beráï, bejehet for. ,ez jehet از جهت .ez behr on account of از بهر .mein between میان .forúd beneath فرود .zeber above زبر .fai toward سوي .zeer under زیر .nazd near نزل Thus in the tale of the merchant and the parrot by Gelaleddin Rúmi, اي دريغا و اي دريغا واي دريغ کانچنان ماهي نهان شد زیر میغ Alas! alas! that so bright a moon should be hidden by the clouds ! فغان efsus are likewife interjections that exprefs انسوس fugan and فغان grief: thus in a tetraftich by the fultan Togrul Ben Erflan, دیروز چنان وصال جان فروزي و امروز چنین فراق عالم سوزي افسوس که بر دفتر عمرم ایام آنرا روزي نویسد اینرا روزي Yesterday the presence of my beloved delighted my foul; and to-day her abfence fills me with bitterness; alas! that the hand of fortune should write joy and grief alternately in the book of my life! This great hero and poet was the laft king of the Seljukian race: he was extremely fond of Ferdufi's poetry, and in the battle in which he loft his life, he was heard to repeat aloud the following verses from the Shahnáma : چو برخاست از لشکرکش کرد رخ نامداران ما کشت زرد من این کرز یک زخم برداشتم سپه را هم انجاي بگذاشتم خروشی برآورد اسبم چو پیل زمین شد پریشان چو درياي نيل When the duft arofe from the approaching army, the cheeks of our heroes turned pale; but I raised my battle-ax, and with a single stroke opened a paffage for my troops: my fteed raged like a furious. elephant, and the plain was agitated like the waves of the Nile. * Thefe lines are quoted by d'Herhelot, p. 1029, but they are written differently in my manufcript of Ferdufi, which I have here followed. OF THE PERSIAN SYNTAX. THE conftruction of the Perfian tongue is very eafy, and may be re duced to a few rules, most of which it has in common with other languages. The nominative is ufually placed before the verb, with which it agrees in number and perfon, as in this pious fentence of a Perfian philofopher, از بهر چه آمده اگر آمده که علم اولین و آخرین بياموزي اين راه روا نیست این همه خالق داند و اگر آمده که او را جويي آنجا که اول قیام برگرفتي او خود آنجا بود* Wherefore art thou come? if thou art come to learn the science of ancient and modern times, thou haft not taken the right path: doth not the Creator of all things know all things? and if thou art come to seek him, know that where thou first waft fixed, there he was prefent. yet it is remarkable, that many Arabick plurals are confidered in Perfian as nouns of the fingular number, and agree as fuch with verbs and adjectives, as از آمدن بهار از رفتن دي اوراق حيات ما ميكردد طي By the approach of spring, and the return of December, the leaves of our life are continually folded. * See the Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 950. VOL. II. F F where where the plural of a leaf, governs in the fingular. ورق اوراق There is another strange irregularity in the Perfian fyntax; the cardinal numbers are ufually joined to nouns and verbs in the fingular, as a thousand and one days. نسيم زلغت اكر بگذرد بتربت حافظ زخاک کالبدش صد هزار لاله برآید هزار یک روز If the gale fhall waft the fragrance of thy locks over the tomb of Hafiz, a hundred thousand flowers will spring from the earth that hides his corfe. These idioms, however, are by no means natural to the Perfian, but feem borrowed from the Arabs, who fay, a, a thousand and one nights. In Arabick too a noun of the plural number, if it fignify a thing without life, requires a verb in the fingular, and that of the feminine gender, for the Arabick verbs have diftinct genders like nouns, as خرت الانهار والاغصان مالت للسجود The rivers murmured, and the branches were bent to adore their Maker. فاضت اقداحهم كاحداتي Their cups overflowed with wine, and my eyes with tears. Moft Most active verbs require the oblique cafe in I, after them, as اگر آن ترک شيرازي بدست آرد دل ما را بخال هندویش بخشم سمرقند و بخارا را If that fair damfel of Shiraz would accept my heart, I would give for the black mole on her cheek the cities of Samarcand and Bokhára. It has before been observed (see page 147) that the is omitted if the noun be indefinite or general, fill a cup ; but that it is پر جام inserted, if the thing be particular and limited, the cup; examples of this occur in almost every page. All nouns or verbs by which any profit or acquifition is implied govern the oblique cafe, as بلي هر جا که شود مهر آشکارا سهارا چز نهان بودن چه یارا Yes! whenever the fun appears, what advantage can there be to * Soha, but his being hidden? The following remark relates to the polition rather than to the fyntax: in a period of two or more members, each of which might end with an auxiliary verb, the first of them commonly contains the verb, which is understood in the rest, as * Soha is the Arabick name for a very small and obfcure ftar in the conftellation of the Great Bear. |