que pes then, moreover.

.herchendkeh althougb هرچند که ,herchend هرچند
,benabereen therefore بنابرین ,پس
.zera becauje زیرا

.megher unles مگر
juz except جزر

.keh rince که

.

PREPOSITIONS.

jl ez or ; from, by, of.

, or upon.

cu .
, y
ų ba with.

bé without.
.
: , .

: .

ز
بر aber, or ابر

.pes after پس
peith before پیش
.be, joined to the noun, in, to ب beh, or به

با
.pehlevi near پہلوي
.bejehet for بجهت ,berai براي

از جهت
ez behr on account of از بهر,ez jehet

.meian between میان
.fii totoard سوي

,forud beneath فرون
.zeer under زیر

زبر
.nazd near نزل

Ju der in.

Muj zeber above.

.

Thus in the tale of the merchant and the parrot by Gelaleddin Rúmi,

اي دريغا واي دريغا واي دريغ كانچنان ماهي نهان شد زیر میغ

Alas ! alas ! that so bright a moon should be hidden by the clouds !

فغان

1

|

216

A GRAMMAR OF THE

efsds are likewife interjections that exprefs افسوس fugan and نغان

yw
grief: thus in a tetrastich by the fultan Togrul Ben Erslan,

Yesterday the presence of my beloved delighted my soul; and to-day

her absence 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 last king of the Seljukian race: he was extremely fond of Ferdusi’s poetry, and in the battle in which he lost his life, he was heard to repeat aloud the following verses from the Shahnama :

چو برخاست از لشکرکش کرد رخ نامداران ما کشت زرد من این کرز یکزخم برداشتم سپهرا هم انجاي بگذاشتم خروشی برآورد اسبم چو پیل زمین شد پریشان چو درياي نيل *

When the dust arose from the approaching army, the cheeks of our

heroes turned pale ; but I raised my battle-ax, and with a single
stroke opened a passage for my troops : my steed raged like a furious
elephant, and the plain was agitated like the waves of the Nile.

OF THE PERSIAN SYNTAX.

re

The construction of the Persian tongue

is
very easy, and

may

be duced to a few rules, most of which it has in common with other languages.

The nominative is usually placed before the verb, with which it agrees in number and person, as in this pious sentence of a Persian philosopher,

از بهر چه آمده اش آمده که علم اولین و آخرين بياموزي این راه روا نیست این همه خالق داند و اگر آمد که اورا جوبي آنجا که اول قیام برگرفتي او خود آنجا بود *

*

Wherefore ort thou come? if thou art come to learn the science of ancient

and modern times, thou hast 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 wast fixed, there he was present.

yet it is remarkable, that many Arabick plurals are considered in Persian as nouns of the fingular number, and agree as such with verbs and adjectives, as

از آمدن بهار از رفتن دي اوراق حیات ما میکردن طی

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

in the میکردل a leaf, governs ورق the plural of اوراق where

, fingular.

There is another strange irregularity in the Persian fyntax ; the cardinal numbers are usually joined to nouns and verbs in the fingular, as

ز

.a thoufand and one days هزار یك روز نسیم زلفت اثر بگذرد بنيت حافظ زخات البدش صد هزار لاله برآید

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 corse.

a thoufand الف ليلة وليلة ,feem borrowed from the Arabs, who fay

These idioms, however, are by no means natural to the Persian, but

, , , and one nights. In Arabick too à 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 distinct genders like

nouns, as

خرت الأنهار والأغصان مالت للسجول

The rivers murmured, and the branches were bent to adore their

Maker. .

فاضت اقداحهم كاحداتي

Most active verbs require the oblique case in ly after them, as

اگر آن ترک شیرازی بدست آرد دل مارا بخال هندویش بخشم سمرقند و بخارارا

If that fair damsel 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 ly is omitted if the noun be indefinite or general, w o plz fill a cup; but that it is inserted, if the thing be particular and limited, Jasplş be filled the cup ; examples of this occur in almost every page.

All nouns or verbs by which any profit or acquisition is implied govern the oblique case, as

آشکارا

بلي هر جا که شول مهر سهارا چز نهان بودن چه يارا

! Yes ! whenever the sun appears, what advantage can there be to

* Soha, but his being hidden?

The following remark relates to the polition rather than to the {yntax: 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 obscure star in the constellation of the Great

Bear.

مضت