Farsi Lesson 108 - Discussions on the Translation of Yahyaa

Hello everyone!

There is a Persian poem that says, /cheh khosh bi mehræba:ni hær do sær bi/.

It means, ‘How pleasant it could be if love was bilateral!’

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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 part 4 of our discussions on Yahyaa. I hope the first three parts have been positive.

Let us start:

As our custom, we have to read the text before our discussions.

You have 30 seconds to read the rest of the second paragraph ………..

Finished? Good!

Did you notice any special thing in this sentence?

There are two spelling mistakes.

The second word of this sentence should be /be dæha:n/, not /be dæhom/.

/dæha:n/ = mouth

The third word is also wrong. It should be /a:nha: i: keh/ = those who.

Ok. Now, let me read this sentence for you. Please click here to listen.

Yahyaa A

/yæhya: beh dæha:n e a:nha: i: keh æzæsh ru:zna:meh mi khæridænd nega:h mi kærd/.

François says, “Yahyaa looked at the mouths of those buying newspapers off him,”

It is ok. There is only one small point to mention.

In our Persian text, we have /a:nha: i: keh/ = those who

To be more loyal to the text, we would better translate this sentence as follows:

“Yahyaa looked at the mouths of those who bought newspapers off / from him,”

Why did Yahyaa do so?

/ta: sha:yæd esm e ru:z na:meh ra: æz a:nha: beshnævæd/.

The translation says, “to chance hearing the name of the newspaper.”

/ta:/ = 1: so that – 2: to (from one place or time to next). Example: from my home to yours = /æz kha:neh ye mæn ta: kha:neh ye shoma:/.

In this sentence, /ta:/ = so that

/sha:yæd/ = maybe – possibly – may – might

So, the translation could be:

So that he might hear the name of the newspaper. (The sentence should end here)

All right.

Now, let’s see the next sentence.

The translation says, “But they all had a grave facial expression, seriously and without looking at his face they took the newspaper and left.”

/ghiya:feh/ = gesture – appearance – body

/gerefteh/ = upset – without happiness / smile – thoughtful – cold (feeling) – joyless

Example: you seem (very) unhappy today = /emru:z kheili gerefteh i:/.

/jed.di/ = serious

/bi a:n keh/ = without

/gereftæn/ = to take – to buy

One of the possible translations could be like this:

But they all, cold and serious and without looking at his face, bought the newspaper and left.

All right, now let’s go to the third paragraph.

You have 30 seconds to read this part …….

Finished? Great!

Now, let me read it for you. Please click here to listen.

Yahyaa B

/bicha:reh dæst pa:cheh shodeh bu:d/.

The translation reads, “He became wretched and confused.”

/bicha:reh/ = poor – helpless

Example: Poor Hassan!! = /bicha:reh Hassan!!!/

/dæst pa:cheh shodæn/ = to lose control (because of not knowing what to do) – to get confused in a hasty situation – (antonym => to stay calm down)

In this sentence, the writer has used adjective ( /bicha:reh/ = poor) for noun. This is almost common in Persian.

In English, we could put ‘boy’ or ‘Yahyaa’ to make it more understandable. Like this:

Poor Yahyaa did not know what to do.

/beh ætra:f e khodæsh nega:h mikærd/

The translation reads, “He looked around him”

/ætra:f/ = around – here and there

Although the translation is ok, we could also say:

He looked around. OR, He looked here and there

For what?

/sha:yæd yeki æz bæch.cheh ha: ye hæm ghæta:r e khod ra: peida: konæd/.

François says, “He looked around him in the chance that of finding one of the fellow worker boys”

/yeki æz/ = one of

/bæch.cheh/ = child

In our Persian sentence, there could be /ta:/ before /sha:yæd/. But the writer has purposely ignored this word to make the sentence either shorter or more conversational.

/ta:/ = so that

So, the translation could be:

So that he might find one of his fellow worker children

Why he needs to find one of them?

/væ esm e ru:z na:meh ra: æzæsh beporsæd/.

François says, “to ask the name of the newspaper”, which is correct.

And finally,

/æm.mæa: kesi ra: nædid/.

/a:m.maa:/ = but

/kesi/ = anybody

François says, “but there was no one.”

The Persian sentence says, “but he did not see / find anybody”.

All right, I hope you enjoyed our lesson today.

Take care and have a nice week.

Quiz:

(Source: Useful Drills 70 )

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).

To clean

I clean

To eat

They eat

3- Say these numbers in Persian:

9 – 19 – 901 – 990 – 910 – 190 – 109 – 119 – 911 – 191

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/ < ==