Public-Domain Ferdowsi: A Narrative Passage | Farsi Grammar

This passage comes from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, in the Rostam-and-Ashkbus episode of the “Kâmus-e Koshâni” cycle, composed around 1000. The verses match Ganjoor’s Kamus section 15, lines 17–24. Ferdowsi and the poem are public domain.

The wording is quoted, not retold. Only editorial vowels, punctuation, Persian ک/ی, and compound spacing such as رزم‌آزمای and هم‌آوردت are normalized; lexicon and verse order are unchanged. تهمتن is Rostam’s epithet, and کشانی here identifies Ashkbus.

For the historical morphology behind forms such as بخندید and مشو, consult Historical بـ on Past and Present Forms.

The verified passage

خروشید کای مرد رزم‌آزمای؛ هم‌آوردت آمد، مشو باز جای. کشانی بخندید و خیره بماند؛ عنان را گران کرد و او را بخواند. بدو گفت خندان که نام تو چیست؟ تن بی‌سرت را که خواهد گریست؟ تهمتن چنین داد پاسخ که نام؛ چه پرسی؟ کزین پس نبینی تو کام. مرا مادرم نام مرگ تو کرد؛ زمانه مرا پتک ترگ تو کرد. کشانی بدو گفت بی‌بارگی؛ به کشتن دهی سر به یک‌بارگی. تهمتن چنین داد پاسخ بدوی؛ که ای بیهده مرد پرخاشجوی. پیاده ندیدی که جنگ آورد؟ سر سرکشان زیر سنگ آورد؟

khorushid k-ey mard-e razm-âzmây; ham-âvard-at âmad, mashow bâz jây. Koshâni bekhandid va khire bemând; enân râ gerân kard va u râ bekhând. bedu goft khandân ke nâm-e to chist? tan-e bi-sar-at râ ke khâhad gerist? Tahamtan chonin dâd pâsokh ke nâm; che porsi? k-azin pas nabini to kâm. ma-râ mâdar-am nâm marg-e to kard; zamâne ma-râ patk-e targ-e to kard. Koshâni bedu goft bi-bâregi; be koshtan dahi sar be yek-bâregi. Tahamtan chonin dâd pâsokh beduy; ke ey bihode mard-e parkhâsh-juy. piyâde nadidi ke jang âvarad? sar-e sarkeshân zir-e sang âvarad?

He cried, ‘O battle-tested man, your opponent has come; do not retreat from your place.’ The Kashani warrior laughed and stared in surprise; he reined in and called to him. Laughing, he said, ‘What is your name? Who will weep over your headless body?’ Tahamtan answered, ‘Why ask my name? From now on you will see no fulfillment. My mother named me your death; time made me the hammer upon your helmet.’ The Kashani said, ‘Without a mount, you will give your head to death all at once.’ Tahamtan answered him, ‘You worthless, quarrelsome man—have you never seen a foot soldier wage war and bring the heads of the arrogant beneath the stone?’

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The Shahnameh is composed in the mutaqareb meter, conventionally described as فعولن فعولن فعولن فعل. The English translation follows sense, not meter. Do not add filler words to Persian merely to make it resemble English prose.

Challenge before identification

خروشید کای مرد رزم‌آزمای؛ هم‌آوردت آمد، مشو باز جای.

khorushid k-ey mard-e razm-âzmây; ham-âvard-at âmad, mashow bâz jây.

He cried, ‘O battle-tested man, your opponent has come; do not retreat from your place.’ (epic literary verse)

کای contracts که ای, a common poetic way to introduce direct address. هم‌آوردت contains possessive ـت, “your equal opponent.” Verb-first آمد presents the challenger dramatically before the implied speaker is named.

Negative imperative مشو has the older prohibitive مـ (archaic/literary), not modern نـ. باز جای means “back from your position”; modern Persian has از جایت عقب نرو.

Ashkbus reacts

کشانی بخندید و خیره بماند؛ عنان را گران کرد و او را بخواند.

Koshâni bekhandid va khire bemând; enân râ gerân kard va u râ bekhând.

The Kashani warrior laughed and stared in surprise; he reined in and called to him. (epic literary verse)

کشانی is an epithet identifying Ashkbus by affiliation, not an adjective about the city in the modern sentence. Prefixed pasts بخندید، بماند، بخواند use historical/aoristic بـ (classical). Modern narrative normally has خندید، ماند، خواند.

Epic عنان را گران کرد literally makes the reins heavy and contextually means that he checked his horse. Four verbs rapidly chain reaction, pause, reining, and speech.

A taunt in direct speech

بدو گفت خندان که نام تو چیست؟ تن بی‌سرت را که خواهد گریست؟

bedu goft khandân ke nâm-e to chist? tan-e bi-sar-at râ ke khâhad gerist?

Laughing, he said to him, ‘What is your name? Who will weep over your headless body?’ (epic direct speech)

بدو contracts به او (literary/archaic). Manner word خندان accompanies the speech verb. In the second question, classical را marks the person or body for whom grief is felt; تن بی‌سرت را is not a direct object of intransitive گریستن. Modern prose would use a phrase such as برای تن بی‌سرت. Its fronted position still gives the threatened body prominence before interrogative subject که “who.”

Future خواهد گریست suits elevated verse and rhyme; conversation more often has چه کسی برایت گریه می‌کند؟

Delayed completion across the verse boundary

تهمتن چنین داد پاسخ که نام؛ چه پرسی؟ کزین پس نبینی تو کام.

Tahamtan chonin dâd pâsokh ke nâm; che porsi? k-azin pas nabini to kâm.

Tahamtan answered, ‘Why ask my name? From now on you will see no fulfillment.’ (epic literary verse)

تهمتن “mighty-bodied” is Rostam’s established epithet. The phrase که نام / چه پرسی is completed only after the line break. Reading the first hemistich as a standalone prose sentence would misparse نام.

کزین contracts که از این. Subject pronoun تو follows the verb نبینی, a marked order allowed by meter and focus. کام دیدن here concerns fulfillment or success, not literal seeing.

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A verse line is a metrical unit, not always a syntactic sentence. Hold an incomplete complement such as که نام... across the boundary before assigning roles.

The name as a threat

مرا مادرم نام مرگ تو کرد؛ زمانه مرا پتک ترگ تو کرد.

ma-râ mâdar-am nâm marg-e to kard; zamâne ma-râ patk-e targ-e to kard.

My mother named me your death; time made me the hammer upon your helmet. (epic boast)

The order begins with object مرا, then subject مادرم, then predicative name. The pause after نامْ matters: مرگ تو is the name predicated of Rostam, not an ezafe dependent in نامِ مرگ تو. Modern neutral prose would say مادرم مرا «مرگ تو» نامید. ترگ is “helmet” (archaic/literary); it survives in historical and epic reading rather than everyday production.

Parallel مرا... کرد clauses predicate identities: mother named him death; time fashioned him as a hammer. پتک ترگ is a threatening metaphor, not an ordinary compound noun.

The mounted warrior’s accusation

کشانی بدو گفت بی‌بارگی؛ به کشتن دهی سر به یک‌بارگی.

Koshâni bedu goft bi-bâregi; be koshtan dahi sar be yek-bâregi.

The Kashani said to him, ‘Without a mount, you will give your head to death all at once.’ (epic literary verse)

باره is a mount or horse (literary), so بی‌بارگی means the condition of being unmounted. سر به کشتن دادن packages accepting or exposing oneself to death. The line’s terse syntax omits an explicit “you are,” while second-person دهی identifies the addressee.

Rostam’s rhetorical reversal

تهمتن چنین داد پاسخ بدوی؛ که ای بیهده مرد پرخاشجوی.

Tahamtan chonin dâd pâsokh beduy; ke ey bihode mard-e parkhâsh-juy.

Tahamtan answered him, ‘You worthless, quarrelsome man!’ (epic direct address)

بدوی is an expanded literary form referring to him; it is not the modern adjective بدوی “primitive.” Context and syntax disambiguate the identical spelling. The adjective بیهده is an older form corresponding to modern بیهوده.

پیاده ندیدی که جنگ آورد؟ سر سرکشان زیر سنگ آورد؟

piyâde nadidi ke jang âvarad? sar-e sarkeshân zir-e sang âvarad?

Have you never seen a foot soldier wage war and bring the heads of the arrogant beneath the stone? (epic rhetorical questions)

Initial پیاده is the person fighting on foot. Subjunctive-looking آورد after که has generalized force: a foot warrior who wages war. The second question omits repeated پیاده ندیدی که, allowing parallel آورد to carry the image.

Meter-aware reading without inventing grammar

Meter licenses compression and inversion, not arbitrary rearrangement. کای، کزین، بدو are established literary items; را, agreement, and valency still recover roles.

Common Mistakes

1. Treating مشو as a productive modern negative pattern

⚠️ در این کار سست مشو.

dar in kâr sost mashow.

Do not become weak in this task. (grammatical elevated/archaic phrasing, but unsuitable as an ordinary modern reminder)

✅ فردا برای شروع مسابقه دیر نکن.

fardâ barâ-ye shoru'-e mosâbeqe dir nakon.

Don't be late for the start of the match tomorrow.

2. Reading بدوی with the wrong lexeme

⚠️ تهمتن به مردی ابتدایی پاسخ داد.

Tahamtan be mardi ebtedâyi pâsokh dâd.

A well-formed modern sentence, but not a gloss of the verse: بدوی there means ‘to him,’ not the modern adjective ‘primitive.’

✅ تهمتن به آن جنگجو پاسخی تند داد.

Tahamtan be ân jangju pâsokhi tond dâd.

Tahamtan gave that warrior a sharp reply.

3. Keeping epic object-first order in neutral exposition

⚠️ مرا استادم پژوهشگر خوبی نامید.

ma-râ ostâd-am pazhuheshgar-e khubi nâmid.

My professor called me a good researcher. (grammatical marked object-first order, but needlessly literary without contrast)

✅ استادم مرا پژوهشگری دقیق و صبور دانست.

ostâd-am ma-râ pazhuheshgari daqiq va sabur dânest.

My professor considered me a careful and patient researcher.

4. Translating epic compounds word for word

⚠️ عنان را گران کرد یعنی افسار را سنگین ساخت.

enân râ gerân kard ya'ni afsâr râ sangin sâkht.

A grammatical but contextually false literal gloss: in this battle scene the collocation means that he checked or reined in the horse.

✅ اشکبوس اسب را نگه داشت و حریفش را صدا زد.

Ashkbus asb râ negah dâsht va harif-ash râ sedâ zad.

Ashkbus stopped his horse and called to his opponent.

Key Takeaways

Identify تهمتن as Rostam and کشانی as Ashkbus before resolving omitted subjects.
Classical بـ pasts, prohibitive مـ, contractions کای/کزین, and forms بدو/بدوی are reading knowledge, not freely productive modern patterns.
Epic word order foregrounds threats, bodies, and names while agreement and را preserve roles.
A metrical line may divide one syntactic construction across two hemistichs.
Translate collocations and rhetorical force, not isolated words: عنان را گران کرد means that Ashkbus reined in.

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