Hafez's yoosofé gom gashté

salām bé hamegee! 

Hello and welcome to part 3 of our discussion on the poem yoosofé gom gashté bāz āyad by Hafez. So in the last lesson, we went over the first two lines of the poem, and today we’ll be covering the next two after that. Let’s start this lesson by hearing my khaleh Farnaz recite last week’s portion, and the portion we’ll be going over 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

گر بهارِ عمر باشد باز بر تختِ چمن     چتر گل در سر کَشی، ای مرغِ خوشخوان غم مخور

دورِ گردون گر دو روزی بر مرادِ ما نرفت     دائماً یکسان نباشد حالِ دوران غم مخور

All right,so hopefully you understood those first two lines, and were at least able to recite the gham makhor. You will have noticed that gham makhor still gets repeated throughout the poem like a mantra. So now, the next line we’ll be covering, as read by my khaleh Farnaz:

گر بهارِ عمر باشد باز بر تختِ چمن

gar bahāré omr bāshad bāz bar takhté chaman

So here let’s start with the word omr- this means lifespan. omr

omr

and this is such a good word to know. So lifespan is the literal meaning but it’s also just like life or lifeforce. So the first word is gar, meaning if. gar

gar

and in current conversation this is actually agar, it’s just shortened to fit the poem and rhyme scheme. So agar

agar

and in the poem gar

gar

a very common word meaning if. So gar bahāré omr. The word bahār means spring. bahār

bahār

and bahāré omr, the spring of life. bahāré omr

then bāshad bāz. bāshad means to be. bāshad

bāshad

and bāz means again. bāz

bāz

bāshad bāz, so it is once again. bāshad bāz

bāshad bāz

so gar bahāré omr bāshad bāz- so Sahba translated this as Should the spring of life repose again, but more literally it could be if the spring of life becomes once again. So if it becomes spring once again. and then bar takhté chaman. bar means on. bar

bar

and takht means a bed or a throne. takht

takht

and chaman is simply the word for grass. chaman

chaman

again, all very common words in modern Persian. And takhté chaman is on the bed of the grass. bar takhté chaman, on the throne of grass. takhté chaman

takhté chaman

So again all together, it’s gar bahāré omr bāshad bāz bar takhté chaman, if the spring of life becomes again on the throne of green. So let’s repeat this together. gar bahāré omr

gar bahāré omr

bar takhté chaman

bar takhté chaman

All right, next line: 

چتر گل در سر کَشی، ای مرغِ خوشخوان غم مخور

chatré gol dar sar kashee, ay morghé khoshkhoon gham makhor

So first chatré gol dar sar kashee- ok this is another one of those absolutely beautiful images in this poem. So we have our takhté chaman, so this throne of greenery, already. and now we have chatré gol. gol is the word for flower. gol

gol

and chatr is the word for umbrella. chatr

chatr

so chatré gol means the umbrella of flowers. chatré gol

chatré gol

and then dar sar kashee, dar means in. dar

dar

and then sar is the word for head. sar

sar

and kashee means you will pull. kashee

kashee

so dar sar kashee means something the lines of over your head, you will pull. dar sar kashee

dar sar kashee

and again these are really common words in everyday conversation, just arranged in a very poetic way here. so chatré gol dar sar kashee means you will pull an umbrella of flowers over your head. chatré gol dar sar kashee 

chatré gold dar sar kashee

Or as Sahba translates it You’ll raise a canopy of roses over your head- because yes, even though gol is generically a flower, when it’s in a Persian poem like this you can assume that it’s roses. so chatré gol dar sar kashee

chatré gol dar sar kashee

and then ay morghé khoshkhān. Now, as Sahba explained in the introductory lesson, there are some images that are common in these poems, and morghé khoshkhān is one of those. morgh means bird. morgh

morgh

and khoshkhān means singing happily. khosh literally means happy or glad, and khān means to sing. so khoshkhān

khoshkhān

and morghé khoshkhān is a O sweet-singing bird. And we have that word ay in there again which is equivalent to the English ‘oh’. So oh sweet singing bird, ay morghé khoshkhān

ay morghé khoshkhān

And all together, it’s chatré gol dar sar kashee, ay morghé khoshkhoon gham makhor, so you will pull the umbrella or canopy of roses over your head, oh sweet singing bird, and of course it ends with a gham makhor!

So let’s repeat that together, chatré gol dar sar kashee

chatré gold dar sar kashee

ay morghé khoshkhoon

ay morhé khoshkhoon

gham makhor

gham makhor

All right! Let’s listen to the first two lines as read by Farnaz:

گر بهارِ عمر باشد باز بر تختِ چمن     چتر گل در سر کَشی، ای مرغِ خوشخوان غم مخور

Wonderful. And now the next two lines:

دورِ گردون گر دو روزی بر مرادِ ما نرفت     دائماً یکسان نباشد حالِ دوران غم مخور

All right! The first line- doré gardoon gar do roozee bar morādé mā naraft

Oh my goodness, this line knocks me off of my chair. So first doré gardoon. Dor means around, and gardoon means spinning. So let’s repeat these- dor

dor

and gardoon

gardoon

so doré gardoon means the spinning around. doré gardoon

doré gardoon

and then gar do roozee. We have that word gar there, it means if. gar

gar

and do roozee, means these two days. do roozee

do roozee

Iranians use the concept of do rooz, literally two days, a lot. There’s a saying donyā dō roozé, meaning the world is two days, meaning life is short. So it’s a period of time. do roozee

do roozee

These two days. doré gardoon gar do roozee, so if the spinning of the earth in these two days. dore gardoon gar do roozee

dore gardoon gar do roozee

and then bar morādé mā naraft. So first bar means by. bar

bar

and morādé mā- mā means us. mā

mā

and morādé mā means something the lines of our way, or our wishes. morādé mā

morādé mā

and naraft means it didn’t go. naraft

naraft

So bar morādé mā naraft means if it didn’t go our way

bar morādé mā naraft

So the whole thing is doré gardoon gar do roozee bar morādé mā naraft, if this spinning doesn’t go our way in these two days. But I really want to stop here and just think about this- first of all the word play, doré gardoon gar do roozee, just by itself is so beautiful. It’s like you’re spinning, if you say this over and over again, kind of emmulating the spinning of the earth. But I also love how maybe it’s something that you see as an existential issue in the world- maybe there’s tyranny, maybe there’s injustice. But he puts it as ‘bar morādé mā naraft’- I love that he puts it in the third person now, he’s not addressing just the listener, but he’s saying ‘mā’- it’s not according to what we want. bar morādé mā naraft. This was written centuries ago, and empires have come and fallen in that time, and but in the end, donyā dō roozé, and the world keeps turning. So let’s repeat this piece by piece together. 

doré gardoon

doré gardoon 

 gar do roozee

 gar do roozee

 bar morādé 

 bar morādé

mā naraft

mā naraft

Ok wonderful! Now the last line: 

دائماً یکسان نباشد حالِ دوران غم مخور

dā’eman yeksān nabāshad, hālé dorān, gham makhor

Ok, so first part, says dā’eman yeksān nabāshad. So first dā’eman means constantly. dā’eman

dā’eman

and then yeksān means constant or same. yeksān

yeksān

and finally nabāshad means it will not be. nabāshad

nabāshad

Great. So dā’eman yeksān nabāshad, means it will not always be the same. dā’eman yeksān nabāshad

dā’eman yeksān nabāshad

And then dā’eman yeksān nabāshad, hālé dorān, and hālé dorān means the state of the spinning. Remember we’d learned hāl before, it means the state. hāl

and dorān means spinning. dorān

dorān

so the state of spinning, hālé dorān

hālé dorān

And he ends it with gham makhor

gham makhor

So wow, talk about knocking you out of your chair- this message from hundreds of years ago, coming to tell us, this too shall pass- whatever it is, however it’s spinning, maybe it’s not the way we want, but it will change, this too shall pass. 

dā’eman yeksān nabāshad, hālé dorān, gham makhor

Let’s repeat it together piece by piece. 

dā’eman yeksān nabāshad

dā’eman yeksān nabāshad

hālé dorān

hālé dorān

gham makhor

gham makhor

And now let’s listen to this again as read by Farnaz:

گر بهارِ عمر باشد باز بر تختِ چمن     چتر گل در سر کَشی، ای مرغِ خوشخوان غم مخور

دورِ گردون گر دو روزی بر مرادِ ما نرفت     دائماً یکسان نباشد حالِ دوران غم مخور

Amazing, and hopefully this time you understood that whole thing, and really felt it in your bones. Let’s listen to the entire selection we’ve learned so far. See if you can pick out those repeat elements, the simple words we’ve already heard repeated- gham makhor of course, but also words like hāl or bāz or del. Let’s listen:

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

گر بهارِ عمر باشد باز بر تختِ چمن     چتر گل در سر کَشی، ای مرغِ خوشخوان غم مخور

دورِ گردون گر دو روزی بر مرادِ ما نرفت     دائماً یکسان نباشد حالِ دوران غم مخور

All right wonderful, and hopefully you picked out some of those common elements, and could understand a bit more of the selection.

And that brings us to the end of this lesson- thanks as always for listening, and until next time, khodāhāfez from Leyla!