A Separation, Part 4

Leyla: A Separation with Yara Elmjouie, Part Four.

salām, yārā jān, welcome back to Part Four of our Separation series!

Yara: salām, leylā jān, thanks for having me! Excited to, you know, we're working our way through this!

Leyla: I know, I'm excited because today we get to introduce a new character. So far, it's just been Peyman Moaadi with these women, which this movie does pass the Bechdel Test, if anyone knows what that is. You know what that is, Yara?

Yara: Yes, it is female representation in films and how the women characters are basically depicted.

Leyla: So, the three rules is that two women characters talk to each other, have more than one sentence that they talk to one another, and then the second is that they each have names, and then the third is that they talk to each other about something other than a man. So, very few movies pass the Bechdel Test, but this one does. There's a lot of conversations happening with the women, not about men. So I just want to put that out there, but now, we're going to have a conversation between two men. So let's go ahead and listen to our clip.

Nader: yé zahmatee bekesheen...

Hodjat: salām... samadee hastam. barāyé kār paydātoon kardam.

Nader: balé, hāletoon khoob-é?

Hodjat: bebakhsheed, yé khoordé deer kardam.

Nader: eshkālee nadāré, khāhesh meekonam. shomā farmoodeed ghablan kojā kār meekardeen?

Hodjat: too kāré kafāshee boodam.

Nader: khob, oonvakht bā nezāfatesh ō eenā ké moshkelee nadāreen?

Hodjat: chee?

Nader: arz kardam... az deerooz nemeetooné khodesh-ō negah dāré.

Hodjat: na, ayb nadāré. oon ham jāyé pedaram-é.

Nader: faghat chon tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé, kesé deegéyee too khooné neest, bāyad khayli morāghebesh bāsheenā!

Hodjat: khānevādé tashreef nadāran?

Nader: na, man fe’lan mojarad-am.

Hodjat: faghat, jesāratan, een kāree ké meefarmāyeed bā seesad yé khoordé kam neest?

Nader: shomā khodet roo cheghadr nazaret-é?

Hodjat: shomā agé faghat chahār sad masalan, hadé aghal...

Nader: man chahār sad-ō vāgh’an nemeetoonam...

Hodjat: man chand rooz meeyām emtehānee, kāram-ō bebeeneed, agé rāzee boodeen yé cheezee bezāreen roosh. agé rāzee naboodeen...

Nader: bāshé, bezār yād dāsht konam.

Hodjat: az emrooz ham agé bekhāyn meetoonam beeyām.

Nader: emrooz kesee hastesh. shomā mohabat kon faghat az fardā beeyā. yé kārté shenāsāyee bā khodetoon beeyār.

Hodjat: kārté melee eenā?

Nader: fargh nemeekoné. shenāsnāmé, kārté melee, har chee. beeyāreen bā khodetoon ké...

Leyla: Ooh! So it's a direct continuation of our last conversation.

Yara: Mm-hmm, absolutely, absolutely. All right, so shall we play just the first two lines, perhaps?

Leyla: Yes.

Nader: yé zahmatee bekesheen...

Hodjat: salām... samadee hastam. barāyé kār paydātoon kardam.

Nader: balé, hāletoon khoob-é?

Hodjat: bebakhsheed, yé khoordé deer...

Leyla: So we see that Peyman Moaadi is working at a bank. So that's why he wanted to meet at the bank last time, so... go ahead!

Yara: Yeah. So, you know, he's talking to somebody else, I believe, at the beginning: “yé zahmatee bekesheen...” Figured I’d insert that in there. Just ‘do me a favor’, ‘do’... “zahmat” is like ‘toiling’, I guess? ‘Labor’? I don’t know; how would you describe “zahmat”?

Leyla: A ‘trouble’, like ‘go through this trouble for me’.

Yara: Exactly. Perfectly said. Yeah. So he's finishing up a conversation with someone else, and then the guy approaches, and then he says, “salām, samadee hastam.” So he's introducing himself with his last name. It's a very formal way. It's like ‘hi, I'm Smith’ or ‘hi, I'm Johnson’. “barāyé kār,” what is it? “barāyé kār paydātoon kardam,” ‘I found you for work’; basically, he's trying to say that 'I'm here'. Basically, the conversation has been had between his wife and him about how this guy is offering work, and he's saying, ‘I'm here. I found you because of the work opportunity’. And then he says, ‘yes’. He responds, ‘yes, how are you?’ “hāletoon khoob-é?” So, yeah, do you want to kind of go after that? I think that's pretty self-explanatory. Any other notes you want to add?

Leyla: No, that's good. “hāletoon khoob-é?” ‘Are you well?’. And then he goes, “bebakhsheed, yé khoordé,” “bebakhsheed, yé khoordé deer kardam.” Okay, that's interesting, so ‘I'm sorry’, “bebakhsheed,” ‘I'm sorry’. “yé khoordé,” ‘a little bit’, “deer kardam,” ‘I came late’. And so, the verb is “deer kardan,” ‘to do late’. So he says ‘I did late’. So it means ‘I arrived a little late’.

Okay, let's listen to that.

Hodjat: salām... samadee hastam. barāyé kār paydātoon kardam.

Nader: balé, hāletoon khoob-é?

Hodjat: bebakhsheed, yé khoordé deer kardam.

Nader: eshkālee nadāré, khāhesh meekonam. shomā farmoodeed ghablan kojā kār meekardeen?

Hodjat: too kāré kafāshee boodam.

Yara: So we already had “bebakhsheed, yé khoord deer kardam,” and then the main character here responds again and says, “eshkālee...”

Leyla: “eshkālee nadāré,” ‘there's no problem’. “eshkālee nadāré,” ‘it's okay that you're a little late’. “khāhesh meekonam,” ‘it's no problem’. “khāhesh meekonam,” we’ve learnt in the last lesson. It could be used as ‘you're welcome’ or ‘it's not a problem. I'm forgiving it. I've forgiven it’. “khāhesh meekonam,” ‘I forgive’.

Yara: And just to add here, we have so many different ways of saying ‘no problem’. We've come across “mas’alé-ee neest.” He could have said “mas’alé-ee neest” here. He could also say “moshkelee neest,” ‘there's no problem’. He's now saying “eshkālee nadāré,” so if you know a little bit of Arabic, you know that “moshkel” and “eshkāl,” sh-k-l, are two words that are related. So we now have three ways of saying ‘no problem’ that mean quite literally the same thing. And then “khāhesh meekonam,” the formality just is attached to the end of that.

Leyla: Okay, and then...

Yara: This next part...

Leyla: Yeah, go ahead, you do that!

Yara: Oh, this part? Okay. So this is something we mentioned in the previous episode, and we're now seeing it play out live. So he then says, ‘yeah. No problem’, da-da-da, “shomā farmoodeed ghablan kojā kār meekardeen?” So here we see the word “farmoodan,” the verb “farmoodan,” flexible, multi-dimensional word of formality that we are now seeing used. He's saying, ‘so...’ He's trying to just say... “shomā farmoodeed ghablan kojā kār meekardeen?” ‘So where did you say you worked again?’ Kind of that sort of vibe is what he's trying to say to the man approaching him for work. And “farmoodan” here is just like “goftan.” “shomā gofteen ghablan kojā kār meekardeen?” but he's being extra polite, saying “shomā farmoodeed ghablan kojā kār meekardeen?” So this “farmoodan” verb, so, so useful!

Leyla: Yeah, that's good. And then he said, “too kāré kafāshee boodam.” So “kafsh” is the word for ‘shoe’. “kafāshee” is ‘a cobbler’, so someone who fixes shoes, so ‘I was in the work of fixing shoes’.

Yara: Exactly, “too kāré kafāshee boodam.” Perfect.

Nader: khob, oonvakht bā nezāfatesh ō eenā ké moshkelee nadāreen?

Leyla: Okay!

Yara: Ooh, very fast!

Leyla: Yeah.

Yara: So, I guess I could explain, and it was also said very, very quickly. I think when I was transcribing this, I was like “whoa, whoa, whoa, all right!” “khob, oonvakht bā nezāfatesh ō eenā ké moshkelee nadāreen?” So, “khob,” it means ‘good’. “oonvakht,” ooh, this is like ‘and so’, ‘and then’...

Leyla: ‘And then’.

Yara: Yeah, ‘and then’. It's kind of like... it literally means ‘that time’, “oonvakht,” but it really is kind of like a filler word again. Like, “oonvakht,” sometimes I'm just like “oonvakht kay gharb-ō beeyāy?” So I'm just kind of thinking, I'll just throw it in. “oonvakht bā nezāfetesh ō eenā,” so what he's saying, “nezāfat” is an Arabic word; has to do with cleanliness, so ‘you don't have any issue’. “bā nezāfatesh ō eenā moshkelee nadāreen.” So ‘you don't have any issue with the cleanliness and all’, “eenā.”

Leyla: ‘Or ‘cleaning’, ‘to cleaning’, “nezāfatesh ō...” And he's referring to a thing, like something that you're going to have to clean. So ‘you're not, you don't have any issues with cleaning him?’. And again, we don't have pronouns in the Persian language, so this could be referring to ‘him’, ‘her’, or ‘it’. So “bā nezāfatesh ō...”

Yara: Yeah, ‘with his cleaning, you have no problems?’. And then the man responds; this is the part we have to listen to next.

Leyla: Yeah.

Hodjat: chee?

Nader: arz kardam... az deerooz nemeetooné khodesh-ō negah dāré.

Leyla: Mmm, so he goes like “chee?” ‘What?’ with the ‘what??’.

Yara: ‘What do you mean? What cleaning?’. Yeah.

Leyla: Yeah. And he goes “arz kardam.” So this is a really good phrase, too, and it's another one of those formal phrases. “arz kardam,” ‘I declared’. “arz kardam.”

Yara: Right. ‘I said’; he's basically saying ‘I already said’. Even though it literally is just like ‘I said’, what it really means is ‘I already told you’. ‘As I said’.

Leyla: Or it's kind of like ‘I repeat’. Like, it's not impolite. It's not like he's saying ‘I already said it!’. He's just saying ‘I repeat’, ‘let me tell you again’. “az deerooz nemeetooné khodesh-ō negah dāré.” So again, this is another thing where we don't know who he's referring to, but in context, obviously, he's put up an ad for someone to take care of his father, so he's referring to his father. He says, “az deerooz,” ‘from yesterday’, “nemeetooné khodesh-ō negah dāré.” “negah dāré” means ‘to hold him’, so ‘from yesterday, he can't hold himself’. So now we know what he’s referring to.

Yara: Those are the only details we get, right? He can't hold himself, which, you know, it means he can't... he urinates, basically. He can't hold his bladder, I guess is kind of the situation with the father. And just to kind of go back, there's two things. So the “arz kardam” thing, and I agree with you; it means ‘I repeat’ or ‘as I said’, you know, because it's past tense: “arz kardam.” But I've seen this used in both ways. I have been in conversation sometimes with older people in Iran, and sometimes, they're getting a little frustrated, and I didn't understand what they may have said or an argument they were making. They'd be like “arz kardam!” ‘As I said!’ and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa!

And other times it can just be you know, very direct, neutral, like ‘as I said,' da-da-da-da-da. The second thing I want to draw attention to here is... this is very funny! So “negah dāshtan,” the correct way, is ‘to hold’ yourself, ‘to hold’ whatever, in this case, for the father to hold his, you know, urge to go to the bathroom, but sometimes “negah” almost becomes “negar.” “khodesh-ō nemeetooneed,” listen closely again: “nemeetooné khodesh-ō negah dāré.” So I don't know what the situation is in terms of the spoken versus the written, but I've heard “negar” a lot when we're speaking colloquially, which... yeah.

Leyla: Yeah, that's interesting. So “negah” versus “negar,” ‘to keep’, ‘to hold’. Should we keep listening?

Hodjat: na, ayb nadāré. oon ham jāyé pedaram-é.

Leyla: Yeah, he says, “na, ayb nadāré. oon ham jāyé pedaram-é.” So that's a really nice thing to say. He says, “na, ayb nadāré,” ‘no, it's no trouble. There's no worries’. ‘No, nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that’. “oon ham jāyé pedaram-é,” so ‘he is in the place of my father’, so ‘I would treat him as I treat my father’. So he’s saying ‘don't’... ‘there's nothing to be ashamed of.’

Yara: And here, we see a contraction again. “ayb” becomes “eb,” so “barāyé” becomes “baré,” “aslan” becomes “asan,” “ayb” becomes “eb.” “eb nadāré.” So yeah, another way of saying “moshkelee neest,” “mas’alé-ee neest,” “eshkālee nadāré,” “eb nadāré,” I mean, good lord! There's so many ways Iranians can say ‘no problem’, yeah, so that's perfectly said. Now let's go to the next one.

Nader: faghat chon tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé, kesé deegéyee too khooné neest, bāyad khayli morāghebesh bāsheenā!

Leyla: Okay!

Yara: Very quickly, mm-hmm! So, here, we have “faghat chon tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé, kesé deegéyee too khooné neest, bāyad khayli morāghebesh bāsheenā!” So this is a lot of... this is something that I feel like a sentence here where so many things are crammed together. In spoken Persian, we just cram and layer verbs, you know? So it's like “faghat chon tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé,” let me see, sounds like “tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé, kesé-ee deegé-ee too khooné neest.” So these are two thoughts: “faghat chon tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé,” one thought, but it's a continuation of the sentence, “kesé deegé too khooné neest.” So ‘because you're alone together’, one thought, “faghat chon tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé,” ‘no one else is in the home with you’.

“bāyad khayli morāghebesh bāsheenā!” ‘you must be, you must take care of him’. ‘You must be very... very attentive to him, uh!’. This sort of, this cobbling together of ideas into a sentence like “faghat chon tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé, kesé deegéyee too khooné neest, bāyad khayli morāghebesh bāsheenā,” so it's kind of like, I feel like if I were to write this with the correct filler words to construct a full sentence, it’d be “faghat chon tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé, kesé deegéyee too khooné neest,” comma, “bāyad khayli morāghebesh bāsheenā!” But here it's just like “faghat chon tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé, kesé deegéyee too khooné neest, bāyad khayli morāghebesh bāsheenā!” so it's just... yeah, I don't know how to describe this compounding of verbs and clauses sometimes into a sentence.

Leyla: Well, did you talk about the two different meanings of “deegé” here again?

Yara: Oh, interesting!

Leyla: So here, “deegé” is not just filler. “ham deegé” means ‘together’, so there, it actually means something. “bā ham deegé,” so it's not, it means... “bā ham deegé.” “ham deegé” is a word by itself. It's like ‘together’. So “faghat chon tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé,” so ‘since you're alone together’, “kesé deegéyee,” ‘there's not another’, so “deegé” means ‘another' here. Yeah, ‘another’. “too khooné neest, bāyad khayli morāgheb bāsheenā!” and it has the “-ā” that we had last time where it's like ‘eh?’.

Yara: ‘Ah!’ It's kind of like shaking the finger. ‘Ah! You need to be attentive to him, ah!’

Leyla: Exactly, exactly.

Yara: ‘Yeah. So okay, next line, or next two lines or, sorry, two or three, I don't know.

Hodjat: khānevādé tashreef nadāran?

Nader: na, man fe’lan mojarad-am.

Leyla: Okay. So he says, “khānevādé tashreef nadāran?” and “tashreef,” we've had that before. I think “tashreef dāshtan” is ‘to be there’ or ‘to...’ How do you define it?

Yara: Yeah, I mean, how to say...? ‘The family... is not...’ I mean, to be “sharaf...” Yeah. It's not ‘present’. The direct meaning is ‘present’, but “sharaf” has something to do ‘with honor’, so I almost see it as, like, ‘the family...’. The meaning is ‘the family isn't there, isn't home’ or whatever, or, you know, ‘your family is at home with you’, but the maybe the more literal translation would be ‘the family isn't gracing the home with their presence’! You know, very formal, and then he just says, “na, man fe’lan mojarad-am,” ‘no, I'm currently single’.

Leyla: Right. “fe’lan,” ‘at the moment’.

Yara: “fe’lan,” and one thing I should note, too, with “tashreef”: Do you sense that sometimes, people also eliminate the “r” when they're speaking very quickly? “khānevādé tasheef nadāran?” You know? It's almost like “tasheef,” but I almost sometimes don't hear the “r,” so “khānevādé tasheef nadāran?” Yeah, it's another contraction, I feel, in colloquial Persian.

Leyla: It could be. All right, next part.

Hodjat: faghat, jesāratan, een kāree ké meefarmāyeed bā seesad yé khoordé kam neest?

Nader: shomā khodet roo cheghadr nazaret-é?

Leyla: Okay! So here we're back in negotiations again, so let's go over these, and let's compare them to how he kind of reacted to her negotiations!

Yara: So this is one of my absolute all-time favorite formal words! We've got a lot of “farmāyesh,” “farmoodeen,” we've got all those, and now we're going to get to a whole new level of formality here, which is the word “jesāratan.” I love this word! I believe it is connected to the Arabic “jasoor” or ‘courageous, brave’. So here, “faghat, jesāratan,” it really is a word; you can throw this into any conversation when you're like ‘if I may impose’! It's kind of just, the translation is ‘if I may go so far as to say’, ‘if I...’ Or you could think of a British wizard or something, like ‘if I may impose...’! ‘If I may...’ what's the word, ‘hazard this thought...’! Think of that when you use this word! It's like you want to say something, but you're a little bit afraid it might be too much. You don't want to overstep your bounds. You don't want to be impolite. Like your boss says, “Hey, I need you to come work on Saturday,” and you're like “oh, absolutely, sir! I'm so down to work on Saturday! It's my duty, but...” and then you want to say, like, “oh, but I have this birthday I want to go to,” and you're going to be like “jesāratan...”

Leyla: ‘If I may just impose…'

Yara: '…a thought, it's my friend's birthday!’ And so, what he's about to do now, this guy, is, like, “faghat, jesāratan, een kāree ké befarmāyeed...” “befarmāyeed!” “een kāree ké meefarmāyeed bā seesad yé khoordé kam neest?” so he's now trying to go against what he just said. So he's taken a step; he's taken a step of courage. ‘This work you want me to do for your father, taking care of him, isn't 300,000 toman? Isn't that a little too little?’

Leyla: Especially given this new information about the not being able to hold himself! He's like… ‘you want me to deal with this?’ “jesāratan...” ‘Come on!’ And yeah, I definitely think that this word is a next-level Persian language unlock, so definitely practice using this word in conversation this week: jesāratan! I love it.

Yara: So good! Anything else also, like, just imagine if you have a Iranian boyfriend or girlfriend, you want to go to the parents house, and it's going to be so good! And you're at the parents house, let's see, and the parents are like “oh my God, we're so happy to have your partner over, so excited!” And then maybe the partner who's learning Persian can be like... what else? What else do they want to say? I mean, I'm trying to think of the scenario here. I'm trying to think of how people can impress their partner's parents! What would be a good scenario...? Okay, let's say, “Sweetheart, tell your boyfriend to come at 7 PM,” and the boyfriend's like “oh no, I can't do 7! Can we do 7:30? I finish work at 6:30. I need to shower. I don't have enough time!” And then the boyfriend who’s learning Persian can be like “jesāratan, khānomé johnson!” or sorry, not Johnson, it's an Iranian! “khānomé jamshid...”

Leyla: jafari, yeah, yeah!

Yara: “jafari,” “khānomé jafari, jesāratan, meeshé bezāreem vāseyé sā’até haft ō neem? man mota’assefāné sā’até sheesh ō neem kār dāram, nemeeshé.” And then Mrs. Jamshid or Jafari or whatever her name is is going to... “Oh my God, ‘jesāratan’! Oh, of course, sweetheart! Yes! Come at 7:30. The fesenjoon’s on the stove. Don't worry. Bless your heart!” You know, good word to use to impress the Persian parents!

Leyla: Absolutely.

Yara: Sorry, I had to go off on this tangent!

Leyla: No, it's a good one! Okay, and then he asked, “shomā khodet,” ‘you yourself’, “roo cheghadr nazaret-é?” so ‘on what is your eye...’ or ‘...is your idea on?’ is basically what he's saying. That's the literal...

Yara: Yeah, or ‘how much’. “roo cheghadr,” ‘on how much is your idea?’. Yeah, ‘how much you think?’; basically, the meaning is ‘how much are you thinking?’. And so you could have also just done that as “shomā khodet cheghadr nazaret-é?” Would’ve also made the same amount of sense, but he's speaking colloquially, and he's saying ‘on how much is your opinion?’ You could do with or without the “roo,” same meaning.

Leyla: Right, okay, move on...

Hodjat: shomā agé faghat chahār sad masalan, hadé aghal...

Nader: man chahār sad-ō vāgh’an nemeetoonam...

Leyla: So he says, “shomā agé faghat chahār sad masalan, hadé aghal...” So he's saying “shomā agé,” ‘you if’, “faghat chahār sad,” ‘just 400’, “masalan,” ‘about’, “hadé aghal,” ‘at least’. So again, he's throwing a lot out there.

Yara: Formal, “jesāratan,” all of these, the whole thing is a formal dance when you're... in Persian culture.

Leyla: ‘Just four hundred, for example, at least!’

Yara: “man chand,” yeah, and then he responds, “man chahār sad-ō,” how did he say it? “man chahār sad vāgh’an nemeetoonam...” Yeah, he replies, ‘I really can't do 400.’

Leyla: ‘That, I really can't do!’ “vāgh’an,” ‘I really can't do that!’. Okay.

Hodjat: man chand rooz meeyām emtehānee, kāram-ō bebeeneed. agé rāzee boodeen yé cheezee bezāreen roosh. agé rāzee naboodeen asan heechee...

Nader: bāshé, bezār yāddāsht konam.

Leyla: So there's the negotiation.

Yara: Mm-hmm, “man chand rooz meeyām emtehānee,” ‘I will come for a few days as a test, “emtehān.”' “kāram-ō bebeeneed,” ’see my work’; it's another kind of thought. “agé rāzee boodeen,” ‘if you were satisfied’, “yé cheezee bezāreen roosh,” ‘put something on top of that 300 that you want to pay me, so maybe you can bring it closer to my desired 400’.

Leyla: “agé rāzee naboodeen...” ‘if you're not pleased...’ and then he says “asan nemeekhād” or something like that, like 'we don't need it at all’, which we don't have in the script, but let's listen to that again.

Hodjat: man chand rooz meeyām emtehānee kāram-ō bebeeneed. agé rāzee boodeen yé cheezee bezāreen roosh. agé rāzee naboodeen...

Nader: bāshé, bezār yād dāsht...

Leyla: He says “asan heechee,” “asan heechee,” ‘then nothing’. So ‘if you're satisfied, put something on top of that 300. If not, then don't worry about it.’

Yara: ‘Just forget about it’, yeah.

Leyla: Yeah, and then he responds...

Yara: And this is a great way to negotiate where he's like ‘here's the thing: I want 400. Let me try to get as close as possible to 400 from you’, you know, within the sort of Persian politeness dance that we do. ‘Okay, well, I'll do 300, and if you were happy, you think about putting something on top of that 300. If you weren't, then, hey, you know, screw me. You don't have to pay me an extra cent more. I just...’

Leyla: Exactly, exactly! Very much self-deprecating, yeah.

Hodjat: man chand rooz meeyām emtehānee, kāram-ō bebeeneed, agé rāzee boodeen yé cheezee bezāreen roosh. agé rāzee naboodeen...

Nader: bāshé, bezār yād dāsht konam.

Hodjat: az emrooz ham agé bekhāyn meetoonam beeyām.

Nader: em-...

Leyla: And then he's just like “bāshé, bezār yād dāsht konam,” so ‘let me write that down, write your number down’, yeah. And then he says, “az emrooz ham agé bekhāyn meetoonam beeyām.” ‘From today’, “az emrooz,” “ham,” ‘also’, “agé bekhāyn,” ‘if you want’, “meetoonam beeyām,” ‘I could come.’

Yara: ‘Starting from today’, mm-hmm. And then we go to the next, yeah, I think the end is.... we're almost at the end here.

Nader: emrooz kesee hastesh. shomā mohabat kon faghat az fardā beeyā. yé kārté shenāsāyee bā khodetoon beeyār.

Hodjat: kārté melee eenā?

Nader: fargh nemeekoné. shenāsnāmé, kārté melee, har chee. beeyāreen bā khodetoon ké...

Yara: First, he says, ‘I can also start from today’, and then the character responds, ‘Well, someone is already there today’. He's talking about that dude's wife... but he can't mention that she's there because...

Leyla: Right.

Yara: It’d create all sorts of drama! And ‘someone’s already there today’, “emrooz kesee hastesh. shomā mohabbat kon,” okay, this is the part where I love! There's two things I want to draw attention to here.

First off, “emrooz kesee hastesh.” She could have said “emrooz kesee hast.” Why is she saying “hastesh”? And this is very interesting; it's a little tricky to explain. It's almost like an added emphasis. ‘Today, someone is already there there’. I don't know. I mean, that's kind of how I think about it. “emrooz kesee hast.” He could have just literally said, very simply, “hast,” but he said “hastesh,” so I assume that “-sh,” which is a pronoun, is just ‘there's already a person there’: emphasis.

And then “shomā mohabat kon faghat,” so this is a great, also, polite formality “ism” in the Persian language once again. You want to double up your verbs and preface them with a very polite “mohabat” or “lotf,” and then you can say “mohabat kon beeyā,” “lotf kon beeyā,” “lotf kon bokon,” “mohabat kon bokon,” “mohabat kon besheen,” “lotf kon besheen”! So if you put “mohabat” or “lotf” before a verb, you're being extra polite and saying ‘do me a favor, sweetly, and do this’. In this case, he's saying, “shomā mohabat kon faghat az fardā beeyā,” so ‘do me a favor and come starting tomorrow’. And then if you want to take the remainder of that where he starts to say “yek”... what does it say...? “yé kārté shenāsāyee...”

Leyla: “yé kārté shenāsāyee bā khodetoon beeyār,” so ‘bring an identification card’, “kārté shenāsāyee.” “shenāsāyee” means ‘to identify’. ‘Bring an identity card’. And then he goes “kārté melee eenā?” So “kārté melee” is this card in Iran that everybody has. It's an ID card. They started it maybe 20 years ago or something, where everybody in the country has this. Or is it more than 20 years? I don't know. I...

Yara: Maybe, I don't know, yeah.

Leyla: I had a lot of bureaucratic problems getting mine, just FYI! So, it's just an ID card that everybody has. So he says “kārté melee eenā?” so ‘one of those cards? A… ‘My national ID?’ ‘...national ID?’ And he goes “fargh nemeekoné,” ‘it doesn't matter’. “fargh” is ‘difference’. ‘It doesn't make a difference’. “shenāsnāmé, kārté melee,” “shenāsnāmé” is your ‘birth certificate’; “kārté melee,” your ‘National Identification Card’; “har chee,” ‘whatever’. “beeyāreen bā khodetoon ké...” ‘bring it with you, so...’

Yara: ‘Oh’, and then we leave it at that. So, yeah, altogether... I'm trying to think if there's any other things we missed here, but I think one thing I had written down was just the discussion here of alternating between the informal “tō” and then the formal. So you'll notice that Peyman Moaadi, the character, I'm just referring to the actors’ names!

Leyla: Yeah, yeah!

Yara: Well, uh...

Leyla: Nader, Nader!

Yara: Nader, yes! Nader, the middle-class Iranian man here who is working behind the counter at the bank, he will say the informal you, “tō,” but the worker will never say “tō.” It's not that he's saying “tō.” He's using the the informal version of a couple verbs. So he says “shomā khodet roo cheghadr nazaret-é?” The formal way to have said that would have been “shomā khodetoon roo cheghadr nazaretoon-é?” “nazaretoon-é” would have at least been conjugating that last part in a formal way, but he decides to conjugate it in an informal way. Later on, he says, “shomā mohabat kon,” not “mohabat koneed,” which would have been the formal, so he starts off with the formal “shomā” but then conjugates it with the informal, “kon” instead of “koneed”!

Leyla: Interesting, yeah! These are these subtle things.

Yara: “faghat az fardā beeyā.” He doesn't say “beeyāyeed” or “beeyāyeen.” So, it's such a weird thing, and I notice this so much. You start the sentence off with formal, but you finish it with informal. You conjugate the verbs informally, and this is what I was trying to draw attention to, not the specific use of “tō” and “shomā” but how the verbs are conjugated and what that reveals about class conflict or what have you.

And I think this is just such a fascinating thing. It happens again, and you see these mild slights taking place from someone of a slightly higher class against someone of a slightly lower class. And I think just how that idiosyncrasy is contained in here is just a great way to see how modern Persian is spoken and how class finds its way into things. I mean, obviously, the most polite thing to do would be to use formal for everyone! Why should someone not be deserving of the formal language because of their socioeconomic status? But this is revealing something to us about character.

Leyla: Absolutely, so yeah, let's listen to the whole thing one more time. It was exciting to see a new character in here, a lot of fun... here we go!

Nader: yé zahmatee bekesheen...

Hodjat: salām... samadee hastam. barāyé kār paydātoon kardam.

Nader: balé, hāletoon khoob-é?

Hodjat: bebakhsheed, yé khoordé deer kardam.

Nader: eshkālee nadāré, khāhesh meekonam. shomā farmoodeed ghablan kojā kār meekardeen?

Hodjat: too kāré kafāshee boodam.

Nader: khob, oonvakht bā nezāfatesh ō eenā ké moshkelee nadāreen?

Hodjat: chee?

Nader: arz kardam... az deerooz nemeetooné khodesh-ō negah dāré.

Hodjat: na, ayb nadāré. oon ham jāyé pedaram-é.

Nader: faghat chon tanhā-yeen bā ham deegé, kesé deegéyee too khooné neest, bāyad khayli morāghebesh bāsheenā!

Hodjat: khānevādé tashreef nadāran?

Nader: na, man fe’lan mojarad-am.

Hodjat: faghat, jesāratan, een kāree ké meefarmāyeed bā seesad yé khoordé kam neest?

Nader: shomā khodet roo cheghadr nazaret-é?

Hodjat: shomā agé faghat chahār sad masalan, hadé aghal...

Nader: man chahār sad-ō vāgh’an nemeetoonam...

Hodjat: man chand rooz meeyām emtehānee, kāram-ō bebeeneed, agé rāzee boodeen yé cheezee bezāreen roosh. agé rāzee naboodeen...

Nader: bāshé, bezār yād dāsht konam.

Hodjat: az emrooz ham agé bekhāyn meetoonam beeyām.

Nader: emrooz kesee hastesh. shomā mohabat kon faghat az fardā beeyā. yé kārté shenāsāyee bā khodetoon beeyār.

Hodjat: kārté melee eenā?

Nader: fargh nemeekoné. shenāsnāmé, kārté melee, har chee. beeyāreen bā khodetoon ké...

Leyla: So interesting, all right! And so we'll be back with the next episode, and that one is going to be between Nader and Simin, which will be very exciting! And again, as we said, if you haven't watched the movie, spoilers lie ahead, so watch the movie before joining us next time.

Yara: Absolutely, great...!

Leyla: yārā jān, yeah! Thank you so much for this next episode, and we'll see you next time!

Yara: Thank you, Leyla. Yes, looking forward to it!