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 2.

Hello and welcome to Part 2 of our discussion of this excerpt from the Romance of Khosrow and Shirin from Nezami! In Part 1, we talked to the amazing Dr. Sahba Shayani about the overall message and meaning of the poem. Since we had our conversation last week, I did a deep dive into this story, the love story or romance between Khosrow and Shirin. Oh my goodness, it was not what I was expecting at all! I highly recommend looking the story up; I just read a synopsis, and now I’m so curious to read the full text by Nezami! This is only a part of that text, and like Sahba said in the introduction to this lesson, it’s a deep dive into the philosophy of what love is. I’m so curious how this plays out in the overall story! I don’t want to give any spoilers; it’s such a twisted, dark story, but that’s for another time!

Today, we’re going to focus on the first two lines of the selectionof Khosrow and Shirin, and go over the meanings of the individual words and phrase in the selection. This way, you can really dive into the meaning of the poem and understand it for yourself. In addition, you’ll be able to use the words and phrases in the poem in everyday Persian conversation. I again stress how incredible it is that we can read a poem from centuries ago in the Persian language and still use that language to this day when we speak! 

To begin, we’re going to listen to Farnaz Nouri, my khālé, or aunt on my mother’s side, recite the first four lines of the poem:

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.

Wonderful, so now. let’s begin with that very first line! I’m going to play it again one more time:

marā k'az eshgh beh nāyad sho'āree.

mabādā tā zeeyam joz eshgh kāree.

Okay, so let’s begin with that word “marā.” “marā” is actually short for “man-rā.” “man” is the word for' me', and “-rā” is what we call a direct object marker. We use it all the time in the Persian language. It points to what we’re talking about, and it’s one of those things that is best understood through practice. Now, here, there’s a little bit of a complicating factor in that in this classical form, it can also act as an indirect object marker, meaning pointing to the ‘me’, so “marā” here means ‘to me’. In modern-day Persian, you would say “bé man” to mean the same thing, so ‘to me’ in modern Persian would be “bé man.” Let’s repeat that together: bé man.

And here, in this poem, it’s “marā.”

Great! Then “k’az eshgh.” First, the word “eshgh” means ‘love’. eshgh.

And this is the common word we use today. It’s a little difficult to pronounce because it has those two consonants together, but it’s super important because it’s what the entire poem is about. So let’s repeat that again: eshgh!

Then “k’az” is a short version of “ké az,” which are two very common short little words. “ké” means ‘that’. ké.

And “az” means ‘of’. az.

And I probably shouldn't have to remind you at this point, but remember, when I say a word, you should say it out loud after me, so again, ‘love’, eshgh…

…‘that’ is ké…

…and “az” means ‘of’. az.

So “ké az” together is ‘that of’. ké az.

“marā k’az eshgh,” ‘to me, that of love’. marā k'az eshgh.

Then “beh nāyad sho'āree.” “beh nāyad” is an older term we wouldn’t use in modern conversation, but “āyad” is ‘to come’, and “nāyad” is ‘to not come’. The “beh” in front of it actually means ‘better’, and this is something we see in words like “behtar,” which means ‘better’, and “behtareen,” which means ‘best’. All together, this word “beh nāyad” means ‘better doesn’t come’. beh nāyad.

Although we wouldn’t use this specific word, we do learn these other important modern words we can use in conversation. Again, “behtar” means ‘better’. behtar.

And “behtareen” means ‘best’. behtareen.

Great! The last word in this phrase is “sho'āree,” and “sho'ār” means a ‘slogan’ or ‘speech’. sho'ār.

However, in Classical Persian poetry, it actually means more than just ‘speech’. It’s a ‘practice’ or an ‘act’, so again, sho'ār.

And when you add “-ee” to the end of a Persian word, you make it singular, so ‘a practice’, “sho'āree.”

The same would go for any noun. You could say ‘apple’, “seeb…”

…and ‘an apple’, “seebee.”

Okay, so all together, we have “marā k'az eshgh beh nāyad sho'āree,” which means ‘to me, that of love, there doesn’t come a better practice’, meaning ‘there is no greater practice, or greater act, save the act of love’. Let’s now repeat that full phrase together bit by bit: marā k’az eshgh…

beh nāyad sho'āree.

Okay, wonderful! Let’s listen to that first part as read by my khālé Farnaz, and then hear the second part of the line:

marā k'az eshgh beh nāyad sho'āree.

mabādā tā zeeyam joz eshgh kāree.

Okay, great! We have "mabādā tā zeeyam joz eshgh kāree." Now, we have that word “eshgh” again, the word for ‘love’. Let’s repeat that again: eshgh.

And it begins with the word “mabādā.” mabādā.

Now this is a word that’s common in current conversational Persian. It’s a little bit difficult to translate because it doesn’t have a direct translation, but it means something along the lines of ‘you do not’, as a kind of caution or command. For example, “mabādā beree beeroon,” ‘you mustn’t go out’. I kind of think of it as the outdated saying ‘lest ye’, which is the result of if you do something that you “mabādā,” or ‘shouldn’t do’. “mabādā doroogh begee,” ‘you mustn’t lie’. Okay, let’s repeat this together: mabādā.

Then “tā,” which means ‘as long as’. tā.

And then “zeeyam,” which means ‘I live’. zeeyam.

This is an outdated word, but the word for ‘life’ is “zendegee,” so you can see they’re similar. zendegee.

‘Life’, and “zeeyam,” ‘I am alive’. zeeyam.

So “tā zeeyam,” ‘as long as I live’. tā zeeyam.

So let’s repeat this all together: “mabādā tā zeeyam!”

Meaning ‘may it not be as long as I live!’. mabādā tā zeeyam!

It’s almost like saying ‘God forbid as long as I’m alive!’. You could think of it that way. mabādā tā zeeyam!

And next, “joz eshgh kāree." “joz” means ‘besides’, and it is a common word used today. joz. 

And “eshgh," of course, we know means ‘love’. eshgh.

And you know that as many times as we repeat it, it’s not enough! We need to keep repeating this word over and over, not only because it’s the subject of this poem, which argues it’s the most important word in the world, but also in general, it’s a very commonly used word in Persian. eshgh.

Great! And finally, the word “kāree.” “kār” means ‘work’. kār.

And, as you learned in the first part of the phrase, when you add “-ee” to the end of the word, it makes it a particular work. In this case, “kāree” means ‘any work’. kāree.

So “joz eshgh kāree” all together means ‘any work besides love’. joz eshgh kāree.

So all together, it’s “mabādā tā zeeyam joz eshgh kāree!” meaning ‘God forbid as long as I’m alive, I do any work besides that of love!’. So let’s repeat it all together slowly: mabādā tā zeeyam joz eshgh kāree!

Wonderful! Now let’s do both these phrases together, very slowly, one at a time. Repeat after me: 

marā k’az eshgh benāyad shoāree.

mabādā tā zeeyam joz eshgh kāree.

Perfect! Now let’s listen to that first line, followed by the second part:

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.

Okay, so hopefully, you understood that first line this time around. Now, let’s listen to the second part again: 

falak joz eshgh mehrābee nadārad.

jahān bee khāké eshgh ābee nadārad.

Maybe you recognized that these two have a really similar structure, so that should make them really simple to learn. First, they both end with the word “nadārad.” Let’s repeat that: nadārad.

And that means ‘doesn’t have’. Okay, so we’re going to learn about something that doesn’t have something else, and we should recognize the central theme of the poem here, and that is the word eshgh…

..which means love. Okay, great! The first line: “falak joz eshgh mehrābee nadārad.” First, the word “falak” means ‘the sky’ or ‘heavens’. falak.

And we don’t really use this on its own in modern Persian, but we do have a word that is common in modern conversational Persian that uses the word falak, and that is “charkh ō falak,” literally ‘spinning and sky’, which is a ferris wheel. charkh ō falak.

Great! Then we have that word “joz,” which we had in the first line when we said mabādā tā zeeyam joz eshgh kāree. It simply means ‘besides’. joz.

Very simple, very common word. Next, “mehrāb” is the word for ‘altar’, so ‘a focal point’. Of course, as we’ve learned before, adding “-ee” to the end makes it singular, so ‘an altar’. mehrābee.

And the last word is “nadārad,” which again means ‘doesn’t have’. So the full thing now: “falak joz eshgh mehrābee nadārad.” ‘The heavens, besides love, does not have an altar or a focal point’, meaning love is the focal point of the heavens. Let’s repeat that: falak joz eshgh…

mehrābee nadārad.

Or, as Sahba translates it, ‘the Universe has no axis save that of love’s’. Great! The next line is “jahān bee khāké eshgh ābee nadārad.” Okay, so you, again, should recognize two words here at lest. The first is eshgh.

‘Love’, and the other is nadārad.

‘Doesn’t have’. So first, the word “jahān,” which is a magnificent word, and it means ‘the world’ or ‘the universe’. jahān.

Next, “bee” means ‘without’. bee.

“khāk” is the word for ‘dirt’ or ‘earth’ or ‘soil’. khāk.

And when we say “khāké eshgh,” that “é” sound in between acts as an “ezāfé,” linking the two words together, making it ‘the soil of love’. khāké eshgh.

Then “ābee,” the word “āb” means ‘water’, very common word! āb.

And “ābee” makes it ‘any water’. ābee.

So all together, “jāhan bee khāké eshgh ābee nadārad” means ‘the universe’ or ‘the world, without the soil of love, doesn’t have any water’ or, as Sahba translates it, ‘without the soil of love, the earth has no seas’. Okay, let’s repeat this together again bit by bit: jāhan bee khāké eshgh…

ābee nadārad.

Wonderful! Now, let’s hear these two lines together again once more:

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.

All right, hopefully, this time, you understood both lines! That’s all we’re going to learn this week. Your goal this week is to go back through and learn these lines completely. Go through the lesson guide on our website to read more about the lines, and make sure you understand the meaning of all these words. You can also go through each of the lines individually and hear them recited by my khālé Farnaz, and also listen to me say each of the individual words slowly. 

Next week, we’ll be back with the next two lines. Remember, ultimately, we’ll ask you to memorize this whole poem and be able to recite it aloud from memory in a beautiful location, so get started now! 

And that’s it for this week. We'll be back next week for Part 2 of this beautiful poem that we’re calling a Few Words on Love, an excerpt from the romance of Khosrow and Shirin by Nezāmi of Ganjeh.