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efsus are likewife interjections that exprefs افسوس 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 last 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 dust 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'Herbelot, p. 1029, but they are written differently in my manufcript of Ferdufi, which I have here followed.

OF THE PERSIAN SYNTAX.

THE
HE 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 اوّلین و آخرین بياموزي اين راه روا نیست این همه خالف 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 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 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 حیات ما میکردد طي

. By the approach of fpring, and the return of December, the leaves of our life are continually folded.

* See the Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 95o.

VOL. II.

F F

where

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where the plural of a leaf, governs in the

fingular.

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

.a thoufand and one days هزار یک روز

نسیم زلغت اگر بگذرد بتربت حافظ

زخاک کالبدش صد هزار لاله برآید

If the gale shall 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, älä 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 distinct genders like

nouns, as

خرت الانهار والاغصان مالت للسجود

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

Their cups

فاضت اقداحهم كاحداتي

overflowed with wine, and my eyes with tears.

Moft

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

اگر آن ترک شيرازي بدست ارد دل مارا

بخال هندویش بخشم سمرقند و بخارارا

219

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.

is omitted if را It has before been obferved fee page 147) that the

fill a cup ; but that it is جام پر کن the nourt be indefinite or general

inserted, if the thing be particular and limited,

the cup; examples of this occur in almost every page.

be filled

All nouns or verbs by which any profit or acquifition is implied govern the oblique cafe, as

آشکارا

بلي هر جا که شود مهرا

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 position 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 underftood in the reft, as

* Soha is the Arabick name for a very small and obfcure ftar in the conftellation of the Great

Bear.

W

مضرت

مضرت تعجیل بسیارست و منفعت صبر و سکون بیشمار

The disadvantages of hafte are many, and the advantages of patience and deliberation (are) innumerable.

The adjective is placed after its fubftantive, and the governing noun is prefixed to that which it governs, as a beautiful face, ☞ the scent of a rose; but if this order be inverted a compound adjective is formed, as

بوي

كل

fair-faced,

rose-scented.

Conjunctions which exprefs conjecture, condition, will, motive, &c. require the conjunctive, or potential mood, as

گر بدانستی که فرقت تو اینچنین صعب باشد و دلسوز از تو دوري نجستمي يكدم

وز تو غايب نبودمي يكروز

If I had known that thy abfence would have been fo forrowful and afflicting, I would not have departed from thee a single day; I would not have left thee a fingle moment.

Prepofitions and interjections are fixed to nouns in the nominative cafe, as

شنوده ام که دو کبوتر با یکدیگر در آشیانه دمساز و د کاشانه همراز نه از غبار اغیار بر خاطر ايشان كردي و نه از محنت روزگار در دل ایشان دردي

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