These six couplets from Ferdowsi's eleventh-century Shahnameh show Rostam, en route to Mazandaran, drying his armor, releasing Rakhsh to graze, and sleeping. Wording follows Ganjoor's Kay Kavus cycle, section 9.
No unchanged authorial document survives. The incomplete Florence manuscript of 1217, the earliest dated witness, postdates Ferdowsi by roughly two centuries; Iranica's survey explains its editorial importance. We therefore separate Ganjoor's wording from modern pointing, punctuation, spacing, and interpretation.
The complete selection
همه جامه بر برش چون آب بود؛ نیازش به آسایش و خواب بود. برون کرد ببر بیان از برش؛ به خوی اندرون غرقه بد مغفرش. بگسترد هر دو بر آفتاب؛ به خواب و به آسایش آمد شتاب. لگام از سر رخش برداشت خوار؛ رها کرد بر خوید در کشتزار. بپوشید چون خشک شد خود و ببر؛ گیا کرد بستر بسان هژبر. بخفت و بیاسود از رنج تن؛ هم از رخش غم بد هم از خویشتن.
hame jâme bar bar-ash chun âb bud; niyâz-ash be âsâyesh-o khâb bud. borun kard babr-e bayân az bar-ash; be khuy andarun gharqe bod meghfar-ash. be-gostard har do bar-e âftâb; be khâb-o be âsâyesh âmad shetâb. legâm az sar-e Rakhsh bardâsht khwâr; rahâ kard bar khuyd dar keshtzâr. be-pushid chun khoshk shod khud-o babr; giyâ kard bestar be-sân-e hezhabr. be-khoft-o be-yâsud az ranj-e tan; ham az Rakhsh gham bod ham az khishtan.
All his clothing upon his body was wet as water; he needed rest and sleep. He took the tiger-skin armor from his body; his helmet was drowned in sweat. He spread both in the sun; an urge for sleep and rest came over him. He casually removed the bridle from Rakhsh's head and released him onto the green crop in the field. When the helmet and armor had dried, he put them on; he made grass into a bed like a lion. He slept and rested from bodily hardship, concerned both for Rakhsh and for himself. (Ferdowsi; epic/literary; public domain)
Wet clothing and a delayed possessor
همه جامه بر برش چون آب بود؛ نیازش به آسایش و خواب بود.
hame jâme bar bar-ash chun âb bud; niyâz-ash be âsâyesh-o khâb bud.
All his clothing on his body was wet as water; he needed rest and sleep. (epic/literary)
The sequence بر برش is not a copying error. The first بر is “on”; the second is بر “body” plus possessive ـش.
نیازش ... بود places the possessor on نیاز and leaves the needed things in a به phrase. Idiomatic modern Persian would more readily say به استراحت و خواب نیاز داشت, with داشتن.
لباسهایش از عرق خیس شده بود و به استراحت نیاز داشت.
lebâs-hâ-yash az araq khis shode bud-o be esterâhat niyâz dâsht.
His clothes were soaked with sweat, and he needed rest. (original modern paraphrase)
ببر بیان and the unpointed form بد
برون کرد ببر بیان از برش؛ به خوی اندرون غرقه بد مغفرش.
borun kard babr-e bayân az bar-ash; be khuy andarun gharqe bod meghfar-ash.
He removed the tiger-skin armor from his body; his helmet was drowned in sweat. (epic/literary)
ببر بیان names Rostam's famous armor (epic/literary); it is not an instruction meaning “take away the statement.” In به خوی اندرون, postposed اندرون surrounds its complement with به ... اندرون, a classical spatial frame. خوی means “sweat” here.
Unpointed بد could suggest modern “bad,” but meter, position, and predicate غرقه require بُد, the contracted literary past copula. Subject مغفرش follows the predicate. See Poetic Word Order and Hyperbaton.
زره را از تن درآورد؛ کلاهخودش از عرق خیس بود.
zere râ az tan dar-âvard; kolâh-khod-ash az araq khis bud.
He took off the armor; his helmet was wet with sweat. (original modern paraphrase)
Shared objects and impersonal urgency
بگسترد هر دو بر آفتاب؛ به خواب و به آسایش آمد شتاب.
be-gostard har do bar-e âftâb; be khâb-o be âsâyesh âmad shetâb.
He spread both in the sun; an urge for sleep and rest came over him. (epic/literary)
هر دو recovers the armor and helmet. The ezafe in برِ آفتاب is supplied in reading; here بر is the noun “side/exposure,” yielding “in the sun.” بـ on past بگسترد is an older narrative prefix, not the modern subjunctive. In the second half, شتاب is the delayed subject, while the two به phrases give the goal of the urge.
هر دو را زیر آفتاب پهن کرد و دلش میخواست هرچه زودتر بخوابد.
har do râ zir-e âftâb pahn kard-o del-ash mi-khâst harche zud-tar be-khâbad.
He spread both under the sun and wanted to sleep as soon as possible. (original modern paraphrase)
خوار, خوید, and lexical evidence
لگام از سر رخش برداشت خوار؛ رها کرد بر خوید در کشتزار.
legâm az sar-e Rakhsh bardâsht khwâr; rahâ kard bar khuyd dar keshtzâr.
He casually removed the bridle from Rakhsh's head and released him onto the green crop in the field. (epic/literary)
Line-final خوار means roughly “lightly, without concern,” not everyday “humiliated.” خوید is green grain or young crop (obsolete outside historical/literary reading). Silently replacing it with familiar خود would create a plausible error; Rakhsh grazing in a کشتزار supports the transmitted reading.
رستم لگام رخش را باز کرد و اسب را در کشتزار رها کرد.
Rostam legâm-e Rakhsh râ bâz kard-o asb râ dar keshtzâr rahâ kard.
Rostam undid Rakhsh's bridle and released the horse in the field. (original modern paraphrase)
خود is a helmet, not a reflexive
بپوشید چون خشک شد خود و ببر؛ گیا کرد بستر بسان هژبر.
be-pushid chun khoshk shod khud-o babr; giyâ kard bestar be-sân-e hezhabr.
When the helmet and armor had dried, he put them on; he made grass into a bed like a lion. (epic/literary)
Unpointed خود permits reflexive khod or helmet خُود khud. Coordination with ببر, drying, and earlier مغفر select “helmet.” Initial بپوشید delays its objects until after چون خشک شد.
گیا کرد بستر is object–predicative compression: Rostam made vegetation serve as bedding. بسان هژبر means “like a lion” (literary); it describes the hero, not the grass.
وقتی کلاهخود و زره خشک شدند، آنها را پوشید و روی علفها خوابید.
vaqti kolâh-khod-o zere khoshk shodand, ân-hâ râ pushid-o ru-ye alaf-hâ khâbid.
When the helmet and armor dried, he put them on and slept on the grass. (original modern paraphrase)
Repeated هم and the meter
بخفت و بیاسود از رنج تن؛ هم از رخش غم بد هم از خویشتن.
be-khoft-o be-yâsud az ranj-e tan; ham az Rakhsh gham bod ham az khishtan.
He slept and rested from bodily hardship, concerned both for Rakhsh and for himself. (epic/literary)
Prefixed بخفت، بیاسود are classical narrative pasts. هم ... هم ... coordinates two objects of concern; subject غم follows them.
The mutaqareb line is conventionally scanned فعولن فعولن فعولن فعل. Meter is evidence alongside syntax, lexicon, rhyme, and manuscripts; it does not authorize changing consonants.
What counts as a variant?
The Moscow edition has هفت خوان, whereas Khaleghi-Motlagh has هفت خان. Olga Davidson's Iranica study reports mixed manuscript spellings and explains the interplay between خوان “feast/course” and خان “stage.” This witness-based problem lies outside our six couplets.
Writing خُود merely points خود, and a semicolon merely states a parse; neither is a textual variant. Without a line-by-line apparatus here, we do not invent one. Claiming “edition Y selects another reading” requires an apparatus citation.
Common Mistakes
1. Reading every خود as the reflexive
⚠️ در این بیت «خود» یعنی «خویشتن».
dar in beyt «khod» ya'ni «khishtan».
In this verse, خود means ‘self.’ The sentence is grammatical, but the philological claim is false: coordination with armor selects خُود ‘helmet.’
✅ در این بیت «خود» را «کلاهخود» میخوانیم.
dar in beyt «khud» râ «kolâh-khud» mi-khânim.
In this verse, we read خود as ‘helmet.’
2. Turning poetic inversion into modern neutral order
⚠️ به خوی اندرون غرقه بود مغفرش.
be khuy andarun gharqe bud meghfar-ash.
His helmet was drowned in sweat. Grammatical elevated Persian, but marked and unsuitable as neutral present-day prose.
✅ کلاهخودش از عرق خیس شده بود.
kolâh-khod-ash az araq khis shode bud.
His helmet had become wet with sweat. (neutral modern Persian)
3. Calling punctuation manuscript evidence
⚠️ نقطه ثابت میکند که جمله همینجا تمام میشود.
noqte sâbet mi-konad ke jomle hamin-jâ tamâm mi-shavad.
The period proves that the sentence ends here. Grammatically valid, but methodologically unsound when modern punctuation was supplied by an editor.
✅ وزن و نحو نشان میدهند که عبارت در مصرع بعد ادامه دارد.
vazn-o nahv neshân mi-dahand ke ebârat dar mesra'-e ba'd edâme dârad.
Meter and syntax show that the phrase continues in the next hemistich.
4. Producing classical morphology in conversation
⚠️ خسته بودم، پس بخفتم و بیاسودم.
khaste budam, pas be-khoftam-o be-yâsudam.
I was tired, so I slept and rested. Correct literary imitation, but conspicuously archaizing in ordinary conversation.
✅ خسته بودم، برای همین خوابیدم و استراحت کردم.
khaste budam, barâ-ye hamin khâbidam-o esterâhat kardam.
I was tired, so I slept and rested. (neutral modern Persian)
Key Takeaways
- Treat pointing and punctuation as editorial evidence, and test readings against syntax, meter, lexicon, and manuscripts.
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