#The language of Iran

[mapsontheweb]

Linguistic Structure of Iran

by bilalselim/reddit

[soracities]

hii words cannot describe how much i adore your blog!! i was wondering if you had any favorite arab poets whose works deeply moved you/whom you’d like to suggest? i would love the recommendations as an arab girl who’s trying to expose herself more to arab lit :) thank you!!

i do!!!! ngl i think i am always just reccing the same poets in different variations but i loved all of these, and hope you find some joy in them also (not all of them are works of poetry but all the authors themselves are poets) 🤍

Women of the Fertile Crescent: An Anthology of Modern Poetry by Arab Women

Paris, When It's Naked / Shifting the Silence / The Cost for Love We Are Not Willing to Pay (Etel Adnan)

Without an Alphabet, Without a Face (Saadi Yousef)

Pages of Day and Night (Adonis)

The War Works Hard / The Iraqi Nights (Dunya Mikhail)

A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor / Barefoot Souls (Maram al-Masri)

The Neverfield (Nathalie Handal)

Miracle Maker: Selected Poems (Fadhil Al Azzawi)

Revolt Against the Sun (Nazik al-Malaika)

Flawed Landscape (Sharif S. Elmusa)

I'Jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody (Sinan Antoon)

Memory for Forgetfulness / Almond Blossoms and Beyond (Mahmoud Darwish--or anything by him, really)

additionally @barcarole has a lovely list of arabic poems here which i also hope you enjoy. also honourable mention to Badr Shakir al-Sayyab because by god what i wouldn't GIVE to finally have an English translation but for now am consoling myself with "Rain Song" and these two

[bloodycoolfrye]

[name-esfandiar]

Persian translation of the Ring Poem by J. R. R. Tolkien (by me)

Here is my take at translating the Ring Poem from english to persian, hope it will arouse your interest !

If you are interested by the process and my notes, it will be below it all.

English

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

Persian

سه‌ حَلقه واسهٔ پادیشاه الفی تَحت آسمان،

هفت‌ واسهٔ اربابهای دورفی توی اُتاق سنگ،

نه‌ واسهٔ انسانهای فانی محکوم به مرگ،

یک واسهٔ ارباب تاریک بر سریر تاریکش،

در استان موردور کجا سایها می‌خزند.

یک حلقه واسهٔ حکم راندنِ برهمه. یک حلقه یافتنشان،

یک حلقه واسهٔ آوردنِ برهمه و توی تاریک پیوستنشان

در استان موردور کجا سایها میخزند.

Transliteration in latin script

se halqe vâse-ye pâdishâh-e elfi taht-e âsemân,

haft vâse-ye arbâbhâ-ye dvarfi tu-ye otâq-e sang,

noh vâse-ye ensânhâ-ye fâni mahkum be marg,

yek vâse-ye arbâb-e târik bar sarir-e târikesh,

dar estân-e mordor kojâ sâyehâ mikhazand.

yek halqe vâse-ye hakam rândan-e barhame. yek halqe yâftaneshân,

yek halqe vâse-ye âvardan-e barhame o tu-ye târik peyvastaneshân

dar estân-e mordor kojâ sâyehâ mikhazand.

I hope you will like it :) if you like the topic, you can keep reading

My process and few interesting notes

Of rhymes, rhythm, and word choice

As it can be seen, I managed to make the second quatrain have quite perfect enclosed rhymes ! A thing I could not successfully replicate in the first one… or could I ?

The first and forth verse are the problem — although both 3 syllables, and cretics as per my prononciation (kept the second e in esemân specifically for that effect) ; so quite rhythmically pleasant. But it was too close to perfection to let it pass. Even if the idea of the only two words not rhyming being the sky of the Elves and the darkness of Sauron’s throne was dramatically fortunate, even quite brilliant. But it was not by my doing, only chance’s ; so it was important to me to add brilliance intentionally, by making it rhyme all the way.

My first idea was to change the word for dark, تاریکش (târikesh) into ویران (virân), making it then :

se halqe vâse-ye pâdishâh-e elfi taht-e âs(e)mân,

haft vâse-ye arbâbhâ-ye dvarfi tu-ye otâq-e sang,

noh vâse-ye ensânhâ-ye fâni mahkum be marg,

yek vâse-ye arbâb-e târik bar sarir-e virân,

It was a fine solution, but that had problems still.

Firstly, the -esh in تاریکش (târikesh) is the possessive suffix, part of the bigger nominal group سریر تاریکش (sarir-e târikesh), meaning “his dark throne” (lit. throne dark his) ; hence the -esh. If I was to use the word ویران (virân), that possession was no more, making it mean “the dark throne”, which was okay-ish (ahah, get it?), but not literal.

Furthermore, ویران (virân) means more “desolate”, “ruined” than “dark” ; it could mean something, like a “dark world”, but it wasn’t literally because it was dark. But desolate was fine ! Mordor is quite it, given how it’s described.

Note how I wrote this time âsemân with parentheses, âs(e)mân, pronounced then âsmân — both are equally said — to match the metric of virân. A nice touch, but no possession.

I wanted the possession.

My second idea was to change the word for sky, آسمان (âsemân) into عرش (‘arsh), making it then :

se halqe vâse-ye pâdishâh-e elfi taht-e ‘arsh,

haft vâse-ye arbâbhâ-ye dvarfi tu-ye otâq-e sang,

noh vâse-ye ensânhâ-ye fâni mahkum be marg,

yek vâse-ye arbâb-e târik bar sarir-e târikesh,

As easily guessed, it had problems.

The first problem was both one… and a genius play on words. For عرش (‘arsh) means sky but in a metaphorical manner, think throne of God type of sky meaning. Which was a problem, and a miracle. Alluding to earthly religions is always risky for translations, in my opinion ; too much connotation, interfering with the translation itself. But, at the same time, it was fun. The parallel between the “throne” of the Elves (or maybe Eru Ilúvatar’s one ?) and the throne of Sauron. Good vs evil is always neat, especially when speaking of Tolkien !

Another issue was the fact that the rhymes were poorer than before, rhymes still, but poor.

A good point was the fact that we kept the possession. Important point, of course.

Of my process and sources

This part will be quick, I promise.

I mostly used Glosbe, not that much for words (well, I used it to find عرش (‘arsh) or ویران (virân), to be fair) but more to have access to its corpuses, diving into the open subtitles of the Lord of the Rings movies. I didn’t want to copy-paste the already made translations, but I used it up has a way to see how they prism through they translated english. It was interesting. Used the french ones, too.

Yes, because last of all, persian in not my mother tongue, neither is english. French is, so excuse my “frenchism” if it occurs.

If you are a persian speaker, any notes or thoughts are more than welcome ! Please, enlighten me. Know that I tried my best and do as best I could, given my knowledge, my guts, and my sources.

[opencommunion]

From Al Mayadeen's summary of occupation media coverage of Iran's strikes:

"Israeli journalist Amir Bohbot considered that any future confrontation with Iran could end with 'a barrage of drones and ballistic missiles,' similar to those that targeted the occupied territories early Sunday, as 'the dam (barrier) was breached and has collapsed.' He said that 'Israel' is 'not in a hurry' to attack Iran, even though this 'damages Israel's deterrence.'

... The military affairs correspondent for Israel Hayom, Lilach Shoval stressed the need to take Iranian threats seriously, noting that discussions in 'Israel' currently 'revolve around changing the equation.' Shoval pointed out that 'Israel has been attacking targets, personnel, and scientists from Iran for years, in the shadows and behind the scenes,' but now it will have to consider 'whether it is worth doing so, after it believed [earlier] it could without Iran retaliating.'"

[littleduke]

persian - german - egyptian - nivkh - french

[cutecountryballs]

Nasi

other links:

[makerofmadness]

I'm still back

with a vengeance (uh link to the post where I actually came back)

(Linking 'Cus I'm not putting a block of text here explaining everything I'm doing differently from my translation posts before a second time dnndndndnd)

Less than the other post because I'm hoping that I can do more in a week when I see my parents again in person. (I texted these to my maman [except for the two without dialogue] and she fixed Olive, Icicle Yeti and Herb's but I got the others right by myself she said :3)

I'm not gonna put the romanization under the cut this time 'Cus it's not long enough to warrant it I think? If anyone asks me to I will:

*Wizard Cookie: بیسکویت جادوگر (biskwit jaadoogar)

*Strawberry Cookie: بیسکویت توت فرنگی (biskwit toot farangi)

*Olive Cookie: بیسکویت زیتون (biskwit zeytoon)

«!در انتظار آثار باستانی» ("dar entezaar asaar baastaani!")

*Silverbell Cookie: بیسکویت زنگ نقره (biskwit zang noghreh)

«!...یک روزی ما همه خوشحال خواهیم شد» ("yek roozi maa hameh khoshhal khaahim shod...!")

*Pomegranate Cookie: بیسکویت انار (biskwit anaar)

«!برای اربابم» ("baraa-ye arbaabam!")

*Icicle Yeti Cookie: بیسکویت یتی قندیل یخ (biskwit yeti ghandil yakh)

«خواستی با دوستم باش؟» ("khaasti baa doostam baash?")

*Herb Cookie: بیسکویت سبزی (biskwit sabzi)

«.سلام! به باغ من خوش آمدین» ("salaam! beh baagh man khoosh amadin.")

*Alchemist Cookie: بیسکویت کیمیاگر (biskwit kimiyaagar)

«!راهنمایی من را پیروی بکن» ("raahnamaayi man raa peyravi bekon!")

[luminalunii97]

Hi, I love Persian/Iranian history and have been wanting to learn Persian for a while, would you happen to know any resources for this? Thanks a lot for all your posts btw!

Hello to you my dear. This is such a nice message. I, myself, am fascinated with different cultures and languages and if it was possible I would learn every language out there. Though I've never been asked to recommend sources for learning Persian. So it took me a while to gather this.

The first thing I thought about was persianpod101. I've used languagespod101 for two other languages and I've been happy with the course both times. So I'm assuming their Persian course is also good.

There's a language learning app called Ling. It has a long list of languages to pick from and Persian is one of them. The fun style is sort of like Duolingo. I've only used it to learn some basic grammer and words so far. And I like it.

I found a book that was recommended by an Iranian language school. The book is called "Farsi (Persian) for beginners". And it can be found in a big collection of language books I came upon in a tumblr post a couple of days ago. The archive contains a good number of Persian books. I attached the link to that.

There's a YouTube channel that has fun and interesting Persian lessons even if you are a complete beginner. It has a "learn Persian with stories" collection that could be fun.

But before you start learning Persian, here's a video guid about it. Note that there are different dialects/accents to Persian, the three main would be Tehran Farsi, Afghan Dari, and Tajikistan tajik. But if you're fluent in one, you can understand the others. It's kind of like the difference between English accents inside UK and also Australia, USA and Canada.

Good luck on your journey. And thanks for your kind words.

[mapsontheweb]

Iranian languages in Iran.

by geomapas.gr

[nando161mando]

"The only language the Israeli regime understands is that of power"

▶️Under international law, attacked nations have the legitimate right to defend themselves proportionately, says Khaled Qaddoumi, Hamas representative in Iran.

[dougielombax]

Okay.

Let me get this right.

All Assyrians today, are Syriacs.

But not all Syriacs (as in Syriac speaking peoples and those who used to) are Assyrians. (Maronites are a good example)

Is that right?

[bloodycoolfrye]

🇵🇸🫂🇮🇷Takbirs of the people of the north of the Gaza Strip with the emergence of Iranian rockets

...and you did not throw when you threw, rather, it was Allah who threw [Quran 8:17]

[persianatpenn]

Meet Zahara!

For my final blog post of the semester, I want to share Zahara’s story with language, culture, and her experience as a Dari and Persian speaker. Zahara inspired me to learn Persian and about its various dialects. As former neighbors, our bond grew from our shared backgrounds – Zahara’s Afghan heritage and my Palestinian roots.

(Picture by Zahara, located in Afghanistan)

Her life began with Dari, a language deeply tied to her family. Born in Pakistan to parents from Bamyan and Kabul, she moved to the U.S. at the age of five. While in Peshawar, she was primarily surrounded by refugees from Afghanistan who spoke Pashto. Her time in Peshawar added a touch of Pakistani culture to her upbringing through the films she watched and food she ate.

(Picture by Zahara, located in Tajikistan)

In America, learning English became became a priority for her family, overshadowing the importance of preserving her native tongue. Zahara found limited resources for Dari in Philadelphia’s small Afghan community, relying on old tapes from her time overseas maintain interaction with the language. As Zahara grew up, she learned the Persian script using the Quran, despite the challenge posed by the Arabic script having four fewer letters than Persian. She felt a gap between her language and culture. Leading into university, Zahara was disenchanted with Dari due to the lack of resources available to learn the language but this soon changed.

(Picture by Zahara, located in Tajikistan)

During college, a Middle Eastern studies course guided Zahara to the Critical Language Scholarship in Tajikistan. While in the program she reconnected with writing in Persian script and strengthened her literacy skills. Upon returning to the US, she continued to seek more opportunities to practice speaking, eager to improve despite the limited opportunities available to her. Her and her siblings now have a rule to only speak Dari with their parents in order to bolster their command of the language. To demonstrate the lack of local Persian education, she said explained the only formal academic program available in Philadelphia was at Penn and further cemented the importance of inheriting Dari orally in the West.

(Picture by Zahara, located in Tajikistan)

Zahara's experience underscores the importance of language in preserving cultural identity across generations. Zahara’s story also highlights the diversity of experiences in Dari and Persian speaking communities.

[nonbinary-vents]

Having some sad feelings about the fact that I can’t visit the place my family lived in for a thousand years because the country (Iran) is a fucking shitshow. I already barely know anything about my heritage and culture because nash didan communities are so tiny, and I can’t even see the area we come from

[laromp3]

Observer - Sevdaliza