In this discussion on Hafez's barafshān, we go over the third and fourth line of the poem.

Kaveh Akbar is the Iranian-American author of the critically acclaimed and heavily lauded novel Martyr! In our long-awaited conversation we dive deep into the themes of his powerful book, Martyr, which explores the human cost of so-called “collateral damage” and the real-world trauma often reduced to mere statistics in Western media. I had so much I wanted to ask Kaveh about the deeply personal and timely relevance of his work, especially in light of ongoing global events. 

Check out the full episode, and let me know what you think!

Related Links:

Kaveh's webpage
Kaveh on Instagram

In this second part of the discussion for Hafez's barafshān, we go over the first two lines of the poem in detail.

In this introductory lesson on Hafez's poem barafshān, we're joined by musician Fared Shafinury to go over the overall meaning of the poem. You can hear Fared's version of this poem in this track from his debut album.

In this lesson, we watch a clip of a heated conversation between Nader and Simin, the title characters of the movie. This is a fast paced conversation, and gives us a glimpse at a type of conversation we may not often be privy to in the Persian language. This is the final episode in our series on clips from the movie A Separation by Asghar Farahadi with guest Yara Elmjouie.

In this follow up episode about Khayyam's poem rendee deedam, we go over the poem word by word, line by line, to understand each part individually. We'll also learn how to use the particular words and phrases in current conversation.

In this lesson about clips from the movie A Separation by Asghar Farahadi, we watch a conversation between Nader and Hojjat, Razieh's husband, about potential work Hojjat will be doing for Nader. We're joined in this episode by friend of the show, Yara Elmjouie.

In this special shabé shehr episode, we are joined by Alan Eyre, the first (and last) ever Persian language spokesperson for the U.S. State Department. Alan has a little book with lines of his favorite Persian poetry, and he shares one of those poems with us in this episode.

In this lesson, we watch a clip of the movie A Separation by Asghar Farahadi in which Nader and Razieh have a conversation about the potential for her husband to come work for Nader. We're joined in this episode by friend of the show, Yara Elmjouie.

In this lesson, we go over the last two lines of the poem aybé rendān makon by Hafez. The lines are as follows: 

حافظا روزِ اجل گر به کف آری جامی
hāfezā roozé ajal gar bé kaf āree jāmee
Oh Hafez, if you have a chalice in your hand when you die

یک سر از کویِ خرابات بَرَندَت به بهشت
yek sar az koo-yé kharābāt barandat bé behesht
They’ll take you directly from the winehouse street to heaven