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The Language of Nature in the Poetry of Forugh Farrokhzad

The Language of Nature in the Poetry of Forugh Farrokhzad By Matilda Moffitt In the second part of this blog series on natural imagery in Persian poetry, we will look at a corpus of recurring natural images, a language of nature, in the work of Forugh Farrokhzād. Having previously familiarised ourselves with depictions of the

Image of a traditional Haft Seen display by Pouya Jabbarisani on Unsplash.

Nowruz: the most Persian of celebrations

Nowruz: the most Persian of celebrations It’s fair to say that Nowruz نوروز (literally meaning ‘new day’) is the most quintessentially Persian celebration of them all. In this blog post we will explore Nowruz’s origins, and look at how, 3,000 years on, the Persian New Year is celebrated by millions of people around the globe. 

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Chahārshanbe Suri: The Festival of Fire

Chahārshanbe Suri: The Festival of Fire Chahārshanbe Suri چهارشنبه سوری is a Persian festival celebrated on the final Tuesday evening of the Persian solar year, that’s to say the last Tuesday evening before Nowruz. This year (1402 AH/2023 AD) it falls on Tuesday 14th March.   In this blog post we will give you a quick

Chahār Bāgh school in Isfahan Province, by Mostafa Meraji on Unsplash, 2019.

Introducing the Garden in Persian Poetry, by Matilda Moffitt

Introducing the Garden in Persian Poetry by Matilda Moffitt In this tripart blog series, we will be focusing on the natural world in both classical and modern Persian poetry, but primarily in the work of Forugh Farrokhzad (1934-1967 AD). There is a recurring corpus of natural images in Persian poetry that have specific symbolic meanings.

Image by Mostafa Meraji on Pixabay.

All about ezāfe, part 2

Looking at the ezāfe construction from a linguistic perspective, part 2: a fresh approach to ezāfe analysis. In the last blog post (part 1) we looked at some different examples of اضافه ezāfe in Persian, and learned how the different realisations of the ezāfe construction are categorised within Persian grammar. In part 2, I want

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All about ezāfe, part 1

Looking at the ezāfe construction from a linguistic perspective, part 1: what is ezāfe and how is it described within a traditional Persian grammatical framework?   Introduction The اضافه ezāfe construction is one of the fundamental building blocks of learning Persian grammar, and it deserves some attention. Now you will often hear linguists say that

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Persian expressions with body parts 5: دست dast ‘hand’ and پا pā ‘foot’

Persian expressions with body parts 5: دست dast ‘hand’ and پا pā ‘foot’ Persian contains many idiomatic phrases, expressions and compound verbs which utilise the common body parts like سر sar ‘head’, چشم cheshm ‘eye’, دل del ‘heart’, پشت posht ‘back’, and پا pā ‘foot’. These body parts often carry a multitude of different meanings, such as when an

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Persian expressions with body parts 4: پشت posht ‘back’

Persian expressions with body parts 4: پشت posht ‘back’ Persian contains many idiomatic phrases, expressions and compound verbs which utilise the common body parts like سر sar ‘head’, چشم cheshm ‘eye’, دل del ‘heart’, پشت posht ‘back’, and پا pā ‘foot’. These body parts often carry a multitude of different meanings, such as when an

Photo from artchart.net (https://artchart.net/fa/artists/شیرین-نشاط/artworks/G1kyx), artwork by Shirin Neshat

Persian expressions with body parts 3: چشم cheshm ‘eye’

Persian expressions with body parts 3: چشم cheshm ‘eye’ Persian contains many idiomatic phrases, expressions and compound verbs which utilise the common body parts like سر sar ‘head’, چشم cheshm ‘eye’, دل del ‘heart’, پشت posht ‘back’, and پا pā ‘foot’. These body parts often carry a multitude of different meanings, such as when an Iranian person

Persian expressions with body parts 2: دل del ‘heart’

Persian expressions with body parts 2: دل del ‘heart’ Persian contains many idiomatic phrases, expressions and compound verbs which utilise the common body parts like سر sar ‘head’, چشم cheshm ‘eye’, دل del ‘heart’, پشت posht ‘back’, and پا pā ‘foot’. These body parts often carry a multitude of different meanings, such as when an Iranian person

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Persian

Persian expressions with body parts 1: سر sar ‘head’

Persian expressions with body parts 1: سر sar ‘head’ Persian contains many idiomatic phrases, expressions and compound verbs which utilise the common body parts like سر sar ‘head’, چشم cheshm ‘eye’, دل del ‘heart’, پشت posht ‘back’, and پا pā ‘foot’. These body parts often carry a multitude of different meanings, such as when an Iranian person

Horoscope of Iskandar Sultan, 1411. Photo courtesy of the Wellcome Collection.

Complicated Calendar Conversions

Complicated Calendar Conversions You may have realised already that the Persian-speaking world uses multiple calendar systems. Now, I’m going to be honest with you, converting dates between the Gregorian calendar (January, February, etc.), the Islamic calendar, and the Persian calendar can be a bit of a nightmare. Indeed, it might make you wonder how a