Hafez's yoosofé gom gashté

Salam be hamegee, hello and welcome to Part 2 of our discussion on the absolutely beautiful poem, ghazal number 255 by Hafez, which we are calling by the first five words of the poem, yoosofé gom gashté bāz āyad. 

So this poem really surprised me- it’s an incredibly famous Iranian poem, but not one that I hear that often. When I first read it I was a bit lost, but after the discussion with Sahba I really fell into the absolute beauty and the relevance of the poem to our world today. I hope you enjoyed that introductory lesson as much as I did. Absolutely incredible. 

So in the introductory lesson, Sahba and I went over our entire selection of the poem and talked about it in a general way. In these subsequent lessons, I’ll be going over the whole poem word by word, phrase by phrase and really diving deep into them. In this way, you’ll get an intimate understanding of the words and phrases in this poem, and you’ll even be able to use them in everyday conversation.

Imagine that, especially if you’re a complete beginner to the Persian language, being able to use words and phrases from a 12th century Persian poem in your conversational day to day speaking. It’s incredible that we can do that. And remember, this is similar to the way Iranians learn Persian, poetry is part of our every day language from when we learn how to talk. 

Another important aspect of these lessons is becoming intimately familiar with the language and memorizing lines from the poem. We always ask that you memorize the poems we learn, and make them a part of your being, a part of your bones. Again, this might seem like a daunting task, but hopefully after listening to the individual parts of these lessons, it will become second nature to you. It will take some work, but it’s incredibly rewarding to memorize these poems, and be able to think about them in times of need. 

Before we get into the lesson, let’s listen to my khale Farnaz recite the first two lines of the poem, which we will be getting into today.

یوسفِ گُم گشته بازآید به کنعان، غم مَخُور     کلبهٔ احزان شَوَد روزی گلستان، غم مخور

ای دل غمدیده، حالت بِه شود، دل بَد مکن     وین سرِ شوریده باز آید به سامان غم مخور

All right perfect. So just as we did in the introduction of this lesson, before we begin with the rest of vocabulary, let’s go over the phrase that we hear over and over in the poem, and that is gham makhor.

So as always, when I say a word or phrase, I want you to repeat it after me, out loud. So gham makhor

gham makhor

Ok so this is particularly tricky because it has two sounds that we don’t have in English, and that is gh and kh. So gham makhor

gham makhor

So first the word gham. This means sadness or despair. gham

gham

and makhor literally means do not eat. makhor

makhor

now, the word gham is very common in current conversational Persian, it’s used all the time. However, makhor in current conversation is actually nakhor. Do not eat. So nakhor

nakhor

Versus in the poem, it’s makhor

makhor

So even though it’s literally don’t eat sorrow, it’s something more along the lines of don’t despair. Do not grieve, do not sorrow. Gham makhor

gham makhor

and we of course hear that all throughout the poem. But back to our first line, let’s hear my khaleh farnaz read that

yoosofé gom gashté bāz āmad bé canaan

All right. So first, yoosofé gom gashté. yoosof is the Persian equivalent of Joseph. yoosof

yoosof

and them gom is the word for lost gom

gom

and gashté is to search. gashté

gashté

so yoosofé gom gashté means the lost and searching yoosof. whenever we have that é sound there we know that what follows is going to be adjectives. So we’ll have some describing words. so yoosofé gom gashté, the lost and wandering yoosof. yoosofé gom gashté

yoosofé gom gashté

Great, and then bāz āyad bé canaan. So canaan is a place in Egypt. Canaan

Canaan

And bāz āyad. bāz means again. bāz

bāz

and āyad means comes. āyad

āyad

and bé means to. Very common word. bé

bé

So bāz āyad bé canaan means again comes to canaan. Let’s repeat all that together- bāz āyad bé canaan

bāz āyad bé canaan. Now, I want to say that the word āyad is not really used like that in current conversation. It’s more a poetic way to say to come. in conversation, to come is meeyād. meeyād

meeyād

 but in this case, it’s a poem, so we use this formation, which is bāz āyad bé canaan, he will come again, or come back to canaan. so bāz āyad bé canaan

bāz āyad bé canaan

So the lost and wandering Joseph will once again come to Canaan- let’s say this all together- yoosofé gom gashté bāz āyad bé canaan

yoosofé gom gashté bāz āyad bé canaan

And then of course he follows it with gham makhor

gham makhor

meaning, the lost and wandering Joseph will come back to Canaan once again, do not despair. So again, full things is- yoosofé gom gashté bāz āyad bé canaan, gam makhor

Wonderful, now let’s listen to khaleh farnaz read the first line, and then the next line, 

 یوسفِ گُم گشته بازآید به کنعان، غم مَخُور     کلبهٔ احزان شَوَد روزی گلستان، غم مخور

yoosofé gom gashté bāz āyad bé canaan, gam makhor

kolbéyé ahzān shavad roozee golestān, gham makhor

So then kolbeyé ahzān, kolbé means a cottage or house. kolbé

kolbé

and ahzān means sorrows. ahzān

ahzān

This is not one that I hear very often in conversation. But kolbeyé ahzān, we have that é sound connecting the two words again- kolbeyé ahzān, and in this case, again it’s showing that the second word is describing the first word. You can think of it as standing in for ‘of’ as well- the house of sorrows- kolbeyé ahzān

kolbeyé ahzan

The house of sorrows. kolbeyé ahzān shavad roozee golestān. golestān means the place of flowers. golestān

golestān

and shavad is will become. shavad

shavad

roozee is one day. roozee

roozee

So shavad roozee golestān is one day shall become a place of flowers, or a flower garden. shavad roozee golestān

shavad roozee golestān

So the house of sorrows shall one day become a place of flowers. Let’s repeat the whole thing now- kolbéyé ahzān shavad roozee golestān

kolbéyé ahzān shavad roozee golestān

and of course, it ends with gham makhor, so let’s repeat all that slowly:

kolbéyé ahzān shavad roozee golestān, gham makhor

kolbéyé ahzān shavad roozee golestān, gham makhor

All right! Now let’s listen to the entire first part, and then the second part as read by my khalé farnaz:

یوسفِ گُم گشته بازآید به کنعان، غم مَخُور     کلبهٔ احزان شَوَد روزی گلستان، غم مخور

ای دل غمدیده، حالت بِه شود، دل بَد مکن     وین سرِ شوریده باز آید به سامان غم مخور

Ok wonderful, so hopefully you understood that first part, and now let’s go over the second part word by word.

So the second part starts with ay delé gham deedé- ah this is so beautiful. So first the word ay, just like the English oh. ay

ay

then delé gham deedé. So first, del is a really important word in Persian- it means heart. del

del

and in Persian, it’s interesting, because we have two different words for heart. There’s also the word ghalb, and that’s more the technical word for the organ, heart. ghalb

ghalb

del is also a word for the organ, but interestingly, it can also be used for stomach. so if you say delam dard meekoneh, that means my stomach hurts. but delam tang shodeh means my heart has become constricted, and that’s the way we say I miss you. so del

del

There’s also an expression delam meekhād, meaning my heart wants it, and it’s the way you say you want something. So delam meekhād beram khooné, my heart wants me to go home, meaning I want to go home. Anyhow, all that is to say that del is both a more common word for heart than the clinical ghalb, and also a more poetic word for heart. del

del

great. so delé gham deedé. So again we have that word gham in there- it means sorrow. gham 

gham

and deedé means to have seen. deedé

deedé

delé gham deedé means a heart that has seen sorrow. delé gham deedé

delé gham deedé

what a beautiful expression, what a beautiful image. delé gham deedé

delé gham deedé

and so oh heart that has seen sorrow, ay delé gham deedé

ay delé gham deedé

and then hālat beh shavad. so hāl is the word for state of being. hāl

hāl

In modern conversation, we use this word all the time- we ask hālet chetoré, and that means ‘how is your state of being’, or more literally, how are you doing? hālet chetoré?

hālet chetoré?

and then beh means good. beh

beh

and shavad is will become. shavad

shavad

and of course we also had shavad in the first line, where we said kolbéyé ahzān shavad roozee golestān, or the house of sorrow will become one day a place of flowers. So in this case, beh shavad means will become better- hālat beh shavad means you will get better. So all together, ay delé gham deedé, hālat beh shavad means oh heart that has seen sorrow, your state of being will become better. Let’s repeat this bit by bit together

ay delé gham deedé

ay delé gham deedé

hālat beh shavad

hālat beh shavad

Wonderful! And now, it doesn’t end with gham makhor- he says del bad makon. so del, again heart, del

del

and then bad in persian has the same meaning as in English, but of course we pronounce it a bit differently. The a and d are a little sharper- bad

bad

So bad versus bad. bad

bad

and then makon, don’t make it. makon

makon

So literally, heart, don’t make it bad. del bad makon

del bad makon

So something like don’t make the heart bad, don’t make it bad. del bad makon

del bad makon

And now all together, ay delé gham deedé 

ay delé gham deedé 

hālat beh shavad

hālat beh shavad

, del bad makon

 del bad makon

Wonderful, and now the very last line as read by my khaleh Farnaz:

وین سرِ شوریده باز آید به سامان غم مخور

So first we have veen, which is a combination of va meaning and and een, meaning this. va

va

and een

een

These are very common words in conversation. And together they are veen

veen

And this, veen

veen

then saré shooreedé. so up until now we’ve been talking about del, heart, and now we have sar, head. sar

sar

and shooreedé means disheveled or distraught or rogue. shooreedé

shooreedé

saré shooreedé, so a disheveled head, or a head that isn’t right. saré shooreedé

saré shooreedé

and then we have bāz āyad again- remember from the first line, yoosofé gom gashté bāz āyad bé canaan- meaning yoosof who is lost will come again to the canaan. so here, we have saré shooreedé bāz āyad, so the disheveled head will come again- bāz āyad

bāz āyad

and then bé sāmān. so bé again means to- bé

bé

and sāmān means calmness or tranquility- sāmān

sāmān

so the disheveled head will once again come to tranquility. veen saré shooreedé bāz āyad bé sāmān

So let’s repeat it piece by piece- veen saré shooreedé

veen saré shooreedé

bāz āyad bé sāmān

bāz āyad bé sāmān

and of course he ends this with gham makhor

gham makhor

Ok wonderful! Let’s listen to this second part as read by my khaleh Farnaz again: 

ای دل غمدیده، حالت بِه شود، دل بَد مکن     وین سرِ شوریده باز آید به سامان غم مخور

Ok wonderful! So hopefully you understood these two parts together. Now, we’re going to listen to the full first two lines again as read by my khaleh Farnaz: 

یوسفِ گُم گشته بازآید به کنعان، غم مَخُور     کلبهٔ احزان شَوَد روزی گلستان، غم مخور

ای دل غمدیده، حالت بِه شود، دل بَد مکن     وین سرِ شوریده باز آید به سامان غم مخور

All right, and hopefully, again, you understood more of these two lines. That’s all we’re going to learn in this lesson- we’re going to go nice and slowly in these lessons, learning two lines at a time. 

Take your time this week going over these two lines- repeat them over and over again, and go over each of the words individually by reading them on the pdf guide, and listening to them in the vocabulary list section. Try using them in every day conversation if you can even. And slowly start to learn these lines. 

And next week, we’ll be back with part 2 where we’ll go over the next two lines of the poem. 

And until then, thank you again for listening, and until next time,

khodāhāfez,

from Leyla