Farsi Lesson 107 – Discussions on the Translation of Yahyaa – Part 3

Hello everyone! How was your last week? I hope it was great!

Before we start today, I would like to appreciate a wonderful person from Italy who, at the age of 62, is not only learning Persian but also has given us a big lesson. Long Live Italy!!

Cherrie Elmes has made a dictionary based on the words of this site. The vocabulary in the first 40 lessons are included in this dictionary. Cherrie says, ” I have created my own alphabetical English-Persian ‘dictionary’ – a kind of reference resource into which I copy the new words from each lesson, so that when I need them I can find them easily.”

On behalf of everybody on this website, let me say, “Thank you Cherrie!”

You may download this dictionary here.

You may also reach Cherrie at [email protected]

NOTE:

The original website for Yahyaa is no more available online and I have no idea what happened to it. Therefore, I have made the texts available on easypersian.com for you to use. The problem here is that we miss parts of the original work, which is not a big deal but affects the way the story of Yahyaa is going. When I first wrote these lessons about Yahyaa, I was addressing to François and his web page. He is gone and all you need to remember today is that there was once a François who had made these few lessons dynamic!! I wish him all the best.

Thank you for your understanding – and my special thanks to those students who told me about the missing Yahyaa! Dastetun dard nakoneh!

All right,

Today, we will continue our discussions on Yahyaa. Hopefully, you enjoyed the first two parts.

If you happen to have access to such stories (Persian with English translation or English with Persian translation), please feel free to send them to me and I will try to share them with all of you here in our online class. Preferably, choose easy stories to make sure everybody will understand. Besides, this site is Easy Persian not Difficult Persian!!

All right,

Now let’s try the second part of the second paragraph (through ).

You have a little more than one minute to read this part!!

1…………………

Did it? Wonderful!

Now, let me try.

As I told you before, the Persian text has a poor punctuation. Please note that there is a ‘comma’ whenever I have a short pause, and there is ‘full stop’ when I pause longer.

Please click here to listen.

The translation reads, “ But as soon as the remainder of the small change a five Rial delivery a gentleman gave”

The same teacher who told me 2 + 2 = 5, also told me this: when you translate something into your mother tongue, read it for a couple of times. Then, be your own judge. How would you say the same sentence if it were not a translation? I mean, how would you say the same text in your original language?

Now, I ask you a question:

How would you say this sentence in English? ( But as soon as the remainder of the small change a five Rial delivery a gentleman gave)

I know it is very difficult! François has done a poor job here. Apparently, he has not understood the sentence.

Let’s help him:

/æm.ma:/ = but

/hæmin keh/ = as soon as

/da:d/ = gave =>

Who gave?

François. Sorry, Yahyaa!!

What did he give?

the remainder of the small change a five Rial

So,

Yahyaa = subject

Gave = verb

the remainder of the small change a five Rial = object

To whom he gave?

/yek a:gha: i:/ = a person / a gentleman / an unknown person

How much was the money in the beginning?

Five bucks (Rials)

What did Yahyaa do when he got Five Rials?

He was giving back the change.

To who?

To the unknown person.

So, the translation could be like this:

But, as soon as he gave back the change of the five Rials to a man

Then what happened?

/væ dæh sha:hi kæsr a:vord/

The translation reads: and there was a shortfall of half a Rial

/kæsr a:vordæn/ = to be in short of something

/kæsr a:vord/ = he was in short of

In short of what?

In short of half a Rial.

So, the final work should be easy now:

But, as soon as he gave back the change of the five Rials to a man and (noticed that) he was in short of half a Rial,

I have added (noticed that) to make the sentence more understandable.

Then what?

/væ a:n a:gha: hæm dæh sha:hi ra: beh u: bækhshid væ ræft/.

The translation says: “ That gentleman also forgave him half a Rial and left.”

/bækhshidæn/ = to forgive (probably, this is what you find in your Persian dictionaries)

I am afraid, it does not mean ‘to forgive’ in this sentence although it could be understandable.

Have you ever let a waiter keep the change?!!

If yes, what do you say?

Normally, you would say, “keep the change”. You do not say, “I forgive you the change”. Am I right?

So, here you could say, “The man/gentleman let him keep the change and left.”

So, this could be our final work:

But, as soon as he gave back the change of the five Rials to a man and (noticed that) he was in short of half a Rial, and the man let him keep the change and left;”

Wow, a long and boring sentence!!

Then, what happened?

/hær cheh fekr kærd esm e ru:z na:meh ya:dæsh næya:mæd/.

The translation reads, “ Whatever he thought he could not remember the name of the newspaper.”

This sentence is ok. This is the exact equivalent of the Persian sentence.

Now, let’s assemble these sentences! We will have:

But, as soon as he gave back the change of the five Rials to a man and (noticed that) he was in short of half a Rial, and the man let him keep the change and left; whatever he thought he could not remember the name of the newspaper.

Now that we have put all these breathtaking sentences together, we notice that the last part ( Whatever he thought he could not remember the name of the newspaper ) could be modified a bit.

Here’s how:

But, as soon as he gave back the change of the five Rials to a man and (noticed that) he was in short of half a Rial, and the man let him keep the change and left; he could not remember the name of the newspaper anymore / he totally forgot the name of the newspaper.

As you see, I have simply replaced “ Whatever he thought ” with “anymore”.

Do you think I have done right? Yes? Or, No?

Explain the reason to support your answer. (Keep your answers for yourself!)

Then, we have this sentence:

/a:n ra: beh kol.li færa:mu:sh kærdeh bu:d/.

François says, “ He had completely forgotten it” , which is correct.

Let’s see the next sentence:

/tærs væresh da:sht/.

François says, “ He was overcome by fear.” Correct. You could also say ‘he was filled with fear/ he was terribly scared”

This sentence ends here. So, you could put ‘full stop’ after ‘fear’.

The next sentence is:

/læhzeh i: ista:d væ khireh nega:h kærd beh kæf e khiya:ba:n/.

François says, “ and he waited a moment staring at the floor of the street. ” Correct. Just delete ‘and‘.

The next sentence is this:

/do mærebeh shoru: beh dævidæn kærd/.

François writes, “ Twice he started to run.”

Probably, he has fallen into dictionary traps again.

The word /do mærtebeh/ could be pronounced in two different ways that give two different meanings.

If you put the ‘stress’ on /do/, (like this) = twice – two times

If you put the ‘stress’ on ‘t‘, (like this) = again – one more time – once more – Also: double storey (old Persian) => Ex: a double storey building = /yek sa:khtema:n e do mærtæbeh/.

Now, let’s see the translation:

A- The sentence ends with ‘run‘.

B- What do you mean by “ Twice he started to run ”?

If we replaced ‘ Twice ‘ with ‘again’ or ‘once again’, the sentence would become as follows:

Once again, he began to run. And this is what the Persian text says.

All right,

So far so good?! Great!

Let’s go to our last sentence today:

/ba:z hæm bedu:n e a:n keh seda: konæd chænd shoma:reh æzæsh khæridænd/.

François says, “ despite not calling out, they bought a few issues.”

The translation of this sentence is perfect.

All right,

I hope you enjoyed this lesson. We will continue it next week.

Till then,

Khoda Hafez and take care!

Please do the Quiz and then go to Useful Drills page.

Quiz:

(Source: Useful Drills 90 )

1- Listen to the audio files first (preferably once). Repeat it for a couple of times. Write it down on a paper. Find their English equivalents. (Seen)

One

Two

Three

2- Find the Persian equivalent for the following words and make four sentences with each of them (in different tenses).

Finger

Water went

Landlord

To brush (one’s teeth)

3- Say these numbers in Persian:

10 – 110 – 101 – 810 – 801 – 108 – 180 – 118 – 811 – 8110

4- Follow the examples, combine the letters, and make words using the given letters. You’ll have to change the big letters into the small ones whenever needed.

Friend <= /du:st/ < ==

Book <= /keta:b/ < ==

To fix / repair

To go

To give

To break

See you next week!

Lesson 107

• Let’s Write 107
• Useful Drills 107