Parable of the Moths, Part 4

Leyla: Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation: Attar’s Parable of the Moths Who Wanted to Know Their Beloved Part Four, with Omid Arabian.
salām omid jān!

Omid: salām leylā khānoom!

Leyla: And welcome everyone to the thrilling conclusion of this story from Parable of the Moths; we are now reading the very end of our story, and I think, let's get right into it!

Omid: Great, great, so this is how it goes!

nāghedé eeshān chō deed oo-rā zé door

sham' bā khod kardé ham rangesh zé noor…

Leyla: When their pundit/sage saw it from afar, the candle having rendered the moth the same radiant color as itself, meaning the moth has become one with the candle.

Omid: goft "een parvāné dar kār-ast ō bas

kas ché dānad, een khabardār-ast ō bas."

Leyla: The pundit/sage exclaimed, this moth is the only one who knows what it's doing. It's doing the right thing. It's the only one who has the true knowledge/ awareness of the candle.

Omid: ānké shod ham bee khabar ham bee asar

az meeyāné jomlé oo dārad khabar.

Leyla: Among everyone, the one who becomes unaware, the one of whom no sign remains, becomes obliterated, is the only one that is truly aware of the beloved.

Omid: tā nagardee bee khabar az jesm ō jān

kay khabar yābee zé jānān yek zamān?

Leyla: While you haven't yet become unaware, not so focused on your own material aspect and material life, when/how will you become aware of the dearest one, the beloved, even for a moment?

All right, well, this was another exciting part, so the pundit who is so uninterested before now became very excited!

Omid: Yeah, exactly, yeah, and so we can see in the first verse that we read just now that there’s a difference. “nāghedé eeshān chō deed oo-rā zé door,” “nāghedé eeshān,” we had “nāghed.” It’s the ‘sage’ and the ‘pundit’. “nāghedé eeshān,” “eeshān” is ‘them’, the plural. “chō deed oo-rā zé door,” “chō” here is ‘when’. “chō deed,” ‘when the pundit saw’, “deed” means ‘saw’, “oo-rā,” ‘when the pundit saw it’, ‘it’ being… going back to the third moth, “zé door,” ‘from far’. The moth has gone to the candle, and the other moths, including the pundit, are watching from a distance. The pundit is looking from a distance, and when he sees now what’s happening to this third moth, “sham' bā khod kardé ham rangesh zé noor.” When he sees that the “sham’,” the ‘candle’, “bā khod,” ‘with itself’, “kardé,” ‘has done’ or ‘has made’, “ham rangesh.” “ham rang,” “rang” means ‘color’. “ham rang” means ‘the same color’, “ham rang.” “ham” means ‘together’ or ‘kind of the same’, so “ham rangesh,” ‘the same color’. “sham' bā khod kardé ham rangesh,” when we put it together, ‘the candle has made it the same color as itself’, and then “zé noor,” ‘from the light’.

Leyla: Wow!

Omid: Yeah, so it all kind of blends into this beautiful picture of the moth becoming the same color as the light of the candle, as the fire of the candle!

Leyla: Right, so the moth… yeah, they've become one, “ham rang,” ‘same color’.

Omid: Yeah, and that’s a beautiful point you just made, which is that when we say "ham rang," if… it literally means ‘the same color’, but when we take it a little bit deeper, it really has this kind of connotation of really becoming one together. Where your color and my color are the same, it applies a oneness, a connect to it. This is where, now, the pundit is having, as you said, a slightly different kind of response. We’re going to see in the next verse what the pundit is going to say about this third moth that might be different than what it has said about the first and the second.

Leyla: Although, I have to say, point out also that this “nāghed,” it makes a point of saying, “deed oo-rā zé door.” It's making a point to say that the “nāghed” is watching from afar, so the “nāghed” is not really any different from the other times when the moth went to look at the candle from afar. Yes and no.

Omid: Because at the moment, the “nāghed” is observing from afar, but it is possible that the “nāghed” has had this experience also in the past, again.

Leyla: I'm giving the “nāghed” a really hard time; you can tell my my feelings about critics!

Omid: Clearly, clearly, and very, very much understandable, but I’m just putting out another possibility out there that maybe this guy is not, not so much one of those critics that has not done it themselves, but one of those that has done it and has a better understanding and so is speaking from a place of knowledge!

Leyla: I mean, that… it's hard to come back from becoming the same color as the light of a candle, I will say!

Omid: True, true!

Leyla: So, I don't know, that's a kind of one way door.

Omid: Again, also to your point, true, and there are many pundits and sages among us and around us that speak without having any clue, with all due respect, no names. I hear you, I hear you, sure! For me, to be honest… I wanted to say this, actually… for me, the “nāghed” really speaks the voice of Attar. For me, I think, as we read further, we’ll see that as he speaks, he speaks with a certain kind of knowingness and confidence that really is Attar speaking through this character and speaking to us. The way that the “nāghed” is speaking to the moths, I think Attar is probably speaking to us and really giving us kind of the whole point of the story in the next few lines, that, really, what is this story really about? It’s not just a bunch of moths and literally a candle, so we get to the next verse:

goft een parvāné dar kār-ast ō bas

kas ché dānad, een khabardār-ast ō bas.

Leyla: Okay, so “goft,” 'the pundit said’, “een parvāné dar kār-ast ō bas.” That's a really nice imagery. “een” means ‘this’; “een parvāné,” ‘this moth’. This moth that has now disappeared “dar kār-ast ō bas.” “kār” is the word for ‘work’, so ‘is in the work’, is doing it. “ō bas,” “bas” means ‘enough’, so ‘this is it’. 'This moth is it, and that's it'. It's hard to translate that. It’s such a beautiful little expression, “dar kār-ast ō bas,” and it's hard to translate that. 'This is doing it and that's it'.

Omid: Exactly. It’s doing what needs to be done. It’s got the right idea, basically, and that’s it.

Leyla: And that's enough.

Omid: As compared to the other moths that don’t.

Leyla: Yeah. “kas ché dānad,” “kas,” or “kas ché dānad,” I don't know if I'm inter-… “kas” is a ‘person’ or a…

Omid: Yeah, ‘anyone’. It could mean ‘any’, yeah.

Leyla: “ché dānad,” ‘what do they know’.

Omid: Yeah, ‘what does anyone else know’, basically, in contrast, again, to this moth. “kas” here then becomes not just ‘anyone’ but ‘anybody other than this moth’. “ché dānad?” ‘what does anybody else know?.’

Leyla: “een khabardār-ast," so “een khabardār-ast,” or is it…?

Omid: Either way!

Leyla: “khabardār-ast”? Okay, so “khabar” is the word for ‘news’, and a person who is “khabardār” means ‘someone who is in the know’ or it could mean “khabardār-ast,” which is ‘has news’.

Omid: ‘Has the knowledge’.

Leyla: It's what?

Omid: ‘Has the knowledge' or ‘the knowingness’, yeah.

Leyla: ‘Has the knowledge’, yeah. “khabardār-ast ō bas,” ‘only this person’. ‘This person has the knowledge’, or 'this being has the knowledge, and that's it'.

Omid: And that “khabar” becomes that priceless kind of gift. That’s really the point of these expeditions, is to bring “khabar,” bring awareness, bring knowingness or knowledge of the candle, or to receive, or to come into that knowingness, and so the pundit is really drawing this sharp contrast by emphasizing the word “een.” As we read this verse, we emphasize the word “een,” which means ‘this one’. He’s really pointing to this third moth as distinct from the other two, and it’s this one that has consequently received this priceless gift of “khabar,” which is that true and full awareness, so this is the one that has really completed kind of its mission, its journey.

ānké shod ham bee khabar ham bee asar

az meeyāné jomlé oo dārad khabar.

Leyla: Okay, so “ānké shod ham bee khabar ham bee asar,” “ān,” ‘that’, “ké,” ‘which’, “shod,” ‘became’, “ham.” There's that word “ham” again: ‘both’. In this case, it means ‘both’. “bee khabar,” ‘without any knowledge.’ “ham bee asar,” ‘without any being’ or ‘without any effect’ or… I don't know, what does “asar” mean, in this case?

Omid: In a way, “asar” here comes to… refers to signs of ourselves. “bee asar” means there’s ‘no sign’ of you left. When you become “bee asar,” it means that you’re not leaving any sign, you’re not leaving any mark, you completely kind of disappear, or you completely fade away. And then “bee khabar” here… now, “khabar” here refers back to the self, so “bee khabar” here means really without awareness of your little self, of your ego-self, of your material self.

Leyla: Wow, which is interesting because here, he's referring to the moth as “bee khabar,” whereas in the last one, it said “een khabardār-ast ō bas”!

Omid: Exactly!

Leyla: So both with all the knowledge and without all the knowledge.

Omid: And so, that’s beautiful, and that’s the distinction, right? Once we lose awareness of this little material self, we lose “khabar” of our ego self, then we can start to have “khabar” of the beloved, of the candle, of that object of desire. These two things have to go hand-in-hand. I cannot be self-conscious and ecstatic at the same time. I have to lose the sense of as we call it self-consciousness in order to open my way into ecstasy. That’s being “bee khabar,” and then “bee asar,” kind of the same idea. I’ve lost so much, my sense of self-consciousness, that it’s as though this me doesn’t exist anymore. I have become one with the beloved, one with the candle.

Leyla: Okay, so “az meeyāné jomlé,” “meeyān” means ‘in the midst of’. “az meeyāné jomlé,” ‘in the midst of everyone’… or ‘the sentence’ is “jomlé,” but here, it means ‘everyone.’ “oo dārad khabar,” okay, so we came back to the, the ‘news’ that you're saying.

Omid: Yeah, the ‘awareness’.

Leyla: So “oo,” ‘he, she’, has the awareness.

Omid: Yeah, going back to that third moth, yes. This really… this line and the next verse really, I think, cements the notion that Attar wants us to take away from this story, and that has to do with losing a sense of self-consciousness so that we can enter into consciousness of the beloved, consciousness of that ultimate object of our seeking and desire. That’s why “khabar” is used in both ways, in each half of this verse. You lose “khabar” of yourself, you lose self-consciousness, so that you can gain “khabar” of your beloved.

Leyla: All right. And then the next?

Omid: Sure. “tā nagardee…” yeah, this verse really sums it all up.

tā nagardee bee khabar az jesm ō jān

kay khabar yābee zé jānān yek zamān?

Leyla: Okay, “tā,” ‘until’, “nagardee,” ‘you’ve not’... “nagardee,” 'you don't'… well, “gardeedan” is to kind of ‘twirl around’, right?

Omid: Yes, and also, it can mean ‘to become’.

Leyla: Okay, ‘to become’.

Omid: And I think here it means… it has that connotation, ‘to become.’

Leyla: “bee khabar,” ‘without news’, like you said. “az jesm,” ‘of the body’, like the corporeal body, “ō jān,” ‘and the soul and life’.

Omid: ‘Life’, I would say here, ‘material life’.

Leyla: Okay, so 'until you've not become' “bee khabar,” as we've said.

Omid: While you’ve lost… until you lose all awareness of your own material self, your own material body, and your own material life until then.

Leyla: And then “kay khabar…?” “kay” or “kee”?

Omid: “kay.”

Leyla: Okay, “kay khabar yābee zé jānān yek zamān?"

Omid: So this is kind of a rhetorical question, “kay khabar yābee?” “kay” is ‘when’, “khabar,” again, ‘news, awareness’. “yābee” comes from “yāftan,” which means ‘to find’, so “yābee” is ‘you find'. "kay khabar yābee," ‘when will you find’. ‘When will you find’, when you will reach or find “zé jānān.” “zé,” again, “az,” ‘from’. “jānān” is a beautiful word that again refers to ‘the beloved’. It’s one of the words that mystic poets use often for their beloved, something that you hold as dear as your life. We say “jāné man,” and so “jānāné man” is like something that you’re willing to give your life for, your ‘dearest’. “kay khabar yābee zé jānān,” ‘when will you ever find news or awareness of this dear, precious, beloved of yours’, “yek zamān,” ‘even for a moment?’. “yek,” ‘one’, “zamān,” ‘time’, so “yek zamān,” ‘at any time’ or ‘for any moment and anyone’.

Leyla: Wow, okay, so “khabar” comes into play a lot in that last few sections! Okay, so basically, the first two moths were going and observing and coming back and trying to tell their… but then… tell their observances to the other moths. They were trying to be of service and do that, but in the end, as the sage says, the only way to really understand is to lose yourself. There's no way that someone else can tell you. No one else can do it for you.

Omid: Beautiful! That’s exactly right. Both of those things go hand-in-hand. Until and unless the third moth loses itself in the candle, it doesn’t have full awareness of the candle. Without that experience, coming back and reporting anything is not really that worthwhile because it’s kind of like a second-hand telling and it’s a telling of an incomplete experience. It points to both the full experience of union and also the idea that there’s no reporting that experience. One has to just have it for oneself directly.

Leyla: Right, exactly, and it took… the first two moths were… the first two “parvāné”s were sober, and they went, and they had ideas of “okay, maybe I can try this. Maybe I can try that.” It really took this state of “mast mast boodan” for this moth to… Do you think that the moth could have just gone in a… talk to the other ones and then just gone, or did it need to be in that “mast mast” state, “pā koobān” and all that?

Omid: Yeah, I think that the drunkenness, the “mastee,” is a very integral part of the story and of this experience, and I think you’re absolutely right to say that. That’s one of the things that distinguishes the third moth from the other two. That sense of coming out of self-consciousness and into awareness of the beloved is described often in the context of being drunk, which, again, is also a kind of ecstatic coming out of the self and self-consciousness kind of experience, absolutely.

Leyla: Yeah, yeah. As much as, the first two kind of intellectualize the experience. And we even had a “daftar” that came into play, a ‘notebook’ that came into play. The “daftar” did nothing! It took someone being, feeling outside of themselves to have the courage to go do that as well.

Omid: Yeah, and the whole journey, if I may, is really a journey of “talāgh.” We had that word at the beginning, I think. In the mystical experience, the journey of our life, the… the greatest journey of our life is this journey of seeking, “talāgh.” It’s a great hero’s journey, with lots of challenges along the way, which Attar describes over the full course of "mantegh ot-tayr," ‘Conference of the Birds’, which this parable comes from. The whole book is really this description of this entire journey, thousands of verses, but the toughest part of the journey is this last part. For the mystics, the idea is that we are here to experience union with what they call the beloved, which one could call the source of all existence, the divine universal power. That beloved is not really separate from us. It is us also, but as long as we think of ourselves as just this flesh and blood being, with its thoughts, and its history, and its experiences, we’re not going to be able to recognize the eternal, unlimited, universal aspects of ourselves, so the journey, in a sense, is giving up certain notions of ourselves in order to come into “khabar,” ‘awareness’, of this much deeper, much grander notion of ourselves. And this is, in a way, encapsulated… this aspect of it, in the parable, where the moths are us, in a way, one could say, and the candle, especially the fire of the candle, represents that eternal, infinite, universal energy that we can call the divine, or the beloved, or the true self. The idea is to have this experience where you realize, you understand, this version of yourself, the divine version. That’s what the moths seem to want, seem to be after, but it takes… it takes giving something to get that experience. It takes going past these challenges, going past the light of the candle and even the heat of the candle, which puts off the second moth. It’s getting through these difficult parts and really embracing the candle. That whole idea, I think, is such a beautiful, beautiful experience that, as Attar is suggesting, it’s indescribable. We can’t really go and tell somebody else, “Oh, this is what it’s like to be one with yourself, with your divine self, with your beloved!” It has to be a first-hand direct experience.

Leyla: Although it's hard for me to think so and then experience in real life, it seems like… I mean, what the other moths were doing, to me, seems admirable. They're trying to see it, but then this, this moth, all it had to do was just… let go of inhibitions and then just go self-destruct. In a way, to me, with my thoughts and feelings coming from maybe a Western perspective or something, it makes it seem like that moth is taking the easy way out. It's just… even though it perishes in the end, all we have to do is just lose the inhibition and just go into the fire, instead of having all these notebooks. I mean...

Omid: Sounds easy!

Leyla: Yeah, it sounds easy. It's like, okay, well, then what's the point? What's the point of the notebooks?

Omid: Yeah, and that’s the thing. I think a lot of times we get that from the mystics, that this kind of knowledge cannot be taken out of books and understood from notebooks and from a logical kind of process. Now, whether it’s easy or hard, well, the idea of the moth burning in the fire really implies that there is a sense of difficulty. There is something that one has to overcome in order to be able to give oneself fully to this notion, and it’s not so easy. We… I mean, I don’t wanna get too specific, but it’s not so easy for me to give up my notions of myself as a man, or as an Iranian, or as a whatever, and really understand my universal kind of aspect, which is no different than you, no different than anybody else. Giving up the personal, the kind of individual aspect, not permanently but just kind of loosening up on that a little bit, is not really an easy thing because we are so identified with those versions of ourselves. I’m so identified, sometimes, with my gender, with my nationality, with my religion, with my belief systems, whatever it may be, and so, to come away from that and not think of me as the sum total of those identities, may sound easy, but is probably not such an easy thing to do.

Leyla: That's true, that's true.

Omid: So it’s not, obviously, a literal burning. It’s not a literally giving oneself away and giving one’s life away. Let’s make sure we say that because it is not a literal thing happening. It is important to understand that. We are not here to harm ourselves. We are not here to do away with ourselves. It is… in fact, if there is anything that is being burned away, it is my attachment to those identities, to those notions of myself, to those ideas of who I am. When those ideas “burn away,” and the attachment to those ideas burns away, then I can come into a deeper understanding of who I am, as, ultimately and essentially, a universal being that is no different than you or anybody else in this world.

Leyla: Yeah. I do think that's an important distinction because that is… if I'm taking it more literally, that is exactly what I think. Like, why not? What's the point of even the living part if the ultimate is just to burn in this fire?

Omid: Yeah, no, but the ultimate is to, I mean, for the mystics, the ultimate is to have that experience, to know that you’re something bigger than just these things and then, with that experience, come back and carry on with your life and move through your day and your… whatever you’re doing. It really creates a shift if I talk to you with this deep awareness that you and I are essentially no different because I’ve had this experience of finding my universal self, then I will relate to you in a different way. I may even speak to you in a different way. I may interact with you… I will interact with you in a different way, knowing that I am this universal being, and so are you. Having what we have in common very much, in my awareness, becomes the foundation of our relationship, of our interaction, and that shift. Imagine if more and more and more of us in this world started to become more and more aware of what is universal about us, what is essentially kind of the same about us, which, for the mystics, is our divinity, which is our true identity, beyond and above all the individual identities! Those are great, and difference is beautiful because it can create diversity and lots and lots of different experiences. Each person is very unique, and that’s part of our beautiful existence, but our uniqueness becomes even more beautiful under the umbrella of that which unites us, that which makes us one. Until I have my experience, my own experience with that oneness, it will be hard for me to have that with you or with anybody else.

Leyla: Right. Wonderful! And we each… each one of us has to experience that for ourselves. We can't read about it or understand it from a distance.

Omid: Yeah, although reading about it is a wonderful experience. Reading Rumi, Hafez, Attar, all of these are great experiences, yeah, but only to the point where we become encouraged and we get a sense of what this experience might be like, but not as a substitute. You can read a thousand Attars, and still, that doesn’t amount to having the actual experience even if it might encourage you and get you excited and get you kind of interested in then going and seeking that experience yourself.

Leyla: Right, and in this story, it was that first “parvāné” that went into the fire that probably has now encouraged the other “parvāné”s to do the same. They've seen it now. They know… they've witnessed it. I think that that's very important, too.

Omid: Exactly, the third moth, as it goes towards the candle and has that full experience, and then the pundit says “Hey, this is the true experience,” as you said, maybe and hopefully, the other moths now say, “Ah, okay. This is what I want to have also” and they’ll become encouraged and emboldened to not just stop at a distance but go all the way into that experience.

Leyla: And it reminds me of, you know, the spark that was lighted in Rumi when he met Shams Tabrizi. Probably Shams Tabrizi was that moth for him? He just saw, he was able to see that, and it changed him forever, so I think these moths will also be changed forever from seeing this.

Omid: Beautiful, and maybe, as we’ve read now the story together, maybe they’ll encourage us also, perhaps, to also start or continue our own seeking and become even more courageous and know that there is this great, beautiful experience to be had as we go on this journey, yeah!

Leyla: Wonderful, and I want to hear you read the entirety of our selection one more time in just Persian, but can you tell us what is the, this selection that you've made? Where is it in the context of the entire Conference of the Birds, where it's from?

Omid: Sure, sure, the story of the Conference of the Birds, as I mentioned, starts with all the birds coming together and deciding that they wanna go and find their true king. They say, “Every nation has a king, and we wanna find the king of the nation of birds,” and one of them, hod hod or the hoopoe says, “Well, we already have a designated king whose name is seemorgh, and seemorgh lives up on kooyé ghāf, which is a very distant mountain, and it’s not an easy journey to go, get to seemorgh. There’s lots of challenges and difficulties along the way,” and so some of the birds decide that that’s too much for them. They don’t even begin the journey, but others, kind of like our moths, they begin the journey, they go towards seemorgh, and they pass… they have to pass through seven valleys. Each of them has its own kind of difficulties and challenges, and so, with each step, with each valley, some of the birds drop out because they cannot make it through these challenges. Some of the birds arrive at the palace of the seemorgh after the seven valleys. Now, this parable comes during the journey through the seventh valley, which is the valley of faghr va fanā, “faghr” meaning ‘poverty’ and “fanā” meaning ‘annihilation’. Again, as we see with the story, the third moth, in a way, enters into a state of “fanā,” ‘annihilation’, again, not literally. We’re not talking about actually doing away with ourselves but a kind of annihilation of previous notions of who we are, previous understandings of who we are, previous beliefs about who we are. That part gets annihilated so there can be this experience of union with who we truly are, which is the beloved, which is the fire. That’s kind of towards the end, I would say 4/5 of the way in the book. This is where this process occurs, yeah.

Leyla: Wonderful, and then if people want to read more of this story or to understand more of this story, do you have any classes or resources available to learn more?

Omid: Sure, sure, with pleasure! We have classes on all the different mystics of Iran, so Rumi, Hafez, Attar, Ferdowsi, and so on and so forth. The classes begin at different times, so if they are interested in studying and really getting deeper into these topics, YOUniversal.org, YOUniversal with a Y-O-U.

Leyla: Which we'll link to on the lesson page for this, of course.

Omid: Yeah, that’s where all the new classes are announced. They can get on our mailing list, and we’ll keep them informed on when a new course is about to begin. That’s to get deeper and really study it at a much more… what’s the word? Bit-by-bit, piece-by-piece…

Leyla: Granular?

Omid: Yeah, thank you, granular level, but if there is interest in reading the book on your own and to study it on your own, there is obviously the text available. This is my copy of "mantegh ot-tayr" edited by a wonderful gentleman, an amazing man, āghāyé khatāmi. This is the Persian text if you wanna read it, and then there is translations that are around. One of the oldest… not oldest, but one of the kind of older translations is this one, which is by a gentleman… suddenly his name just left me. His name is Mr. Nott, C.S. Nott, N-O-T-T. This is a decent one, but, for me, a modern and really, really beautiful and fantastic translation is this one by Sholeh Wolpe. It’s really a magnificent rendering of the full, entire "mantegh ot-tayr" into English, and I recommend this one very, very much.

Leyla: Great, and I recommend both getting the book and reading it, but then also, it's so important to have a teacher because there's so many pieces in here that it helps so much to hear. My understanding of this poem is so much different having talked to you, so thank you so much. It was really wonderful!

Omid: Thank you, and, of course, it’s not just having a teacher; it’s doing it as a group, so, in our classes, we work together, and every person brings something to the table, and it really helps build a broader and, really, a richer understanding of everything that we work on, so I wanna give credit to everyone that participates. They’re a big part of it.

Leyla: Yes, just like the moths here! I think you probably have students that, you know, have their little “daftar,” you have some that look from afar, and then I'm sure that you have some that show up drunk is what I'm saying.

Omid: Absolutely, absolutely, and my hope is that we all start to get more and more drunk wherever we start. That’s really the idea for sure!

Leyla: Wonderful! Well, thank you, omid jān! Oh, we were going to read it one more time in all Persian, please, and then we'll conclude!

Omid: With pleasure, with pleasure, absolutely!

yek shabee parvānegān jam' āmadand. dar mazeeghee tālebé sham’ āmadand.

jomlé meegoftand meebāyad yakee k’oo khabar ārad zé matloob andakee.

shod yekee parvāné tā ghasree zé door. dar fazāyé ghasr deed az sham’ noor.

bāzgasht ō daftaré khod bāz kard. vasfé oo barghadré fahm āghāz kard.

nāghedee k’oo dāsht dar majma' mahee goft oo-rā neest az sham’ āgahee.

shod yekee deegar gozasht az noor dar. kheesh-rā bar sham’ zad az door dar.

par zanān dar partoyé matloob shod. sham’ ghāleb gasht ō oo maghloob shod.

bāzgasht oo neez va moshtee rāz goft. az vesālé sham’ sharhee bāz goft.

nāghedesh goft “een neshān neest, ay azeez! hamchō ān yek kay neshān dādee tō neez?"

deegaree barkhāst meeshod mast mast. pāyé koobān bar saré ātash neshast.

dast darkash kard bā ātash bé ham. kheeshtan gom kard bā oo khash bé ham.

chon gereft ātash zé sar tā pāyé oo sorkh shod chon ātashee a'zāyé oo.

nāghedé eeshān chō deed oo-rā zé door sham' bā khod kardé ham rangesh zé noor.

goft “een parvāné dar kār-ast ō bas kas ché dānad, een khabardār-ast ō bas.”

ānké shod ham bee khabar ham bee asar az meeyāné jomlé oo dārad khabar.

tā nagardee bee khabar az jesm ō jān, kay khabar yābee zé jānān yek zamān?

Leyla: Wonderful. And hopefully, now, after all these discussions, you all understood most of those words or the general meaning of it. Like we said before, we have all this written out in the Persian, the English phonetic, and the translation that Omid has provided for us, along with all the notes and everything in the lesson guide for this lesson. Thank you so much, omid jān; I hope that this is the first of many stories that we talk about together!

Omid: Me, too, and I really wanna say, leyla jān, it’s been really my honor! I’ve been following you for a good long time, and I really appreciate what you do and your organization. For all the people that are looking to learn Farsi, I always tell our students at YOUniversal center, if you really wanna get the true experience of these texts, go learn Farsi. Even though we work in English mostly, we read the text in the original language, and it just… there’s nothing that compares to actually understanding the words, so thank you for the service that you do. I’m really grateful, and really honored to be a little part of it!

Leyla: Of course, and same to you; I appreciate what you do so much! I think there needs to be more and more of it, so I hope that we can introduce you to our students and get more people in your classes. This is very important work, so thank you for doing that.

Omid: You’re welcome; thank you, leyla jān!