Hafez's yoosofé gom gashté

Hello everyone, dorood bar hamegee, and welcome to part 5 of our discussion of this beautiful poem, which we’re calling yoosofé gom gashté bāz āyad by Hafez. As always, let’s start this lesson by listening to my khalé, Farnaz Nouri read the first parts which we’ve already covered, followed by the two lines we’ll be going over in detail today. Here we go:

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

هان مَشو نومید چون واقِف نِه‌ای از سِرِّ غیب     باشد اندر پرده بازی‌هایِ پنهان غم مخور

ای دل اَر سیلِ فنا بنیادِ هستی بَر کَنَد     چون تو را نوح است کشتیبان، ز طوفان غم مخور

در بیابان گر به شوقِ کعبه خواهی زد قدم     سرزنش‌ها گر کُنَد خارِ مُغیلان غم مخور

گرچه منزل بس خطرناک است و مقصد بس بعید     هیچ راهی نیست، کـ‌آن را نیست پایان، غم مخور

The lost Joseph will again return to Canaan; grieve not!

The House of Sorrows will someday become a rose garden; grieve not!

O afflicted heart, you’ll feel better; despair not!

And this disheveled mind will again find respite; grieve not!

Should the spring of life repose again upon the throne of green,

You’ll raise a canopy of roses over your head, O sweet-singing bird; grieve not!

Should the heavens not turn in our favor for a couple of days;

The ways of the world never remain the same—grieve not!

Verily, do not dismay that you are not privy to the secrets of the invisible,

[For] behind the veil lies many a secret game; grieve not!

O heart! Should the flood of annihilation uproot the very essence of existence,

So long as Noah is your captain, from the storm grieve not!

If you cross the desert in longing for the House of God,

Should the Egyptian thorn reproach you; grieve not!

Though the route is quite dangerous and the destination quite far,

There is no road that has no end; grieve not!

All right, wonderful! So we are almost completely finished with the poem- just one more couplet to go. Hopefully you understood most of that based on our previous lessons, and now we’re going to go over those last two lines in detail together. Let’s go ahead and listen to them again:

در بیابان گر به شوقِ کعبه خواهی زد قدم     سرزنش‌ها گر کُنَد خارِ مُغیلان غم مخور

گرچه منزل بس خطرناک است و مقصد بس بعید     هیچ راهی نیست، کـ‌آن را نیست پایان، غم مخور

If you cross the desert in longing for the House of God,

Should the Egyptian thorn reproach you; grieve not!

Though the route is quite dangerous and the destination quite far,

There is no road that has no end; grieve not!

All right great- so let’s go over these word by word, phrase by phrase. Remember, when I say a word or phrase, repeat it after me. 

So first we have the line 

در بیابان گر به شوقِ کعبه خواهی زد قدم 

If you cross the desert in longing for the House of God,

dar beeyābān gar bé shoghé ka’bé khāhee zad ghadam

So first dar beeyābān. The word dar of course means in. dar

dar

and beeyābān literally means place without water, but it’s the word for desert. So literally, the place without water, also known as a desert. beeyābān

beeyābān

and then gar bé shoghé ka’bé

So first the word ka’bé means the house of god. Ka’bé

ka’bé

and shogh is the word for excitement or passion or longing. So shogh

shogh

so shoghé ka’bé, for the longing of the house of god, or for the passion of the house of god. shoghé ka’bé

shoghé ka’bé

and the full phrase is gar bé shoghé ka’bé. so gar again is short for agar or if. gar

gar

and bé here means for. bé

bé

so gar bé shoghé ka’bé all together means something along the lines of ‘if in longing for the house of god’, so gar bé shoghé ka’bé

and then khāhee zad ghadam. so khāhee means you want want. khāhee

khāhee

and this is the conjugation for the informal you. So tō khāhee, you want, and the tō or informal you is understood. khāhee

khāhee

and then zad ghadam. So this is an interesting one- most of the verbs in the Persian language are compound verbs, meaning they’re two words put together to form a verb. Zadan is the verb for to hit. zadan

zadan

and ghadam is the word for a walk. ghadam

ghadam

so ghadam zadan, literally something along the lines of to hit a walk, is actually our verb for taking a walk. So in English that’s kind of strange too, to take a walk, and in Persian we say to hit a walk, meaning the same thing. ghadam zadan

ghadam zadan

to take a walk. So in the case of this poem, he’s switched the words around and says khāhee zad ghadam, meaning you want to take a walk. khāhee zad ghadam

khāhee zad ghadam

Again, not how we construct it in conversational Persian. In conversational Persian, we don’t use the word khāhee, we would say meekhāy and instead of zad ghadam, we would say ghadam bezanee. So meekhāy ghadam bezanee is quite different sounding then khāhee zad ghadam, but again, this is a 12th century poem, vs. 21st century conversation. Don’t get too into the weeds of this, we explain all this in Unit 3 of our speak program, but for now, let’s practice this from the poem- khāhee zad ghadam

khāhee zad ghadam

so ‘you want to take a walk’ 

So, the full thing together is dar beeyābān gar bé shoghé ka’bé khāhee zad ghadam, and altogether this is in the desert, if in longing for the house of god, you want to take a walk, meaning if in this desire to find the house of god, in the desert you go searching. So let’s repeat this whole thing together- dar beeyābān

dar beeyābān

gar bé shoghé ka’bé

gar bé shoghé ka’bé

khāhee zad ghadam

khāhee zad ghadam

Wonderful. Now let’s hear this full line read along with the second line:

در بیابان گر به شوقِ کعبه خواهی زد قدم     سرزنش‌ها گر کُنَد خارِ مُغیلان غم مخور

If you cross the desert in longing for the House of God,

Should the Egyptian thorn reproach you; grieve not!

sarzanesh hā gar konad khāre moghaylān, gham makhor

so first khār is the word for thorn, khar

khar

and he talks about khāre moghaylan, which Sahba translates as the Egyptian thorn, so let’s repeat that khāre moghaylan

khare moghaylan

And in the poem, this stands for difficulties- thorns. You know, we have the concept of a thorn in your side, so difficulties in the path. khare moghaylan

khareh moghaylan

And it starts with sarzanesh ha, which sarzanesh means reproach, meaning to rebuke you. sarzanesh

sarzanesh

and by saying sarzaneshhā he is making it plural, so rebukes. sarzaneshhā

sarzaneshhā

and of course we’ve had that word gar, which is short for agar or if. gar

gar

great, and finally, konad, means to do, and it’s actually making the full verb to rebuke. sarzanesh konad is to do a rebuke. so the full thing is saying sarzanesh hā gar konad, so rebukes if they are done by the Egyptian thorn, is a bit of a literal translation of this. so let’s repeat this part- 

sarzaneshhā

sarzanesh hā

gar konad

gar konad

if it is to rebuke you, sarzaneshhā gar konad, and then kharé moghaylān, the egyptian thorn. so let’s repeat that part, khāré moghaylān

khāré moghaylān

so sarzaneshhā gar konad khāré moghaylān, if the egyptian thorn is to rebuke you, and of course he ends it with gham makhor, do not despair. gham makhor

gham makhor

So all together, let’s listen to this first line again: 

در بیابان گر به شوقِ کعبه خواهی زد قدم     سرزنش‌ها گر کُنَد خارِ مُغیلان غم مخور

So now together, we can see that this line is saying in the desert if with  passion to the house of god you go in search of, if you are hit with the thorns of Egypt, do not despair. So if you come across thorns on your way to the house of god, do not despair. You’re going through the desert but you are passionate, and you’re coming across difficulties. 

All right! Let’s go over this first line with the second:

 در بیابان گر به شوقِ کعبه خواهی زد قدم     سرزنش‌ها گر کُنَد خارِ مُغیلان غم مخور

گرچه منزل بس خطرناک است و مقصد بس بعید     هیچ راهی نیست، کـ‌آن را نیست پایان، غم مخور

If you cross the desert in longing for the House of God,

Should the Egyptian thorn reproach you; grieve not!

Though the route is quite dangerous and the destination quite far,

There is no road that has no end; grieve not!

Great, so now this is one of my absolute favorite lines of the poem, and one I think we can all really relate to, especially during this time. For me, if there’s one mantra to repeat over and over again, it would be this line (hint, maybe a good one for you to memorize and keep in your back pocket. So let’s listen to the full line: 

گرچه منزل بس خطرناک است و مقصد بس بعید     هیچ راهی نیست، کـ‌آن را نیست پایان، غم مخور

Though the route is quite dangerous and the destination quite far,

There is no road that has no end; grieve not!

So first, gar ché manzel bas khatarnāk ast o maghsad bas ba’eed. 

garché is a word that means although. we use this all the time in conversational Persian- garché

garché

and then manzel. So manzel is very common in conversational Persian, and it means house. So if you say manzelé man, it means my house. So manzelé man

manzelé man

Again, very common. However, manzel here means a stop along the way. This word, especially in classic Persian, meant stops along the way of a caravan. So a stopping point, a manzel

manzel

so gar ché manzel bas khatarnāk ast. so khatarnāk is a great word, it means dangerous. khatarnāk

khatarnāk

so bas khatarnāk ast, and here bas is very. bas

bas

and ast of course means is. ast

ast

so bas khatarnāk ast means it is so dangerous. bas khatarnāk ast

bas khatarnāk ast

so garché manzel bas khatarnāk ast all together means although the stops are very dangerous. gar ché manzel bas khatarnāk ast

gar ché manzel bas khatarnāk ast

and then va maghsad bas ba’eed. So maghsad is the word for destination. maghsad

maghsad

and again, very common word in conversational Persian. maghsad

maghsad

and maghsad bas ba’eed. So ba’eed is an interesting word. When something is unlikely, or you doubt it, you say ba’eed meedoonam, which means I know it to be unlikely. This is a really common phrase- ba’eed meedoonam

ba’eed meedoonam

and bas ba’eed means it’s so far fetched, so unknown, so unlikely, or far. bas ba’eed

bas ba’eed

and let’s say the word ba’eed by itself- ba’eed

ba’eed

great so va maghsad bas ba’eed, and the destination is so far and unknown. va maghsad bas ba’eed

va maghsad bas ba’eed

Great, so the whole thing together, gar ché manzel bas khatarnāk ast o maghsad bas ba’eed, which Sahba translated as Though the route is quite dangerous and the destination quite far

and let’s repeat this bit by bit together-

gar ché manzel

gar ché manzel

bas khatarnāk ast

bas khatarnāk ast

o maghsad bas ba’eed

o maghsad bas ba’eed

and then the final portion of the line: 

هیچ راهی نیست، کـ‌آن را نیست پایان، غم مخور

heech rāhee neest, k’ān rā neest pāyān, gham makhor

Ah, amazing- so heech, none. heech

heech

and rāh means path. rāh

rāh

and rāhee, means a path, a particular path. rāhee

rāhee

and the neest means there is not. neest

neest

so heech rāhee neest means there is no path. heech rāhee neest

heech rāhee neest

and then he says k’ān rā neest pāyān. So this is an interesting and poetic construction, but let’s break it down. pāyān means a conclusion or end. pāyān

pāyān

and k’ān rā neest is actually ké ān rā neest- neest again we said there is not. neest

neest

and ké is the word for that. ké

ké

and when you combine ké with ān rā, ān is another word for that, which I know is confusing but you can think of it as that that doesn’t have. So like there is no path, for which there is not. k’ān rā neest, that that there is not. That other little word in there is rā, which as we’ve said before is a direct object marker- there’s no direct translation for that in English. But basically, heech rāhee neest, there is no path, k’ān ra neest, for which there isn’t, and finally pāyān, an end. So altogehter- heech rāhee neest k’ān rā neest pāyan, There is no road that has no end; and finally- gham makhor, do not despair. gham makhor

gham makhor

Ok great, let’s repeat all of that together bit by bit. 

heech rāhee neest, 

heech rāhee neest

k’ān rā neest pāyān

k’ān rā neest pāyān

, gham makhor

gham makhor

Amazing, and always wonderful to end on that note of our mantra here, gham makhor, gham makhor gham makhor

And now, let’s listen to today’s couplet again, one more time:

در بیابان گر به شوقِ کعبه خواهی زد قدم     سرزنش‌ها گر کُنَد خارِ مُغیلان غم مخور

گرچه منزل بس خطرناک است و مقصد بس بعید     هیچ راهی نیست، کـ‌آن را نیست پایان، غم مخور

If you cross the desert in longing for the House of God,

Should the Egyptian thorn reproach you; grieve not!

Though the route is quite dangerous and the destination quite far,

There is no road that has no end; grieve not!

Beautiful! And I want to end today’s lesson with listening to everything we’ve learned up to this point, hopefully now you’ll understand even more of the words- let these words wash over you today:

Amazing! And next week, we’ll be back with our very final lesson on this poem. And until then, thank you everyone for listening, and khodāhāfez, from Leyla.