Biography
Ferdowsi فردوسی was born in Tus توس, a city near present-day Mashhad, in the northeast of Iran, and lived between the years 940-1025 AD. Ferdowsi is famous for writing the Persian national epic, the Shāhnāmeh شاهنامه, or ‘the Book of Kings’. The Shāhnāmeh epic can be seen as Ferdowsi’s endeavour to preserve the pre-Islamic cultural history of Iran, and guaranteed the continuation of Persian language and culture following the Arab conquest of Iran in the 7th century. The Shāhnāmeh is composed of nearly 60,000 rhyming couplets, making it one of the longest epic poems in world history. It took Ferdowsi 30 years and numerous rewrites to complete, with sections of the epic based on the earlier Khwadāy-nāmag written in Pahlavi, as well as some verses taken from the work of the poet Daqiqi.
Excerpt 1 from Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāmeh, the story of Rostam and Sohrāb
The two fighters referenced in this excerpt are Rostam and Sohrāb, from Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāmeh epic. The excerpt we have chosen sets the scene for a long-lasting fight between Rostam and his son Sohrāb. Eventually, Rostam defeats Sohrāb and with his dying breath, Sohrāb reveals to his father his true identity.
Recited by Nasrin Ahmadi
‘When the sun rose at the break of day
As the fighters rose from their sleep
Like two lions they started to wrestle
Sweat and blood dripped from both their bodies.’
Be shabgir chun bar-damid āftāb
Sar-e jang-juyān bar-āmad ze khāb
Chu shirān be koshti dar-āvikhtand
Ze tanhā khoy-o khun hami rikhtand
به شبگیر چون بردمید آفتاب
سر جنگ جویان برآمد ز خواب
چو شیران به کشتی دراویختند
ز تنها خوی و خون همی ریختند
Vocabulary:
| به شبگیر | Be shabgir | ‘At dawn’ |
| بردمیدن | Bar-damidan | ‘To rise’ (the sunrise) |
| سر برآمدن از خواب | Sar bar-āmadan az khāb | ‘To awake from sleep’ (a synonym of بیدار شدن bidār shodan) |
| کُشتی | Koshti | ‘Wrestling’ (not to be confused with کِشتی keshti ‘ship’) |
| دراویختن | Dar-āvikhtan | ‘To grapple’ (can also mean ‘to suspend’) |
| خوی و خون | Khoy-o khun | ‘Sweat and blood’ |
Excerpt 2 from Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāmeh, the story of Rostam and Esfandiyār
Recited by Nasrin Ahmadi
‘And so Rostam said to Esfandiyār:
“Who says go and take me captive?
For my good deeds shall be remembered,
And not even the heavens can imprison me!”’
Chonin goft Rostam be Esfandiyār
Ke kerdār mānad ze mā yādegār
Ke guyad borow dast-e Rostam beband?
Nabandad marā dast charkh-e boland
چنین گفت رستم به اسفندیار
که کردار ماند ز ما یادگار
که گوید برو دست رستم ببند؟
نبندد مرا دست چرخ بلند
Notes:
We have switched around the second and third lines in the English translation.
Vocabulary:
| کردار | Kerdār | ‘Action, deed, task’ |
| که گوید | Ke guyad | ‘Who says’ (here که ke is an archaic form of کی ki ‘who’) |
| چرخ بلند | Charkh-e boland | ‘The heavens’ |
Excerpt 3 from Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāmeh, the rise and fall of Zahhāk
Recited by Nasrin Ahmadi
‘When Zahhāk became the ruler of the world,
His reign lasted for a thousand years.
The knowledge of the wise ones was lost,
And the lunatics’ wishes were spread everywhere.’
Chu Zahhāk shod bar jahān shahriyār
Bar u sāliyān anjoman shod hezār
Nahān gasht kerdār-e farzānegān
Parāgande shod kām-e divānegān
چو ضحاک شد بر جهان شهریار
بر او سالیان انجمن شد هزار
نهان گشت کردار فرزانگان
پراگنده شد کام دیوانگان
Notes:
These are the opening lines to the story of Zahhāk, the story which marks the end of the mythical section of the Shāhnāmeh stories and the beginning of the longer heroic section. Zahhāk is a tyrannical ruler who fell under the influence of Ahriman, the Zoroastrian spirit of evil and destruction. Zahhāk’s most famous characteristic is the two snakes which grow out of his shoulders: hence his nickname ‘Zahhāk the Snake Shoulder’.
Ahriman convinces Zahhāk to kill his own father, Merdās, and then to fight Jamshid, the ruler of the world. Zahhāk proceeds to rule over the world for centuries. Eventually, the people begin to revolt against Zahhāk’s tyranny. The revolt is started by Kāveh, a blacksmith who is angry that his children were fed to Zahhāk’s snakes. Finally, Zahhāk’s rule comes to an end when he is defeated by Fereydun, and imprisoned in a cave underneath Mt Damāvand.
Vocabulary:
| ضَحّاک | Zahhāk | The name Zahhāk is closely related to the word اژدها azhdahā ‘dragon’, and is a word of Persian origin, despite its Arabic spelling. |
| شهریار | Shahriyār | ‘Ruler, sovereign, monarch’ |
| کردارِ فَرزانگان | Kerdār-e farzānegān | ‘Practice of the wise ones’. (کردار kerdār can mean ‘practice, heritage, deed, action’. In the above excerpt it has been translated as ‘knowledge’, because the intended meaning is that of ‘knowledge or practices being passed down from the wise ones’.) |
| پراگنده (پراکنده) | Parāgande | ‘Diffused, scattered, spread out’ (pronounced and spelled as پراکنده parākande in Modern Persian) |
| کام | Kām | A word with a multitude of different meanings: کام kām can mean ‘palate, roof of one’s mouth’, however here it means ‘wish, desire, task, act, behaviour’. |
