Nezami Ganjavi's sokhanee chand dar eshgh (A Few Words on Love)

Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation, Nezami’s A Few Words on Love, an excerpt from the romance of Khosrow and Shirin, Part 5.

salām bé hamegee and welcome to Part 5 of our discussion of the excerpt we’re calling "A Few Words on Love" from Khosrow and Shirin written by Nezami. To begin, as always, let’s listen to my khālé Farnaz recite the whole poem, up to where we’ll be learning today. Hopefully you’ll understand most of it at this point!

marā k'az eshgh beh nāyad sho'āree.

mabādā tā zeeyam joz eshgh kāree.

falak joz eshgh mehrābee nadārad.

jahān bee khāké eshgh ābee nadārad.

gholāmé eshgh shō k'andeeshé een ast!

hamé sāhebdelān-rā peeshé een ast.

jahān eshgh-ast ō deegar zargh-sāzee.

hamé bāzee-st elā eshgh-bāzee.

agar bee eshgh boodee jāné ālam

ké boodee zendé dar dorāné ālam?

kasee k'az eshgh khālee shod fesord-ast.

garash sad jān bovad bee eshgh mord-ast.

narooyad tokhmé kas bee dānéyé eshgh.

kas eeman neest joz dar khānéyé eshgh.

zé soozé eshgh behtar dar jahān chee-st?

ké bee oo gol nakhandeed, abr nagreest.

All right, wonderful! Now, let’s go over these last two lines:

narooyad tokhmé kas bee dānéyé eshgh.

First, we have the word “narooyad.” This means ‘doesn’t grow’. narooyad.

Then “tokhmé kas,” “tokhm” is the word for ‘seed’. tokhm.

We see that in the word “tokhmé morgh,” which means ‘egg’, ‘the seed of the chicken’, basically. tokhmé morgh.

And then “tokhmé kas” means ‘the egg of a person’. tokhmé kas.

So “narooyad tokhmé kas,” ‘it doesn’t grow, the seed of a person’. narooyad tokhmé kas.

And then “bee dānéyé eshgh.” “bee” means ‘without’. bee.

And “dāné” is also a word for ‘seed’. dāné.

“dānéyé eshgh” means ‘the seed of love’. dānéyé eshgh.

So “narooyad tokhmé kas bee dānéyé eshgh” means ‘it does not grow, the seed of a person, without the seed of love’, and Sahba translated it a bit more interpretatively, saying ‘the fruit of no one’s loins grow sans the seed of love’. Now, let’s repeat the whole thing together: narooyad tokhmé kas…

bee dānéyé eshgh.

Okay, next, the next line: “kas eeman neest joz dar khānéyé eshgh.” “kas” again means ‘person', singular. kas.

Then “eeman neest,” “eeman” means ‘safe’. This is the poetic version. In conversational Persian, we say “amn” for ‘safe’ or “amneeyat,” ‘safety’. amneeyat.

And “neest” means ‘is not’. neest.

So “kas eeman neest,” ‘one is not safe’. kas eeman neest.

“joz dar khānéyé eshgh,” “joz” means ‘besides’. joz.

“dar” means ‘in’. dar.

And “khānéyé eshgh” means ‘the house of love’. “khāné” by itself is ‘house’. khāné.

In spoken Persian, you’ll often hear this as “khooné.” khooné.

And then “khānéyé eshgh,” ‘the house of love’. khānéyé eshgh.

So “kas eeman neest joz dar khānéyé eshgh” is ‘one is not safe, besides in the house of love’. Let’s repeat it all together: kas eeman neest…

joz dar khānéyé eshgh.

Next line: “zé soozé eshgh behtar dar jahān chee-st?” First, “zé” means from. zé.

Which is often “az” in conversational Persian. az.

And here, “zé.”

Then “soozé eshgh,” “sooz” means ‘burn’. sooz.

“soozé eshgh,” ‘the burn of love’. soozé eshgh.

And then “behtar dar jahān chee-st?” “behtar” means ‘better’. behtar.

“dar” means ‘in’. dar.

Then “jahān” means ‘the world’. jahān.

And finally, "chee-st?” means ‘what is there?’. chee-st?

And that’s a combination of “chee ast?” ‘what is?’. chee ast?

chee-st?

Okay, so all together: ‘than the burn of love, what better is there in the world?’, basically. zé soozé eshgh…

behtar dar jahān chee-st?

Wonderful! Then “ké bee oo gol nakhandeed, abr nagreest,” first, we have “ké,” which, in this context, means ‘because’. ké.

Then “bee” means ‘without’. bee.

So then we have “ké bee oo,” and “oo” is really nice, because it can mean ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’. In this case, it means ‘it’ because it’s referring to the “sooz” from the line before, or the ‘burning sensation’. oo.

Then “gol nakhandeed,” “gol” is the word for ‘flower’. gol.

And “khandeedan” means ‘to laugh’, so “nakhandeed” is ‘it doesn’t laugh’. nakhandeed.

So “gol nakhandeed,” ‘the flower didn’t laugh’. gol nakhandeed.

And then “abr nagreest,” “abr” is ‘cloud’. abr.

And “nagreest” means ‘to cry’. nagreest.

Again, it’s “ké bee oo gol nakhandeed, abr nagreest,” so ‘without it, the flower does not laugh, and the cloud does not cry’. We said, again, that the “oo” refers to the “sooz” or the ‘burn’, but Sahba explained in the introduction that “sooz” doesn’t always refer to just ‘burning’. It could also be cold, like “soozé sarmā,” ‘the burning of the cold’. In this case, it’s saying without that “sooz,” the flower doesn’t blossom, the cloud doesn’t rain. Again, let’s repeat that, bit by bit: ké bee oo…

gol nakhandeed…

abr nagreest.

Okay, wonderful! Now, once again, let’s listen to my khālé Farnaz repeat those two lines that we just learned:

narooyad tokhmé kas bee dānéyé eshgh.

kas eeman neest joz dar khānéyé eshgh.

zé soozé eshgh behtar dar jahān chee-st?

ké bee oo gol nakhandeed, abr nagreest.

All right, wonderful! We’ve learned most of the poem at this point. We just have one part left, which we will cover next week in the thrilling conclusion to this poem! Thank you so much for having been with us up to this point; back next week with the final lines, and until then, khodāhāfez from Leyla!