Shahnameh, Part 6

Leyla: salām bé hamegee, and welcome to this part six or bonus episode of the Story of Zal. I'm joined today with Dr. Sahba Shayani. Thank you for joining us again, Sahba jān. 

Sahba: My pleasure, leylā jān, great to see you again.

Leyla: Yes. So we're actually doing a bonus episode. We've already gone over the introduction of the story of Zal. We left off where Zal is about to join society again. Today, we're going to be going over three specific lines of the Shahnameh. As we do in our poetry episodes, where we go over the poetry line by line, word by word, to really get that vocabulary in our toolkit and learn how to use them in present conversation, that's exactly what we're going to be doing with these three lines. And you may have noticed, the Shahnameh is a bit more complicated than a lot of the poems that we have learned. So a lot of the words have evolved over time or they're not in use anymore, so, Sahba, I hope we'll be going over those in detail and learning which ones we can use in current conversation. 

Sahba: Absolutely. 

Leyla: But if you can give us some context of the three lines that you chose and where it is in relation of the story that we just learned. 

Sahba: Yes, as you mentioned, we are in the portion of the story where Zal is returning back to society and civilization, essentially. So just to...for some regrouping, retracking our steps, Sam, the father of Zal, abandoned him as a baby in the mountains because he had white hair. Now years have passed, and Zal has been reared by the mythical bird Simorgh and has grown into a paladin in his own right. Sam has heard of his son, has heard that this son has been raised by the Simorgh and is up in the mountains. So in shame, he has returned to retrieve his son and to bring him back to civilization with many apologies and very upset for what he had done in the past, very ashamed of his previous actions. So they have arrived to the outskirts of Mount Alborz and Simorgh, and Zal see Sam and his retinue from above the mountain. Simorgh says, your father has come to take you so you can go with him. Zal turns to him and says, why should I go? Have you grown weary of me? Have you grown tired of me? Simorgh says, no, not at all, but he has brought you. He has come to take you back to the throne and the crown and the monarchy that you deserve. Zal is hesitant. Simorgh, in these three lines that we are going to memorize, says, go and give it a try. If you don't like it, then I will give you, these are the three lines we're going to memorize, I will give you three feathers of mine. I have reared you under my feathers, under the shade of my feathers, and I will give you three feathers of mine so that you have these with you. Go with your father to civilization! And if they ever say anything to upset you, should they do anything to hurt you, just burn one of these feathers, and immediately I will appear before you in a dark cloud and snatch you and bring you back up to our original home, without, no harm done. 

Leyla: So three lines of great significance in the totality of Shahnameh. 

Sahba: Absolutely, because the three feathers of Simorgh play a crucial role throughout the Shahnameh, and particularly throughout the story of Rostam and Zal. 

Leyla: Wonderful. As we usually do in our poetry lessons, let's go over it line by line! If you can read the Persian and then a rough translation after each line, and then we'll come back and do it word by word. 

Sahba: Okay! Excellent. So this is Simorgh speaking to Zal. Simorgh says: garat heech sakhtee berooy āvarand gar az neek ō bad goft ō gooy āvarand. So garat gar is the shortened form of agar, which we use all the time today, if. garat is gar tō rā or gar bé tō. So if to you, the ‘at’ is referring to Zal. So if to you, garat, heech, we use this all the time today, any. sakhtee, difficulty. Still we use. berooy āvarand berooy āvarand ya’nee if they literally bring it to your face. But meaning if, we even use it today, bé root beeyāran in a way. So if they bring it up to you, you know, mention it to you. So should they give you any difficulty, any grief, garat heech sakhtee berooy āvarand gar az neek ō bad goft ō gooy āvarand So gar, agar again, if. az, from, of. neek, we use this today. "neek" is just "khoob," 'good'. So if of goodness va bad, or of badness, "goft ō gooy," 'conversation', "mokālemé," "goft ō gooy āvarand," 'if of bad and good they make any conversation', meaning 'they should say, "Why did you do this? Why didn't you do that?" If they chastise you or punish you', bar ātash barafgan yekee paré man So bar, upon, bar ātash, upon the āteesh, today we say, upon the fire. “barafgan”, "afkandan" is to throw. It's andākhtan we use more commonly today. So “bar ātash barafgan,” ‘upon the fire, throw’, “yekee paré man,” ‘one of my feathers!’. “yekee paré man,” “par” being ‘feather’ that we use today, too, which we see in words like parandé, parvāz, all of these. So bar ātash barafgan yekee paré man bebeenee ham andar zamān faré man! bebeenee, beenee, meebeenee, you will see. You shall see, bebeenee, khāheed deed, you will see. ham andar zamān ham here is a marker of immediateness. andar, dar, andar is just an archaic form of dar, in. ham andar zamān, in that exact moment, at that exact time. ham andar zamān zamān we still use today too, all the time. bebeenee ham andar zamān faré man! In that instant, you will see my glory. Meaning that I will appear before you. And far is a very important concept here, coming from the Old Iranian word "farnah," which is the glory, the splendor that kings are usually endowed with. So if a king has his royal far, then he rules justly. And this is important because it shows that Simorgh also has a far. Simorgh is also endowed with this glory, meaning that it's a special bird. It's not just any other bird. 

Leyla: Is that a word that's used in current conversation? far 

Sahba: Yeah, far, you would have it. it's a little bit higher register, but we do, we still do use it. Yeah. And actually, it's related to light, if I'm not mistaken, far. Yeah, so it's a word that we still do use. It is still a word, we say faree zadee hālā. So bebeenee ham andar zamān faré man. In that instant, you will see the effulgence of my glory. Next line, last line: hamāngah beeyāyam chō abré seeyāh hamāngah hamān. gah is the mokhafaf, the shortened form, of gāh. hamāngāh At that exact moment. hamān, which we still use today, hamoon. gāh, also place, time. So hamāngāh, in that exact time and in that exact place,  beeyāyam, I will come, I shall come, khāham āmad, chō, chon, meslé, mānandé abré seeyāh, like a black cloud. In that instant, I will appear before you like a black cloud. bee āzārat āram bedeen jāyegāh! bee, we know as a prefix means without bee āzār, āzār we still use today, more often we use azeeyat āzār azeeyat we use together often. Without any sort of harm to you, without bothering you in any way. bee āzārat, the ‘at’ again is saying you, tō-rā bee āzār tō-rā, without any bother annoyance to you. You, āram, āvaram, meeyāvaram, I will bring, āram bee āzārat āram bedeen jāyegāh. And without any pain to you, I will bring you, bedeen, bé een, to this jāyegāh, to this place. I will bring you back.

Leyla: I love it, and I think that as a thing to memorize, this is so nice to have this comforting thought of like any situation that you could be in, you can just be lifted back into a place of comfort. 

Sahba: Yeah, exactly. And that's the promise that Simorgh makes to Zal that no matter what, you go give it a try. And if not, I'll always be there for you. And she is. She is always there for Zal and Rostam. 

Leyla: I love it. Well, thank you for going over this. So this episode is going to be a little bit different in that now we had this going over it and after this we'll do another exercise where I'll be going over the words and phrases again one more time and you all can repeat it after me, But for now, Sahba jān thank you so much for joining me on this episode and for this wonderful journey. And I'm sure we'll have many more together ahead. 

Sahba: Yes, it's my pleasure. Take care.