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Sunday
Dec112005

Quatrain 7

 

وقت سحراست  خیز  ای مایۀ  ناز

نرمک نرمک باده  ده  و  چنگ نواز
کانها که بجایند نپایند دراز
وآنها  که شدند  کس نمی آید باز

 source, Dashti, quatrain 16, p. 247

vaqt-e sahar ast khiz ay maaye-ye naaz
narmak narmak baade deh o chang navaaz
kaanhaa ke bejaayand napaayand daraaz
vaanhaa ke shodand kas nemi aayad baz 

Here is the dawn, my Love, arise, O pray,
Partake of wine and tune the lyre to play --
Of those alive none shall remain for long,
Nor any shall return who've passed away.

Saidi, quatrain 26 

It is the hour of dawn; rise, O essence of delicacy, and softly, softly drink wine and play on the lute. For those who have remained will not last long, and of those who have gone, not one will return.
Parichehr Kasra, quatrain 113 --Forughi's text -- hereafter, "Kasra"


 Translation &
Discussion of the quatrain:
1.   It is the time of daybreak, arise, o source of style/charm/coyness/sweetness/aloofness/delight/"my love" which Saidi has and which embodies all the above renderings and more  2. Softly, softly pour the wine and strum the lyre --the Dashti text has  باده  ده   "pour the wine."  It's باده  خور , "drink wine"  in  Forughi, Saidi and Hedayat (115).  3. Since those who are here will not be here long --  is bejaayand preposition + jaa(y) + 3rd person ending (-and) or is there a verb, jaayidan?  Saidi's source-text reads:

کانها که بپایدد نمانند دراز
kaanhaa ke bepaayand namaanand daraaz,
since those who reside here will not remain here long
, which, although it seems to mean the same as the text above, is for me, at least, an easier read.
4. And those who departed, not one has come back.

Heron-Allen claims that this quatrain was one of four quatrains which inspired FitzGerald's Stanza 3 (5th):

And, as the cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted--" Open then the Door!
You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more." 

 

Questions about the quatrain:
I'd like to know more about naaz-- how it's used --  seems to me that who has naaz has the essence of style, a beguiling style, has got 'vibe' as was said a few years ago and which is still a vibrant word today, has got 'it' -- the expression of more than a half-century ago.  Here it is likely 'my love' as Ahmad Saidi suggests in his translation, and need not carry the sense of cruel and delicious aloofness of the beloved; however, in the context of the quatrain, there may be the exhortation to the beloved by the lover to enter the space of the present, free from aloofness and guile, since as FitzGerald:  "You know how little while we have to stay/And, once departed, may return no more."


 

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