Rudaki's shād zee

Hello and welcome to part 2 of this special shabé she'r poem by Rudaki, which we are calling shād zee because that’s the first two words in the poem. So in the last lesson, I was joined by friend of the podcast Yara Elmjouie. In the first episode, we went over the overall poem and the overall meaning, and in this one, I’m going to go over the individual words and phrases in the poem and learn how to use them in conversation. 

First, let’s listen to my aunt Farnaz recite the full poem:

shād zee bā seeyāh cheshmān shad, ké jahān neest joz fasāné ō bād

z'é āmadé tangdel nabāyad bood, va z'é gozashté nakard bāyad yād

All right! So we’re going to cover all of this in this one lesson since it’s such a short poem. So first, we have the word shād.

shād

Remember, as always, when I say a word, repeat it afterwards with me, out loud. So shād

And this simply means joyous or glad or happy. shād

shād

and the full command is shād zee

shād zee

So in this case, zee stands in for zendegee kon which means ‘live’, as in a command, ‘you live!’. So this is one of those poetic liberties that isn’t used in every day conversation. So you’re only going to hear zee in poetry, in place of the full phrase zendegee kon. So let’s repeat that together: zendegee kon

zendegee kon

And this is in command form- you can say a lot of different phrases this way. It’s one of those compound verbs that is very common in the Persian language- kon is short for the command bokon, which means ‘to do’. So really, fully, it means ‘to do life’, for example. zendegee is an amazing word, the word for ‘life’. zendegee

zendegee

and kon is short for bokon or 'to do'. kon

kon

So together, zendegee kon

zendegee kon

‘Do life!’ ‘Live!’ In the poem, however, it’s just shortened to zee

zee

So shād zee- ‘live happily’, ‘live joyously'! shād zee

shād zee

Next, bā seeyāh cheshmān

bā seeyāh cheshmān

And this simply means ‘with those with black eyes’ literally. But when you see seeyāh cheshmān in poetry, it stands in for the lover. So it’s kind of code or symbolism- just like when you see a flower in Persian poetry, it has a particular meaning, seeyāh cheshmān also has a particular meaning- he or she who you’re in love with, the person with the dark-colored eyes, which is kind of a romantic thing. So, let’s break it down literally. bā means ‘with’. bā

bā

And seeyāh means ‘black’. seeyāh

seeyāh

cheshm is the word for ‘eye’. cheshm

cheshm

And cheshmān makes it plural- so seeyāh cheshmān, ‘black eyes’. seeyāh cheshmān

And at the end, he repeats shād again, so ‘joyously, I tell you’. shād

shād

Let’s repeat this full line. 

shād zee bā seeyāh cheshmān shad

shād zee bā seeyāh cheshmān shad

All right! And now the next line: 

ké jahān neest joz fasāné ō bād

Ok, so let’s start with the word jahān here. jahān

jahān

And this means ‘the world’, but it could also mean, you know, ‘the universe’ or ‘this reality’. jahān

jahān

Next, the other nouns in this phrase are fasāné

fasāné

So interestingly, this is not how we say this word in modern Persian. It means ‘fantasy’, and this word in modern Persian is actually afsāné. 

afsāné

so fasāné the poetry version, and afsāné the modern spoken version- simple enough. Next we have the word bād, and this simply means ‘wind’. bād

bād

So now let’s look at the whole phrase- 

ké jahān neest joz fasāné ō bād

the word ké is most directly translated to that, but here it means ‘because’. ké

ké

ké jahān neest

ké jahān neest

And neest means ‘is not.’ neest

neest

ké jahān neest meaning ‘that the world is not’, ‘because the world is not’. ké jahān neest

ké jahān neest

and then joz fasāné ō bād

joz fasāné ō bād

And joz means ‘except’, ‘besides’, or ‘but’. joz

joz

So, the full phrase, ké jahān neest joz fasāné ō bād means that the world is nothing besides fantasy and wind. So this world is illusory, it’s not real.  

ké jahān neest joz fasāné ō bād

So ‘don’t take anything seriously- this is not real, it’s nothing’. Okay, next two lines:

z'é āmadé tangdel nabāyad bood, va z'é gozashté nakard bāyad yād

Okay, so first, we have zé āmadé- these are two words, but because of the rhyme and rhythm, they get reduced to z’āmadé

z’āmadé

so in this word zé means ‘from’ or ‘of’. zé

zé

Although in conversational Persian, zé is actually az. az

az

az, ‘from’ or 'of;, a very common word you’ll hear all the time. So now, the word āmadé- this is an example of how some Persian words can pack so much in when it takes several words in English to do the same. So in this case, āmadé means ‘that which is to come’, so the future. āmadé. So z’āmadé means ‘of the future’. z’āmadé

z’āmadé

Next we have the word tangdel. So one of the most beautiful things about the Persian language, as I’ve come to understand, is that so many times, we can talk about our feelings as related to the body. So del is the word for ‘heart’, and so many different words for feelings have to do with the way they make the heart feel. So for example, if you’re feeling depressed, you can say ‘delam gerefté’, which means ‘my heart is compressed’. delam gerefté

delam gerefté

Or if you say delshād-am- that means my heart is glad, I’m happy. delshād-am.

And if you say deltang-am, ‘my heart is tight’, it means you miss something or you’re feeling nostalgic. deltang-am

deltang-am

So in this case, the poem is saying tangdel, which is just a reversal of deltang. So it means the same thing- a ‘tight heart’ literally, or feeling sad or nostalgic. tangdel

tangdel

The word nabāyad means ‘must not’. bāyad means ‘must’. bāyad

bāyad

So nabāyad is the opposite. nabāyad

nabāyad

And finally, bood means ‘to be.’ bood

bood

So nabāyad bood means ‘must not be’. nabāyad bood

nabāyad bood

So let’s listen to that full phrase: 

z'é āmadé tangdel nabāyad bood

which means ‘we musn’t be sad about what’s to come’. Let’s say the full phrase together: 

z'é āmadé tangdel nabāyad bood

z'é āmadé tangdel nabāyad bood

Great, and the last part: 

va z'é gozashté nakard bāyad yād

All right! So va means ‘and’. va

va

And again, we have zé, but this time with gozashté, which means ‘the past’. gozashté

gozashté

so zé gozashté- of the past. zé gozashté

zé gozashté

And this, instead of nabāyad, we have nakard bāyad. nakard bāyad

nakard bāyad

So this is kind of awkward phrasing and not necessarily something we’d say in conversation. It’s more poetic. So nakard by itself means ‘should not do’. nakard

nakard

So for example, if you ask ‘did he do his homework?' mashghash-ō tamoom kard? someone could answer “nakard,” ‘he didn’t’. nakard

nakard

In this case, he’s saying nakard bāyad yād. yād means ‘remember’ or ‘dwell’, so yād

yād

So the full phrase, nakard bāyad yād, means something along the lines of ‘you musn’t dwell’, ‘it’s not necessary that you must dwell'. Maybe that’s a better way of saying it- it’s kind of saying it in a roundabout way. nakard bāyad yād

nakard bāyad yād

So now let’s say the full phrase: 

va z'é gozashté nakard bāyad yād

All right! So now, let’s go over the full poem line by line together! I’ll say one line, you repeat it after me:

shād zee bā seeyāh cheshmān shad, 

shād zee bā seeyāh cheshmān shad, 

ké jahān neest joz fasāné ō bād

ké jahān neest joz fasāné ō bād

z'é āmadé tangdel nabāyad bood,

z'é āmadé tangdel nabāyad bood

va z'é gozashté nakard bāyad yād

va z'é gozashté nakard bāyad yād

All right, that’s the full thing! Now, let’s listen to Farnaz recite the poem out loud, and see how much you can understand this time around:

shād zee bā seeyāh cheshmān shad, ké jahān neest joz fasāné ō bād

z'é āmadé tangdel nabāyad bood, va z'é gozashté nakard bāyad yād

And that’s a wrap! Hopefully you understood all the words this time around. Remember on the lesson page for this lesson, we have a full lesson guide, where you can really study these words and phrases. In addition, you can listen to the poem word by word and line by line to really get the words and phrases down yourself. And I now encourage you to memorize this poem and film yourself reciting it in a beautiful location! There’s a link to all the videos we receive for the poem again on the lesson page for this lesson, so you can submit your video and check out all the other videos that have been submitted there in our community group.

Thanks so much for coming on this fun journey with me, and until next time,

khodāhāfez from Leyla!