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Wednesday
Mar012006

Quatrain 16

ایّام زمانه از کسی دارد ننگ

کو درغم ایّام نشیند دلتنگ

می نوش در آبگینه با نالۀ چنگ

زان پیش کت آبگینه آید برسنگ
source, Dashti 57, p. 254

ayyaam-e zamaane az kasi daarad nang
ku dar gham-e ayyaam neshinad deltang
may nush dar aabgine baa naale-ye chang
zaan pish kat aabgine aayad bar sang

 

Life scorns him
who sits sorrowing
over the days of  his life.
Let the lyre wail and lament--
you sit and drink a glass of wine

before your glass goes smashing on the rocks.

The days of time disdain him
Who sits sorrowing over the grief of time:

Drink a glass of wine to the notes of the harp,

Before all glasses are smashed on the rock.

Avery, quatrain 127  

Translation & Discussion of the quatrain:
1. The days of a (life-)time hold someone in disrepute/are ashamed of/scorn someone ... it seems to me that ayyaam-e zamaane means the time-span granted or alloted to mortals.  ayyaam-e zamaane can also be  'the world'  2. Who sits in sadness over the days mourning/heart worn out with anxiety-- ku = ke + 'u 3. Drink wine in a glass with/to the plaint of the lyre ... I like the idea of letting the lyre do the mourning while others drink, in contrast to those pining over the days of a life-time to the 'notes of the harp' 4. Before your glass comes onto the rock(s) -- I am taking the k-at  of zaan pish kat (ke + -at) as the qualifier of aabgine = 'your glass.'  Forughi and Hedayat both read zaan pish ke, which I would call a 'safer' or less ambiguous read -- Hedayat 127 and Forughi 118, both with the same text -- with a slight variation of what Dashti offers. Saidi does not translate it, and apparently FitzGerald does not use it (as he has not used some of the recent quatrains posted.)


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