# Persian: نیست در سالی دو عید افزون



## HZKhan

Dear friends, I am having some trouble translating the following couplet of Saib Tabrizi.
نيست در سالي دو عيد افزون و از فرخندگي
عيد باشد مردمان را سي شب اين ماه تمام
It seems to me to be saying that 'there are no more than two Eids each year, and yet, due to auspiciousness, all thirty nights of this month are like Eid for people.' Have I somewhat understood and translated it correctly?


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## colognial

You are spot on with your translation, Pakistani Khan. Your understanding of Persian is flawless, judging by your translation of these lines. (And, I'd really love to know which month of the year the poet has been thinking about! I do like festivals, even forgotten ones!)


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## Alfaaz

colognial SaaHib: The poet is referring to رمضان المبارک.

Pakistani Khan SaaHib: Thanks for sharing this couplet, which led to a beautiful poem! If you are translating it into Urdu or English, could you please share the translation via PM? Thanks! (The choice of words and their possible meanings seem very interesting.)


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## colognial

The Ramadan, of course. What is the poet referring to when he talks about the years that only contain two festivals? Could you please shed light on the سالی دو عید?


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## Alfaaz

دو عیدین: عید الفطر و عید الاضحیٰ


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## colognial

The Fetr Festival I am familiar with; it's the last day of the month of fasting, Ramadan. Is the other one - Azhaa - also an Islamic occasion? What is celebrated at Azhaa? Thank you in advance.


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## Treaty

اضحی is the Arabic name of عید قربان. By the way, عید فطر is the first day of Shawwal.


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## Alfaaz

colognial said:
			
		

> Is the other one - Azhaa - also an Islamic occasion? What is celebrated at Azhaa?


 Yes, it is also an Islamic occasion. Wikipedia Article: Eid al-Adha:  

Celebrated on the 10th of  ذو الحجہ (the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar).
رمضان is the ninth month, so approximately 8 weeks and 9 days after عید الفطر (which is on the first day of شوّال)

Marks the end of Hajj.
Commemorates the willingness of ابراہیم علیہ السلام to sacrifice his son.
It is also often referred to as عیدِ قرباں or even بقر عید in Persian, Urdu, etc.


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## Stranger_

I think it should read:

نيست در سالي دو عيد افزون و از فرخندگي
عيد باشد مردمان را سي شبِ اين ماه تمام

nist dar sāli do Eid afzoon, va az farxondegi
Eid bāshad mardomān ra si shabe in māh tamām

Alfaaz Saahib, please let me join you as well.


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## colognial

I disagree, Stranger_. The meter would suffer.


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## HZKhan

Thank you all for your contributions.

Colognial, would you kindly point out where you disagree with Stranger_'s reading of the couplet, as it sounds pretty much metrical to me?

Does reading the first _misra'_ as 'nist dar sali do eid afzoon o az farxondagi' solve the issue?


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## colognial

Treaty, thank you for correcting me. By the way, I do like the phrase "این ماه تمام" in the couplet. The syntax dictates that the phrase mean 'for the whole of this month', plain and simple; yet the same phrase is also the one often used to refer to 'a full moon'. The poet doesn't go out of his way to claim that in Ramadan every night is bright with the glitter of a full moon, thank heavens! But he lets us feel as if it could be so. Clever! Any thoughts on that, anyone?


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## colognial

Pakistani Khan, of course it's pronounced "o az farxondegi". A "va" would result in an undesirable caesura (سکته), albeit a very slight one.

I thought that Stranger_ was changing the position of the kasre in the second mesra (or hemistich). Only Stranger_ can clear this up for us, but I think he said above that we could or should read the second line like so:

Eid baashad mardomaan raa see shab*e* in maah tamaam.

My reading goes like this:

Eid baashad mardomaan raa see shab in maah*e* tamaam.

If I am right in my understanding of Stranger_'s post, then I think it is obvious that the meter goes off (!) a bit, besides which that kasre detracts from the fluency and beauty of the line, I believe. But I must let you and others be the judge.


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## HZKhan

As a non-native Persian-reader, I am gravitated towards Stranger_'s reading of the second hemistich, because maahe tamaam only conveys to me the idea of a full moon. It's interesting to note that in Urdu also, 'maahe tamaam' is used for a full moon. And though we use 'maah' for a month, the term 'maahe tamaam' doesn't mean 'the whole month' in Urdu. So maybe, this is a reason for my bias towards the first reading. Tell me, can 'maahe tamaam' be neatly interpreted to mean 'the whole month' in either classical or modern Persian?

Anyway, in Persian, تمام is used synonimously with هر and همه, too. Hence, I am of opinion that in the second hemistich, the word تمام is not correlated with ماه, but rather it is the quantifier of سی شب.

سی شبِ این ماه تمام = همهٔ سی شبِ این ماه
all thirty nights of this month

Well, of course, it is not a bad thing for a couplet to have multiple interpretations possible. It only makes it more interesting. 

My grip on _'aruz_ metrical system is clearly not great, but both of the readings sound metrical to me.

*P.S.* By the way, the second reading (i.e. eid bashad mardoman ra si shab in mahe tamam) can also be interpreted to mean that "during this perfect month, thirty nights are like eid for people'. Can't it?


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## colognial

The singsong breaks down, as I said. But I am unable to demonstrate it in a definitive way, or in any way, for that matter. If you know anything of the عروض, you can test it for yourself. I looked it up in some website for 'instant aruz': you sort of feed in your 'bait', and out comes the meter at the other end! Try www.prosody.ir. (Are we allowed to introduce websites?) So the meter for this one is: فاعلاتن فاعلاتن فاعلاتن فاعلن. I hope this helps. It didn't help me much, but I still have the gut feeling that Stranger_'s reading does not work, sorry!


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