# Persian: زابروی خوبان کمان یاد کرد      زهر گوشه فتنه بنیاد کرد



## James Bates

Could somebody help me translate the following verse from a poem?

زابروی خوبان کمان یاد کرد  زهر گوشه فتنه بنیاد کرد

I'm guessing it means, "From the honor of good people the bow is learned, from every corner trouble is established."


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## fdb

ابرو means "eyebrow". Want to have another try?


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## James Bates

I stand corrected! I was conflating it with آبرو


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## Treaty

The verb یاد کردن usually means "to recall", "to mention" and somehow "to refer". The question is who or what the subject of this verb is. Is there any couplet before this one? 

If there is a subject mentioned in the preceding couplet(s), I'd translate it as:
"[subject] by [his] bow recalled/referred to the eyebrows of the good people."

Otherwise:

"The [shape of the] bow reminded [us] of the eyebrow of the good people."


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## colognial

Hi, James Bates. I have to disagree with Treaty in the post above about the subject. Even without access to the lines before or after this one, and notwithstanding the absence of any idea of the 'storyline', I'm pretty sure the subject here is the 'kamaan', the bow, itself. The reason lies in the structure of the first sentence, ز ابروی خوبان کمان یاد کرد, where کمان, though it appears in the middle of the sentence, must be the subject as it cannot be some other part of speech: it has no immediate grammatical connection such as would be shown by a kasre to the words preceding it, but could indeed act as the subject of the verb یاد کرد and keep the sentence together, grammatically speaking.

I understand the couplet as explaining that just as beautiful creatures have eyebrows that are shaped like bows - an aesthetic value, and, like bows, create a sensation all around them by shooting out arrows - basically eyelashes, which themselves are a metaphor for glances that contain some sort of magnetic power, this being a standard metaphor in Persian poetry, and, by the way, notice the use of "from every corner", which can be interpreted as "all corners of the geographical area" or "corners of the eyes", so did the bow lend itself to its conventional application, that is, evoking the eyebrow, set out to be used as a weapon and caused actual havoc in the area within its range, I presume.


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## James Bates

Here's the context you asked for:

زابروی خوبان کمان یاد کرد  زهر گوشه فتنه بنیاد کرد
روان ناوک فتنه ازهر کنار  بتراج جانها چون مژگان یار
سپرهالبالپ بخون متصل  چو دامن عشاق پر خون دل
کمرهای زرین بخون لاله گون  یلال تا کمر غرق دریای خون
زخون چشمهای زده قطره بار  چون باران که ریزد زا بر بهار

I have no idea who the poet is though.


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## colognial

Oh, thank you, James. This is quite mysterious. Never heard of it! I wonder who the poet is.

Your transcription (or the actual text) needs altering in places a bit. Of course I'm not familiar with the poem, but can still try to keep the meter and make some spelling corrections. I would rewrite these lines as: 

 ز ابروی خوبان کمان یاد کرد
ز هر گوشه ای فتنه بنیاد کرد

روان ناوک فتنه از هر کنار 
به تاراج جان ها چو مژگان یار

سپرها لبالب به خون متصل
چو دامان عشاق پر خون دل

کمرهای زرین به خون لاله گون
یلان تا کمر غرق دریای خون

ز خون چشم های زده قطره بار - not a very good line, but don't know how to make it better!
چو باران که ریزد ز ابر بهار

The subject changes in the second couplet from 'bow' to 'arrow' (= ناوَک). The user of the bow and arrow, however, remains unknown. There's no open reference in the lines following the first to a 'he', a warrior. So I could still be right. Of course, it is obvious that a bow cannot possibly take its cue from beautiful eyebrows, because it simply cannot think for itself. There's a personification at work. On the other hand, now that I've seen more of the poem I'm beginning to think that I could well be wrong! Sorry, but it is just possible, in the first couplet, that the subject is the user of the bow and arrow. But then the sentence would still be incorrect, albeit only imperceptibly so, and the poem not very fluent.


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## Stranger_

Being the rural fellow I am, the first meaning that came to my mind without any more context was this:

From the good-looking people's eyebrows he learned archery
(Then/As a result) He went and wreaked havoc all around

That is because in my own dialect, "یاد کردن" can mean "یاد گرفتن - to learn" besides its original meaning, although this certainly isn't what the "unknown poet" means unless he happens to come from my village or one of its neighbors!

But I am very surprised that you (a non-native speaker) have deduced this meaning in the translation you provided. May I know why?

And as for why I have translated "کمان" into "archery", well, that is because a lot of words are shortened in my dialect and there are plenty of other examples. We might refer to "رانندگیِ ماشین" by just saying "ماشین", so when we say: ماشین یاد گرفتی؟ we actually mean to say: رانندگی یاد گرفتی؟

Anyway, this is all beside the point.

---

I would also like to echo what my friend said about the poem. It is a mediocre one at best.


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## colognial

Stranger_, your explanations are highly informative; thank you. I'm not sure I could have ever known about or imagined the possibilities of language as explored in your part of the world. But you are right in pointing out that this is all possible. So, to sum up, the subject can perhaps be determined for sure only if we read the lines preceding the couplet in question. However, the subject of the sentence may not be as important; the important detail may all be lying in the predicate, which we all agree upon, it seems, is constructed using the metaphor of eyebrows, eyes, glances, and the ramifications thereof. The basic sense is, some violent stuff went on, in which bows and arrows played a big part.


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## James Bates

Stranger_, one of my first languages is Urdu (the other being English) and, as you probably know, Urdu is heavily influenced by Persian. Many of the idioms are calques of Persian ones. Since یاد کرنا means "to learn" or "to memorize", I figured that the Persian equivalent یاد کردن may have the same meaning.


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## Jamshed Aslam

I would translate the poem you have written as follows:

زابروی خوبان کمان یاد کرد زهر گوشه فتنه بنیاد کرد
ze abru-ye khubAn kamAn yAd kard ze har gushe fitne bonyAd kard
The bow reminded us of the eyebrows of good people, it created sedition in every corner (of the world).

روان ناوک فتنه ازهر کنار بتراج جانها چون مژگان یار
ravAn nAvak fitne az har kenAr be tArAj-e jAnhA chun mozhegAn-e yAr
The proceeding arrow is sedition from every side leading to the pillage of lives like the lover's eyelashes.

سپرهالبالپ بخون متصل چو دامن عشاق پر خون دل
separhA labAlab be-khun-e muttasil cho dAman-e oshshAq por khun-e-del
The shields are full of continuous blood like the skirt of the lovers is full of the blood of the heart.

کمرهای زرین بخون لاله گون یلال تا کمر غرق دریای خون
kamarhA-ye zarrin be-khun lAle gun yalAn tA kamar gharq-e daryA-ye khun
The golden belts are tulip-colored because of blood, the heroes are up to their waists drowning in a sea (or river) of blood.

زخون چشمهای زده قطره بار چون باران که ریزد زا بر بهار
ze khun-e chashmhA-ye zade qatre bAr chun bArAn ke rizad ze abr-bahAr
From the blood shed by eyes the drops fall, like the rain that falls from the cloud of spring.


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## James Bates

Jamshed: How can you translate روان ناوک as "proceeding arrow"? If روان were an epithet of ناوک it would have followed it in an ezafe construction, i.e. nAvak-e-ravAn.


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## Treaty

James Bates said:


> Jamshed: How can you translate روان ناوک as "proceeding arrow"? If روان were an epithet of ناوک it would have followed it in an ezafe construction, i.e. nAvak-e-ravAn.



That's a good point but it's common to see adjective before noun in classic Persian without any ezaafe. So, there are two ways to translate it (I'd like to use "swarming" for روان, instead of the literal "going". I'm not also sure of translating فتنه as "sedition", it can also simply mean "disorder"):

_The arrows of sedition [were] swarming from all side / [and] pillaging souls like the eyelashes of beloved do._

_The swarming arrows of sedition from all side / [were] pillaging souls like the eyelashes of beloved do._


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## James Bates

I see. Does Classical Persian also allow the omission of the copula ("to be")? I mean, Jamshed translated the third line as if it were سپرهالبالپ بخون متصل *است* چو دامن عشاق پر خون دل


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## Treaty

Yes, frequently.


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