# Persian: چه خوش بودي اگر بودي زبانش در دهان من



## seitt

Greetings,

Yes, I like this very much too:
زبان يار من تركي و من تركي نمي‌دانم
چه خوش بودي اگر بودي زبانش در دهان من

But I'm not too sure of the second line:
چه خوش بودي اگر بودي زبانش در دهان من

Does it mean, ‘How nice you would be if you were her tongue in my mouth.’?
(In poetry ‘tongue’ is often used for ‘language’ as is the case here.)

Since it’s بودي, who is he addressing?

Who wrote it?

Best wishes, and many thanks,

Simon


----------



## searcher123

> Does it mean, ‘How nice you would be if you were her tongue in my mouth.’?
> (In poetry ‘tongue’ is often used for ‘language’ as is the case here.)



How nice it would be if his/her tongue was in my mouth



> Since it’s بودي, who is he addressing?


No person! It simply is poetry form of مي‌بود or وجود داشت



> Who wrote it?


Mr. *QURESHPOR* 
Unfortunately I cannot remember the title of his topic, but that was first days that I was entered to the forums. Surely you can remember that he was talking of "old Persian" words and I was talking of "new Persian" words. He was asking of "classic Persian" and I was answering in "modern Persian". I clearly can remember that he despairingly grumbled on me that you aren't on tuning with me and then, he wrote this couplet in English words


----------



## seitt

Many thanks, excellent.


----------



## Qureshpor

searcher123 said:


> How nice it would be if his/her tongue was in my mouth
> 
> 
> No person! It simply is poetry form of مي‌بود or وجود داشت
> 
> 
> Mr. *QURESHPOR*
> Unfortunately I cannot remember the title of his topic, but that was first days that I was entered to the forums. Surely you can remember that he was talking of "old Persian" words and I was talking of "new Persian" words. He was asking of "classic Persian" and I was answering in "modern Persian". I clearly can remember that he despairingly grumbled on me that you aren't on tuning with me and then, he wrote this couplet in English words



aaqaa-ye-Morteza va aaqaa-ye-Simon,

This couplet is by the great Amir Khusrau Dehlavii who was not only a poet but he was also a master in a number of other fields.

زبان يار من تركي و من تركي نمي‌دانم
چه خوش بودي اگر بودي زبانش در دهان من

The word "buudii" was actually pronounced as "buude" in Classical Persian and here the translation is..

My lover's tongue is turkii and I am not familiar with turkii
Oh How nice it would be if her tongue were in my mouth!

Here there is a play on the word "zabaan", which like English tongue means both language and tongue.

Oh how nice it would be if I too spoke in her language!


----------



## seitt

Many thanks - Amir Khusrau sounds like a true genius, on a par with people like Leonardo da Vinci, from what I've been able to find out.


----------



## darush

of course it doesn't meam _French kiss!_


----------



## searcher123

A question question please: why both of you, *seitt* and *QURESHPOR *have translated يار as her, not his? Surely you know that the meaning of يار in Persian's poems is very very wider than simply a ladylove.


----------



## Qureshpor

searcher123 said:


> A question question please: why both of you, *seitt* and *QURESHPOR *have translated يار as her, not his? Surely you know that the meaning of يار in Persian's poems is very very wider than simply a ladylove.



Yes, I know. But I did not wish to complicate the matter!


----------



## marrish

darush said:


> of course it doesn't meam _French kiss!_


 I think it does!


----------



## searcher123

QURESHPOR said:
			
		

> Yes, I know. But I did not wish to complicate the matter!


Thanks to reply, however, the matter is complicated to me!



marrish said:


> I think it does!



When you are reading Classical Persian's poems, don't think about this subjects at all. The meaning of Love, Woman, Wine, Chignon, Cupbearer, Drunk, etc. in Classical Persian is so different of the meaning that western people can understand of them that no we Persians can explain them to westerners, no westerners can explain their understanding of this words to us  

Just turn over a Persian dictionary and an English dictionary to confirm me. How many word about s*x in a English dictionary and how many in a Persian dictionary? Now search for a word about theosophy, morality and family. How many word you will found in a English dictionary and how many is there in a Persian dictionary? Some English words are completely unknown for ordinary Persians, and vice versa


----------



## seitt

As for why I translated يار the way I did, I think it must be Turkish influence – in Turkish يار always refers to someone you are in love with.

E.g. Neşe Karaböcek sings, “Ben yarimi isterim.”

However, I appreciate that just because Turkish uses the word in that particular way it doesn't mean that Persian does.


----------



## searcher123

I see. Thank you so much.
In Persian, one of the meaning of يار is "dear friend".


----------



## seitt

Many thanks for that – that's why it's not always an advantage for me that there are so many Persian words in Turkish: sometimes the meaning changes and it's possible to make a very serious mistake.


----------



## eskandar

seitt said:


> As for why I translated يار the way I did, I think it must be Turkish influence – in Turkish يار always refers to someone you are in love with.


This may be the case in contemporary Turkish, but it was not always so. When Ottoman Turkish acquired the word from Persian, it acquired the whole host of meanings the Persian word یار has (ie. friend, helper, companion, lover/beloved, and sometimes God) and this can be seen in the use of the word یار in Ottoman texts.


----------



## marrish

eskandar said:


> This may be the case in contemporary Turkish, but it was not always so. When Ottoman Turkish acquired the word from Persian, it acquired the whole host of meanings the Persian word یار has (ie. friend, helper, companion, lover/beloved, and sometimes God) and this can be seen in the use of the word یار in Ottoman texts.


It is of course so with Urdu as well, and many other meanings.


----------



## seitt

I couldn't agree more, and indeed, you will find many of these former meanings in dictionaries too. But there can be no doubt that the meaning of ‘lover’ has come to the fore – I've just looked up the word in the Redhouse Dictionary of Modern Turkish, and this is what it says:
1. beloved, love; lover 2. friend 3. helper 

In spite of the name of the dictionary, all the examples given are extremely old-fashioned Turkish which you would never hear today in speech. So, I think, we are left with Neşe Karaböcek and co.!


----------

