Hafez's payāmé naseem

Hello and welcome to part 5 of our discussion of Hafez’s payāmé naseem! Let’s start off today by listening to my aunt Farnaz recite the entire poem:

zé kooyé yār mee āyad naseemé bādé noroozee

az een bād ar madad khāhee cherāghé del bar-afroozee!

chō gol gar khordeyee dāree khodā rā sarfé eshrat kon

ké ghāroon-rā ghalat-hā dād sowdāyé zar-andoozee!

bé sahrā rō ké az dāman ghobaré gham beeafshānee!

bé golzār āy k’az bolbol ghazal goftan beeyāmoozee!

jodā shod yāré sheereenat; konoon tanhā nesheen, ay sham’,

ké hokmé āsemān een ast agar sāzee ō gar soozee.

may-ee dāram chō jān sāfee ō soofee meekonad 'aybash.

khodāyā heech āghel-rā mabādā bakhté bad roozee!

All right, and at this point, we only have the last two sections to analyze. So let’s listen to the part that we will be analyzing today:

jodā shod yāré sheereenat; konoon tanhā nesheen, ay sham’,

ké hokmé āsemān een ast agar sāzee ō gar soozee.

Great, and now the first full line:

jodā shod yāré sheereenat; konoon tanhā nesheen, ay sham’

So first of all, in this line, Hafez refers to the reader as a sham’. A sham’ means a ‘candle’. sham’.

sham’

It starts off by saying “jodā shod.” “jodā” means ‘separated’, and “shod” means ‘became’, so “jodā shod” means ‘became separated’. jodā shod.

jodā shod

And again, in this line, we have the word yār. You should remember that from the very first line of the poem, which says, "zé kooyé yār meeyāyad naseemé bādé noroozee," and “yār,” as you hopefully remember, means 'friend' or 'lover'. yār.

yār

“sheereen” means ‘sweet’. sheereen.

sheereen

So “yāré sheereenat” means ‘your sweet lover’, and it’s addressing the informal you. yāré sheereenat.

yāré sheereenat

So the structure here shows grammar in the Persian language pretty nicely. We have that ezāfé sound in there: the -é that ties yār and sheereen together. So what kind of lover? A sweet lover. yāré sheereen.

yāré sheereen

And the way that we show it belongs to you (informal) is that -at sound at the end: yāré sheereenat.

yāré sheereenat

So if I wanted to say my sweet lover, for example, I would change this to “yāré sheereenam.”

yāré sheereenam

We can see this with a simple example like the word 'book', "ketāb." If you want to say ‘your book’, you would say “ketābat.”

ketābat

And ‘my book’ would be ketābam.

ketābam.

So again, yāré sheereenam.

yāré sheereenam

So let’s say this part together: jodā shod yaré sheereenat.

jodā shod yāré sheereenat

So ‘your sweet lover separated from you’ is basically what it’s saying. jodā shod yaré sheereenat.

jodā shod yāré sheereenat

And then “konoon tanhā nesheen, ay sham’.” So we’ve covered “sham’” before; it means ‘candle’. sham’.

sham’

“konoon” means ‘now’. konoon.

konoon

Then “tanhā nesheen,” “tanhā” means ‘alone’. tanhā.

tanhā

And “nesheen” means ‘sit!’, and it’s in you (informal). nesheen.

nesheen

So ‘sit alone!’ tanhā nesheen!

tanhā nesheen!

And together, it’s “konoon tanhā nesheen!”

konoon tanhā nesheen!

So ‘now you sit alone!’ konoon tanhā nesheen!

konoon tanhā nesheen!

And at the end, “ay sham’,” so ‘o candle!’, basically. “ay” is just an expressive term. ay sham’!

ay sham’!

So all together, 

“jodā shod yāré sheereenat; konoon tanhā nesheen, ay sham’”

means ‘your sweet lover left, became separated; now sit alone, o candle!’ Let’s repeat it together:

jodā shod.

jodā shod

yāré sheereenat.

yāré sheereenat

konoon tanhā nesheen! 

konoon tanhā nesheen! 

ay sham’!

ay sham’!

Wonderful, and now the next sentence: 

ké hokmé āsemān een ast agar sāzee ō gar soozee.

So first, the word “hokm” is a strong word. It means the ‘ruling’ or the ‘sentence’, like in a court of law. hokm.

hokm

And “āsemān” means ‘the sky’. āsemān.

āsemān

So “hokmé āsemān” is quite a grand statement: ‘it’s the ruling of the sky’. hokmé āsemān.

hokmé āsemān

So when I think of this and I imagine it, I see kind of as the ruling of the gods, how the gods have willed it: hokmé āsemān.

hokmé āsemān

“ké,” we’ve covered before; it means ‘that’. ké.

ké

“ké hokmé āsemān,” ‘that the ruling of the sky’, “een ast." “een” means ‘this’. een.

een

And “ast” is simply ‘is’. ast.

ast

So “een ast,” ‘is this’. een ast.

een ast

ké hokmé āsemān een ast.

ké hokmé āsemān een ast

Then “agar sāzee ō gar soozee.” “agar” means ‘if’, but in this context, it means ‘whether’. agar.

agar

“sāzee” means ‘you build’. sāzee.

And “soozee” means ‘you burn’. soozee. 

soozee

agar sāzee ō gar soozee. So you might guess that that second “gar” also means the same thing as “agar.” It’s just shortened here: gar.

gar

And finally, “ō” means ‘and’. ō.

ō

So the whole thing, “agar sāzee ō gar soozee,” means 'whether you build or whether you burn." agar sāzee ō gar soozee.

agar sāzee ō gar soozee

So the full, full sentiment, “ké hokmé āsemān een ast agar sāzee ō gar soozee,” means, basically, that ‘the ruling of the sky is this, whether you build, or whether you burn’.

So ‘your sweet lover has left you; now you sit alone, o candle, for the ruling of the sky is this, whether you build or whether you burn.’ 

So let’s repeat that second part together bit by bit: 

ké hokmé āsemān

ké hokmé āsemān

een ast

een ast

agar sāzee ō gar soozee.

agar sāzee ō gar soozee

So basically, this line is saying, ‘this is the fate, this was the way it was always going to turn out; whether you lived in this way or in that way, the sentence was always this’. 

Let’s hear my aunt recite these two lines again:

jodā shod yāré sheereenat; konoon tanhā nesheen, ay sham’,

ké hokmé āsemān een ast agar sāzee ō gar soozee.

All right, so I think these were a couple of pretty heavy lines, and I think we have a lot to talk about with just these two lines. I’m looking forward to hearing your interpretations of the lines, what stood out to you. I’m sure we’ll be having a really robust discussion about it on our community page, which you can access as a member of Chai and Conversation. The link will be in the show notes for this lesson, and see you next week for the very thrilling conclusion of payāmé naseem!