# Persian: نُقْل



## seitt

Greetings,

My Iranian friends have introduced me to the delights of نُقْل. But I'm not sure how to translate it – is a kind of sugar, perhaps? Certainly, they seem to regard it as such.

We had two kinds: the first kind they described as ‘دُرُشْت’ as it was large, yellow pieces (containing walnut?) when comparing it to the second, smaller, white kind (containing pistachio). If the larger kind is ‘دُرُشْت’, how would you describe the smaller kind, please? I.e. what is the opposite of  ‘دُرُشْت’ here?

Best wishes, and many thanks,

Simon


----------



## searcher123

The opposite of درشت is ريز. So the opposite of *نقل درشت* is *نقل ريز*. But we will not call it so normally. نقل is called in the name of its core such as نقل با مغز گردو/پسته/بادام/...ا or نقل گردويي/پسته‌اي/بادامي/...ا. If you like, you can find the process of creating one of types of نقل *here*.


----------



## triggercut

...and here is a slang term using نُقل : 

نُقل هر مجلس - "talk of the town"

I'm only about 90% sure of this, and I imagine it sounds fairly antiquated. I don't mind antiquated terms and imagine on some level they endear non-native speakers to native speakers. I saw it in Bozorg Alavi's book چشمهایش .


----------



## searcher123

> ...and here is a slang term using نُقل :
> 
> نُقل هر مجلس - "talk of the town"


نُقل is sweet. نقل هر مجلس literally mean "a saying/hearsay that talking about it will sweetened all the parties and people like to talk about it". So you are right about "talk of the town". For example:

بعد از اين كه پسر كدخدا را از دانشگاه اخراج كردند، اين ماجرا نُقل مجلس تمام مهماني‌هاي روستا شد



> I imagine it sounds fairly antiquated


No! It is common at the present too.


----------



## eli7

seitt said:


> I.e. what is the opposite of  ‘دُرُشْت’ here?


The opposite of درشت is ریز (riz).
 نقل has different kinds here. It is made of sugar and some of them contain pistachio, or cardamom, or saffron, or mint,...
Mostly used with tea.

نقل مجلس بودن (شدن) is somehow an idiom. It is used about a word or a statement which is made popular and everybody are talking about that.


----------



## seitt

Many thanks – great idiom too!


----------



## seitt

Hi again,

I had a surprise yesterday - one of my friends said, if I remember rightly, "اصطلاحا میگن ابریشمی"

Is that correct, please? I.e. instead of نقل ریز do people often say نقل ابریشمی? Of course, I appreciate dear Morteza's point that it is better to specify what the noghl is made with.

Best

Simon


----------



## searcher123

> instead of نقل ریز do people often say نقل ابریشمی?


I have not heard نقل ابريشمي instead of نقل ريز. But as you can see in my previous answer's mentioned link (i.e. *here*), نقل ابريشمي is another name of نقل بيدمشكي.


----------



## seitt

Thank you so much. I have to confess I completely overlooked that fascinating link. Do you eat بيدمشك (bidmeshk?) as a fruit in Iran? Or is it more like a nut?


----------



## eli7

seitt said:


> Thank you so much. I have to confess I completely overlooked that fascinating link. Do you eat بيدمشك (bidmeshk?) as a fruit in Iran? Or is it more like a nut?


The picture

Wikipedia for bidmeshk

As far as I know, we just use bidmeshk as the essence and fragrance in some foods like نقل , or we use it as عرق بیدمشک or شربت بیدمشک. It's used because of its fragrance which makes that food tasty.


----------



## seitt

Thank you so much.

English has a common expression used of people who are disliked for whatever reason: “He’s not the flavour of the month.” It's usually used for people who are disliked for relatively trivial reasons which may be forgotten with the passing of time - you wouldn't usually use it of an armed robber, for example.

Can I use ‘او نقل مجلس نیست.’ for this, please?


----------



## searcher123

> Can I use ‘او نقل مجلس نیست.’ for this, please?


او نقل مجلس نیست is not so strange, however, it is not a common phrase too. The common equivalent of it is:

فعلا شانس/بخت/اقبال باهاش يار نيست
فعلا روزگار بر وفق مرادش نيست
فعلا دور، دور اون نيست
and so on


----------



## eli7

And.. امروز روز اون نیست


----------



## seitt

Many thanks, but don't the above sentences refer to being unhappy/unlucky in general?

What I really have in mind here is unpopularity i.e. not being liked by people. This is very different from unhappiness, as the immortal words of the Lord Jesus Christ remind us:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

If you look at the last verse, such people are often unpopular with others, but they have every reason to be the happiest people in the world!


----------



## eli7

Yeah you are right, most of the expressions we provided are related to the luck. For the thing you have in your mind I would say:
توی چشم نیست
کسی بهش توجه نداره
اصلا کسی نمی بیندش
بود و نبودش فرق نداره


----------



## seitt

Many thanks, all clear now.


----------

