Garat zin bad ayad (Thinking on the meaning of the hemistich from Shahnameh)

Document Type : short article

Author

Razi University of Kermanshah

Abstract

Garat zin bad ayad
(Thinking on the meaning of the hemistich from Shahnameh)
Khalil Kahrizi
PhD of Persian Language and literature
Introduction
Ferdowsi Shahnameh has a simple and comprehensive language and today many Iranians understand many parts of it without referring to the dictionaries and descriptions of Shahnameh, but in order to understand parts of this book correctly in detail, one should be more careful not be deceived by contemporary Persian syntactic structures ; because in addition to being more than a thousand years have passed of Shahnameh’s age , this text is rooted in texts of several thousand years, and to properly understand parts of it, in addition to Shahnameh itself, one must use the texts of its contemporaries or ancient texts. Otherwise, while reading parts of Shahnameh, we may inadvertently fall into the trap of syntactic structures of the contemporary Persian language and report Shahnameh based on these structures. This method will lead to misinterpretations of this text and will lead to incorrect and misleading analyzes, interpretations and conclusions. In this article, we try to show one of the examples of imposing the syntactic constructions of contemporary Persian language in Shahnameh reports in the introduction of Shahnameh and in connection with the phrase "garat zin bad ayad gonah e man ast" and then the correct meaning of this phrase which according to the linguistic features of Shahnameh are also provable.
Methodology, Review of Literature and Goal
 Description of each text with the help of the same text and paying attention to the syntactic structures of the Persian language in the period in which the work was created, are important way of recognizing ancient texts and ignoring it can lead us astray from the text; because the mind, subconsciously, goes to familiar syntactic structures. Therefore, in order to describe the ancient texts, one must first consider the ancient syntactic structures and with the help of them, he can get the meaning of the text. In this article, we have also tried to find one of the slippery in the description of ancient texts in the same way and talk about the phrase " garat zin bad ayad gonah e man ast ". Previously, the commentators of Shahnameh have paid less attention to this shutter, but Kazem Bargnisi has addressed this hemistich in his description and has given it a meaning that is not compatible with ancient syntactic structures. In his description, Mehri Behfar has given the same incorrect meaning along with another meaning, whose second meaning is close to our proposed meaning. Our aim in this article is to examine this half- hemistich in detail, to criticize the incorrect meaning and to obtain the correct meaning with the help of the linguistic, syntactic and morphological features of Shahnameh.
Discussion
Ferdowsi, in the preface of Shahnameh, after praising the Prophet (PBUH) and Imam Ali (AS), following the wise man, he considers the world as a wavy sea on which about seventy ships are sailing. Among these ships, there is an ornamented ship in which the Prophet and Imam Ali are there. Ferdowsi says that if you look at another house (the world of the hereafter), take on the same ship and:
" garat zin bad ayad gonah e man ast           čonin ast o in din o rah e man ast”
In the past, they have mostly been silent about this verse, which indicates the clarity of the meaning of the phrase in question. Of course, two commentators have paid attention to this verse. Kazem Bergnisi has described this verse as follows: "This is what I said, and this is my religion and my way of life (and I will not go back from it)." Mehri Behfar has also given two meanings for this hemistich, one of which is the meaning of writing and the second meaning of which is as follows: "If you took this path and suffered a loss, the responsibility is on me; "[In any case] this is my religion." Now we have to see what is the exact meaning of this semi-hemistich that is compatible with the components of the syllable and the morphological-syntactic system of the Persian language in the Ferdowsi period.
In the aforementioned semi-hemistich, first, these two stylistic points must be considered in Ferdowsi's language: 1. The adjective "bad" may have been used instead of the infinitive "worse"; 2. The verb "Amadan" may have been used to mean "to arrive" and "to receive." If it is considered that exactly in this stanza, the adjective has been used instead of the infinitive and the verb “Amadan” has been used in our intended meaning. Therefore, the correct meaning of this hemistich should be as follows: If [from] this [issue]; that is, entering my religion and taking on the ship in which Muhammad (pbuh) and Ali (pbuh) are] is a sin for you (blame me).
In other words, here, Ferdowsi assures his audience that in order to escape the wavy sea and fear drowning, one must embark on a ship that is as beautiful as a rooster's eye, and that ship is the same as Muhammad (PBUH) and Ali. (AS) they  are in it. In the end, he assures the audience that if you feel bad about this issue, blame me.  
Conclusion
Shahnameh is an ancient text that should be read and explained in its historical context; otherwise, contemporary linguistic styles make our understanding of this book difficult and misleading. One of the sentences of Shahnameh that has been less noticed by the commentators of this book before and some of them have explained it based on the syntactic structures of contemporary Persian language, is the phrase "garat zin bad ayad gonah e man ast" in the preface of Shahnameh. This sentence had previously been interpreted in the light of the syntactic structures of the contemporary Persian language: If you hate this, it is my fault. However, "hating something" means "disliking something" is a new syntactic style in Persian and was not used in Ferdowsi's time. Accordingly, in this article, by examining this scene in detail and relying on the linguistic features of Shahnameh and considering the repetition of the first part in another part of Shahnameh, we first criticized the meaning that has been given to it before, and finally gave its definite and correct meaning as follows: If something bad happens to you from this [issue], it is my fault.
 Key words: Shahnameh, Report, Description, garat zin bad ayad
References
Behfar, Mehri (1399). Critical Edition and Description of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh’s Lines, first vol. Tehran: Farhang e Nashr e Now
Khaleghi Motlagh, Jalal (1388) “Repetition in Shannameh”, Ancient Sayings (thirty sayings about Ferdowsi and Shahnameh), Tehran: Afkar, pp- 423-483.
Ferdowsi, Abolghasem (1388) Shahnameh (From Preface to Ghobad’s Kingdom), Correction and explanation of words and Meanings by Kazem Bergnisi, Tehran: Fekr Rooz
---------- (1390) Shannameh, by Jalal Khaleghi Motlagh (vol.6 by accompaniment of Mahmood Omid Salar, vol.7 by Abolfazl Khatibi) , Tehran: Tehran: the central, Islamic encyclopedia.
---------- (1393) Shahnameh. Ed. Jalal Khaleghi Motlagh, Tehran: Sokhan
Comprehensive encyclopedia of Persian language (1392) vol. 1. By Ali Ashraf Sadeghi, Tehran: Farhangestan of Persian Language and Literature
 

Keywords


Behfar, Mehri (1399). Critical Edition and Description of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh’s Lines, first vol. Tehran: Farhang e Nashr e Now
Khaleghi Motlagh, Jalal (1388) “Repetition in Shannameh”, Ancient Sayings (thirty sayings about Ferdowsi and Shahnameh), Tehran: Afkar, pp- 423-483.
Ferdowsi, Abolghasem (1388) Shahnameh (From Preface to Ghobad’s Kingdom), Correction and explanation of words and Meanings by Kazem Bergnisi, Tehran: Fekr Rooz
---------- (1390) Shannameh, by Jalal Khaleghi Motlagh (vol.6 by accompaniment of Mahmood Omid Salar, vol.7 by Abolfazl Khatibi) , Tehran: Tehran: the central, Islamic encyclopedia.
---------- (1393) Shahnameh. Ed. Jalal Khaleghi Motlagh, Tehran: Sokhan
Comprehensive encyclopedia of Persian language (1392) vol. 1. By Ali Ashraf Sadeghi, Tehran: Farhangestan of Persian Language and Literature