem, and this week, we’re going to do the second two lines. Let’s begin by hearing my khālé Farnaz recite the first four lines all together:

modāmam mast meedārad naseemé ja’adé geesooyat

kharābam meekonad har dam, fareebé chashmé jādooyat

pas az chandeen shakeebāyee shabee yārab tavān deedan

ké sham’é deedé afroozeem dar mehrābé abrooyat

All right, excellent! So you should have understood those first two lines hopefully, and now let’s get to the third and fourth lines. So again, the third line as read by my khālé Farnaz:

pas az chandeen shakeebāyee shabee yārab tavān deedan

All right, so first, "pas az chandeen." This is super simple language that’s used in everyday conversation. Let’s break it down. First, “pas” means ‘after’. pas.

pas

This is a really common word, and actually, something we can form using this word is “pas fardā.” “fardā” is the word for tomorrow, so “pas fardā” means the day after tomorrow. pas fardā.

pas fardā

Okay, then “az” means ‘of’. az.

az

And then finally, “chandeen” means ‘many’. chandeen.

chandeen 

So the full formation “pas az chandeen” means ‘after many’. It’s not really a formation we use in English, but literally, it would be something like ‘after of many’. pas az chandeen. 

pas az chandeen 

And then “shakeebāyee.” “shakeebā” is a beautiful word meaning ‘patience’. shakeebā.

shakeebā

And “shakeebāyee” means ‘being in the state of patience or enduring’. shakeebāyee.

shakeebāyee

So all together, “pas az chandeen shakeebāyee,” so ‘after much patience’, basically, but more literally, ‘following of much enduring’. pas az chandeen shakeebāyee.

pas az chandeen shakeebāyee

And then "shabee yārab tavān deedan." So now, this is a really interesting construction that we wouldn’t hear in every day conversation. It’s very, very poetic. Let’s start off by saying that. So first, “shabee.” “shab” is the word for ‘night’. shab. 

shab

And “shabee” means ‘a night’, as in ‘a particular night’. shabee. 

shabee

And then yārab. So this is actually a word I wasn’t familiar with before. yār I know- it means loved one- either a lover or a dear intimate friend. yār

yār

And from my understanding, yārab is just an iteration of that, but is a bit closer to the divine. yārab

yārab

and then we have the word tavān. This means ability or power. tavān 

tavān

so someone who is very strong has a lot of tavān. and finally the word deedan is to see, in its infinitive form. deedan 

deedan

Ok, so as I said, this isn’t something you would say in conversation in this formation- but it’s poetic. The full thing is shabee yārab tavān deedan, and this is a question, and it’s saying one night, is the divine possible to see? And this almost reminds me of that line from one of my favorite English poems, The love song of j. alfred prufrock, where he says ‘Do I dare disturb the universe?’ This has the same gravity to me, and it’s in the same form, this question of do I dare to see the divine? After so much enduring and patience, do I dare see the divine? So the full sentence then- pas az chandeen shakeebāyee shabee yārab tavān deedan, again, after so many endurances, will there come a night where I have the ability to see the divine? So let’s read this together bit by bit- pas az chandeen shakeebāyee

pas az chandeen shakeebāyee

shabee yārab tavān deedan?

shabee yārab tavān deedan?

All right, very good! Now let’s hear the next sentence:

ké sham’é deedé afroozeem dar mehrābé abrooyat

Ooh, I love this line. So first, k’é sham’é deedé afroozeem. So first, the word sha’m- that simply means candle. sha’m 

sham

and deedé means seen. deedé 

deedé

so shamé deedé means the candle of seeing. sha’amé deedé

sha’amé deedé 

So the candle that makes things visible- the candle that lights things so that they can be seen. ké sha’amé deedé afroozeem- ké means that. ké

ké

and then the word afrooz means to light, as in to light a fire. afrooz 

afrooz

and then adding the eem ending is the ending to either the formal or royal I or we. so we light, afroozeem

afroozeem

So then ké sha’mé deedé afroozeem means that we light the candle of seeing. ké sha’mé deedé afroozeem

ké sha’mé deedé afroozeem

and the next part is dar mehrābé abrooyat. so first dar means in. dar 

dar

and this is an extremely common word- you’ll hear it all the time. dar

dar

and abroo is the word for eyebrow. abroo 

abroo

and as you can see, abroo and eyebrow sound really similar- they have the same germanic roots actually. So abroo, that should be very easy for you to remember. abroo

abroo

and to say your eyebrows, you say abrooyat 

abrooyat

and where did we see that ending before? In the first part where we learned geesooyat, which meant your hair. so same as that geesooyat, abrooyat

abrooyat

And one point I want to make about this is that at is actually the second person informal ending for possession. So if we use the example book, or ketāb, the way we would say your book would be ketābat . Because geesoo and abroo both end in vowels though, we put that y sound in there also to make it flow. geesooyat, abrooyat. so again, let’s repeat together- abrooyat

abrooyat

and he says mehrabé abrooyat. the mehrāb of you eyebrows. What is mehrāb? It means a place of worship. so basically, the altar of your eyebrows. mehrabé abrooyat

mehrābé abrooyat

So I love the way Fared translated this section- he said to light a candle 

in the altar 

of your eyebrows

And to me, this just seems like such peak poetry, something you just don’t get in other genres- ké’ sha’mé deedé afroozeem dar mehrābé abrooyat- what incredible imagery. And this comes after all this other imagery of the beloved- the chashmé jādooyat, or your bewitching eyes, and the naseemé ja’adé geesooyat, the breeze that passes through the curls of your hair. It’s painting a literal picture of the beloved that he’s directing the poem towards. So this is really a sonnet at this point, a sonnet to the lover. But it also has this divine imagery- in this section we hear of the yārab, or the divine, and also the mehrāb, the place of worship. So again, a lot going on here in these four lines that we’ve studied so far. Let’s repeat this last line together piece by piece:

ké sham’é deedé afroozeem

dar mehrābé abrooyat

All right, and now both lines together, let’s say them together- I’ll say it slowly and you repeat after me:

pas az chandeen shakeebāyee shabee yārab tavān deedan

ké sham’é deedé afroozeem dar mehrābé abrooyat

All right! and now let’s listen to my khalé Farnaz again repeat the first four lines. Hopefully at this point you understand the whole thing:

modāmam mast meedārad naseemé ja’adé geesooyat

kharābam meekonad har dam, fareebé chashmé jādooyat

pas az chandeen shakeebāyee shabee yāreb tavān deedan

ké sham’é deedé afroozeem dar mehrābé abrooyat

Wonderful! And that brings us to the end of this lesson. We’ll be back next week with the next two lines of the poem, and until then, khodāhafez from Leyla!